Cache Report: A stroll in the woods

Saturday is cache day! We had made a few finds during the week around town, mainly picking up caches for the Filmed in Spokane GeoTour. Of course, these urban seeks don't take the place of our lovely weekend cache hikes.

We had watched the weather all week as temperatures climbed -- peaking at 83 F on Friday. Then, Saturday dawned cold and rainy. Fortunately, the rain moved out right on schedule -- by noon it was dry but overcast, with temperatures predicted to climb up to 60 F. Perfect for a hike in the woods.

Trip Report

I'd picked a county park about 45 minutes from home and along the river. I had been there before and knew the terrain was nice and level and the park was rarely used and little known, which meant we would likely have it to ourselves. Plus, there were several small to regular-size caches throughout the park and they had all been found relatively recently.

Cache #1: There aren't really any trails in this area yet, just some 20+ year old ATV tracks that are mainly grown over and sometimes hard to spot in the trees and meadows. I'd planned the cache route in a loose loop so we could follow a path that would bring us back to the car. This first cache was actually still in sight of the car -- sweet! Nothing like an immediate smiley as a reward. First find was also an ammo can, another great start. The hide was pretty basic so we honed in on GZ quickly. THe best part of the cache is I was able to make my first trade for a Path Tag. I have read about these and wanted to start collecting!

Cache #2: I'm not a fan of nano's in the woods when there really is no need for them. This was one of those situations. We found the cache, but I didn't even bother with a picture. A quick sign of the log and meh. It was a small bison tube stuck into a stick thrown at the base of a tree. Nothing to be excited about.

Cache #3: A longer hike through beautiful wildflower meadows took us to the next cache, which had been placed some years before to commemorate the CO's 1000 find. Knowing this, we were a bit shocked to discover nothing more than a ziplock. Everything was dry and it was stuffed with swag, including some of the original swag from the listing (which had gone up several years previous). We signed and I swapped for a small sig item. Later, I read through some of the previous activity on the hide and discovered this should have been in an ammo can. Hmm, appears someone stole the can and put everything into a plastic bag. Sad.

Cache #4: We had an idea of what to look for here. We like finding hides by this CO -- usually good sized ammo cans that are very well maintained. He also tends to hide in or near tree stumps, so when we saw a likely stump where it appeared GZ was, we knew we had made the find. Not an ammo can, but a nice larger lock n' lock instead. (Hmm, maybe because of the ammo can theft from the last hide?) Mo swapped at this one for a sig pack containing a toy dinosaur and silver sun charm.

Cache #5: This was another hide by the previous CO, once again in a stump and not in an ammo can. We had to wend our way down an embankment and past a fully assembled deer skeleton to make the find! Obviously, someone had lunch here since the shell from a boiled egg topped the cache. The log had also recently been signed by a muggle -- "Not sure what this is but wanted to join in on the fun! -- A man and his dog." That was cool :) There was another Path Tag here so Mo made the swap so she could add one to her collection, too!

Cache #6: We had pinpointed this cache as our dinner break, since previous finders had mentioned a nice area by the water was nearby. We had to go down and back up a valley, but we were rewarded with GZ at the site of the remains of an old homestead. Very cool! After exploring a bit, we made the find. We left some swag but no swaps here. We then made our way to the park-like shore for a perfect picnic dinner.

Cache #7: We had over a mile to walk to find the next cache, but the sun was starting to peek out and the balsamroots and shooting stars were in full bloom around us. A very, very pleasant hike (after we climbed the steep hill out of the homestead valley)! Mo navigated us to this one, which unfortunately had a vague hint and was in an area with a lot of geobounce. Worse, this one hadn't been found since the previous fall, so it could have disappeared over winter. Well, the hint said it was under a log, and we were in a deadfall zone with lots of logs, so nothing to do but split up. I round one tree trunk and spotted the telltale sign of pine cones piled up in an odd little nest on top some sticks. Yep, made the find! Another sig item was swapped for to be added to my collection, too!

Cache #8: The final cache on the hike was going to be near the parking lot, but it still threw me off a bit to see our car in the distance in the opposite direction from which we had left it -- seems the path we picked looped out a bit more than we thought. The hint -- log -- seemed simple enough when I saw a log jammed under a tree trunk. I expected to pull it out and see a plastic box behind it, but the log actually opened up and was the cache -- very cool! Unfortunately, it had been filled with freebie restaurant mints and rocks from the area. We removed the rocks and CITOed the mints, but made a point of throwing in a couple of pieces of swag to replace the junk.

Cache #9: We had one more stop planned on the road out of the area. Yeah, it was a park and grab. Yeah, it was a film can with a waterlogged log. But hey, it was our chance to log a smiley at a smiley!

Wrap-up

We enjoyed this area a lot. Relatively easy hiking in the woods and great river views, in a recreation area that is little used. We were able to clean up a bit at the trail head and do a tick check (no hitch hikers this time!) with no one around except some wild turkeys. It was a bit of a drive to a preferred Saturday evening after-cache food and drink location, but otherwise a perfect spot.

In fact, we were a bit bummed that there were no more caches in the park to go in for next week. I poked around on the Groundspeak app a bit as we waited for our drinks, though, and discovered several more areas just up the road from where we were -- seems these old families are bequeathing their land to either the county or the local state park as they die off, so little known hiking parks are popping up all along the river's edge. In fact, looks like mainly only cacher's are even visiting many of these areas, which means plenty of caches, few people, and more lovely Saturday's spent hiking in the woods!