Mike's Geocaching Blog

Saturday, December 02, 2006

‘Tween Gold Beach & Brookings

Earlier in the week when I saw the sunny forecast for this weekend I started making plans for a caching excursion to one of my favorite portions of the Oregon coastline.  For me, expanses of sandy beaches is nice but I just love hiking and exploring the trails along these more rugged sections.  They remind me of God’s creative power.

Started from Coos Bay around 7am and didn’t get more than 3 miles out of town before seeing someone who had slid off the frosty roads already.  Wondered if I should continue…..not for more than a couple of seconds though!  Kind of funny where it happened - right next to one of Bad Ducks caches (Sloop Launch).  I didn’t notice the car off the road at first, the first thing I saw was a person walking within 20 feet of the cache with a cell phone to their ear.  Naturally I thought they were calling someone for a clue.  Then I saw the car over the edge!  Everyone was fine though so on I went.

First cache of the day was Gold Beach #2 micro that had eluded me the last trip down there.  Found it within seconds this time - go figure!  Next was another DNF - High on Sebastian”  and again found within seconds.  Of course the hint I got from the cache owner MAY have helped some!  Heh Heh.

The rest of the day took me along sections of the Oregon Coast Trail that I had never seen before.  Great scenery and photo ops.  Beautiful weather!  Found an even dozen today.

Looking forward to some summer camping down in the Brookings/Chetco River area this coming year.

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Under the Space Needle

Well, not DIRECTLY under the Space Needle but close!  There is a micro by that name but I didn’t find it.  I did however find a few nearby while visiting family on Queen Anne Hill.  Some really good trails and caching out at Discovery Park (former military base) just west of Queen Anne/Magnolia community.  Took my grandson and son-in-law out there to pick up a few caches.  One in particular was fun to prepare for because I send a copy of the maze puzzle for my grandson to solve ahead of time - Leilani and Palenaka.  He’s a whiz at maze puzzles and as expected he solved it quickly, got all the answers right then had to wait two weeks for grandpa (er, popop) to arrive to go hunt it.  Was great fun.

Weather was lousy driving back to Coos Bay on Sunday so no caching was done.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Great Cachin at Sebastian

After a frustrating day caching in Roseburg yesterday I needed to get back to my favorite caching “modus operandi” - hiking trails in the forest - to clear my head of goofy clues and uninspiring locations.  I hadn’t been down in the Gold Beach area in quite awhile so I loaded up the geogear and headed out.  There were five caches at Cape Sebastian, two of which were 1.5 to 2 mile roundtrip hikes.  Just what the doctor order!  Both were downhill all the way to the cache which of course means UPHILL back.  Wasn’t the greatest day for clear views of coast line due to low cloud cover but I guess that keeps the number of sightseer’s down.  Warmed up on a FTF in Gold Beach before arriving at Sebastian.  Only negative part to the morning was not finding one cache (High on Sebastian) and moving a cache container that I THOUGHT was NOT where it should be only to find out that it was right where it was supposed to be!  I emailed the owner and apologized.  (red face smilie inserted here)

Came upon the weirdest scene as I drove to the highest viewpoint parking area on Cape Sebastian.  Empty parking lot EXCEPT for a pair of folding camp chairs facing west to the ocean - nobody in them - nobody around - a hiking stick propped against one, an empty beer bottle in the other.  Searching for a film canister cache within 30 feet of these chairs I had to keep looking around - felt like someone was watching!  Twilight Zone-ish.

Great day all around.  Found ten caches and got a great workout hiking around coastal forests.