Arrived in Dufur, OR early evening to visit my folks and picked up a couple of caches while out for a drive. With these caches I was able to check-off section 63 in the Oregon DeLorme challenge.
63% completed (48 of 72 sections).
After ten days without caching, I was ready for a hunt today and Mackie’s new one up North Slough was just the ticket! This one wasn’t going to be a quick grab-n-go so I spent some time studying maps and aerial photography for the best approach. Besides, I totally forgot to bring my vaulting pole! LOL Headed out once I had it firmly etched in my mind (a scary place sometimes!).
Now I must say at this point that I could have gone down to Brookings with Rod and Darren instead as they attempted an assault on trailsailor’s Boardman series (five difficult caches) but I couldn’t risk a late return and miss a banquet at the college.
Parked the vehicle about 0.8 miles from the cache and began to track it down. Arrived at ground zero and started searching the more obvious hiding spots with no luck. After about 20 minutes I decided to call Mackie and get a hint (not happy about this mind you) - all I get is voice mail! Hmmm…. well, time to just sit down and think about some more. Shortly after, my phone rings….. cool.. now we’ll get some help! Nope - it was Rod calling just to let me know he and Darren had just found the first of the Boardman caches AND to ask for a little help finding another cache nearby that I had found previously! Dang! Continued wandering around GZ hoping Mackie would drive by soon on his way into town and see me out there floundering around and stop and give me a hint. Didn’t happen!
Finally I just started expanding my search radius (should have done that in the first 10 minutes!) and low and behold, there it was! Checked the log book - yep, FTF! Cool!
A view from the other side…....... Nope, don’t see Mackie over there!!
While camping at Devil’s Lake SP for a couple of days I was able to pick up 20+ caches in and around Lincoln City. Between these and other caches found on previous visits I have nearly wiped out Lincoln City! Only one left to get in town and a couple on the outskirts.
One of the highlights was finding a cache with my name written all over - literally! It was called Mikey will do it, Mikey will do anything!!
A word for cachers headed for Lincoln City - “valve”. I know it means nothing right now but as soon as you find your first LC cache with this word as it’s hint, you’ll quickly find many more with that same hint. Even though it made for quickly discovering the cache location, time after time, the cache owner brings you to great little parks, unique and hidden public areas and beach access points you probably wouldn’t ever see otherwise.