Mike's Geocaching Blog

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Winter Camping at Silver Falls SP

Pat and I had an opportunity to take our grandson (who lives in NYC these days) for a couple of days and we jumped at it! We decided rather than waste much of our time together driving to and from Portland twice, we would just rent a cabin at Silver Falls SP and do things with Elliot in that picturesque setting. Lots of trails to hike and waterfalls to view - the famed Trail of Ten Falls.

So we picked him up in Portland yesterday and headed out to the cabin. Checked in, unpacked and fixed some dinner. Got the park maps out and planned our day. It was very strange to head to bed at 8pm! I guess not having our normal access to TV and internet will do that!

Thursday was our only full day in the park and it began with a morning trip over to the historic South Falls Lodge built in the 1930’s to see if we could get a cup of coffee. No luck - winter hours were in effect! So we just walked down to the nearby South Falls viewpoint for some pictures and two geocaches. We didn’t continue down the 6 mile loop since we had walked that loop back in May of last year with my daughter and her husband. Instead, we headed over to the North Falls loop. This trail loop was about three miles total and showcased four nice waterfalls and two geocaches. It was a very nice, sunny winter day making the hike extremely enjoyable. In the summer, these trails are just wall to wall people….really like doing these hikes in winter especially on days like this!

Viewpoint at South Falls

Finding a cache near North Falls

After finishing our hike, we headed on into the nearby town of Silverton for some dinner and a couple of groceries. Someone recommended a little mexican place called Los Girasoles. The burritos were HUGE and very tasty! Back at the cabin we stayed up later than last night…...uh… 9pm! Wow, night owls!

This park has some really nice trails I would like to come back and explore - not a lot of geocaches but the ones here are nicely done and get you out on these trails.

Left the park early morning to get Elliot back to Portland to meet up with his Dad. Before leaving however, Elliot and I snuck out on a frost covered trail for a nearby cache called Green Giant!.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Getting Back to Dune Hiking

Continuing with my intention to find all geocaches in the coastal dunes on foot, my objective today was three caches in the general vicinity of Saunders Lake and Clear Lake.

I used the public parking access to Butterfield Lake within Riley Ranch county campground as my staging area. It would be nearly 1.75 miles before arriving at the first of the three - Bling with an Attitude. Took a few minutes to find because I didn’t read the hint and description CAREFULLY!

Approaching the Mushroom Tree

Number two cache - The Windfall Cache - was another full mile northward. It was a pretty easy container to spot and had my signature in the log book quickly. Rescued a TB whose goal was to visit ICE skating rinks around the world - seemed like the right thing to do since it was currently stuck in the middle of miles of sand dunes!

The third and final cache for the day - Trash or Treasure - took me another half-mile to the SE (thankfully, that’s back towards my vehicle!). This was the most intriguing hunt of the day. It involved discovering a uniquely shaped tree and trying to decipher cryptic description and hints. Upon arriving at GZ I had to wait out a family of ATVr’s stopping for a bite to eat and photo op with the aforementioned tree. Once they were gone I emerged from hiding and finally spotted the clues and eventually found the cache container….as advertised. Back to the truck now…..

Lunch Break at the Octopus Tree

Total mileage for today’s adventure was 6.4 miles. It was an invigorating and satisfying hike. I know better than to say “Whew!, now I don’t need to go back out there again….good to have those caches done”  Oooops! Said it, didn’t I? I’m sure it won’t be long before a new one gets placed right in the middle of this area now that I’ve cleared it out! (Update: Yup, new cache published in this same area 6 days later! - Told ya!)

Sunday, February 07, 2010

Lincoln City Event

Pat and I decided to get away for the weekend and settled on Lincoln City. I wanted to attend THIS geocaching event and Pat wanted photo ops of the central Oregon coast.

Given the weather forecast we left the trailer home. Pat trusted me to make some motel reservations….not sure she’ll let me do that again! I had a recommendation to try the Historic Anchor Inn in the Taft area. The price of $49 per night raised her eyebrows but was willing to give it a try. It is a very old set of buildings which they are currently upgrading. I’m not sure we’d stay there again but not because it was unclean, noisy or anything awful - the rooms just weren’t very conducive to our taste and gadget-centric lifestyle. On the other hand, I might still be enticed to stay here in the future if for nothing more than that fantastic gourmet and complimentary breakfast!

Motel Room at Anchor Inn

Found four caches on the drive up Friday including one in a piratey-themed series by yachatswalker - Pirate Treasure – Blackbeard.

Saturday morning after our gourmet breakfast we headed over to the event. Unlike our local events that center around EATING, this one simply lined out a list of caches and virtual locations to visit in order to earn a nice geocoin. So we got our list and headed out to get the job done. The real caches were newly placed in a very nice “open area” in the Spring Lake area of town. I’m sure I heard the trails wailing and moaning at the huge crowd of over 200 participants pounding over them all day long! I noticed several south coast cachers also attending this event - Butch n Beckie, Sureloc, geopower.

Once we completed our tasks we returned to pick the well-earned geocoin. Then off to photo ops for Pat - glad she was patient with my geo-obsession!

I did manage to find some geocaches as we explored south to Cape Foulweather and back including this nice cache in Depoe Bay.

Sunday morning brought another awesome breakfast at the motel then we began heading home taking our time for photo ops and geocaches. Fun weekend!

Pelicans in Depoe Bay Marina