A few weeks ago, a Eugene cacher - tobe4evr1 (Dana) - arranged a boat rental for a group of up to eight to hunt a few caches on Government Island on the Columbia River at Portland. One of these caches - The Government Duck - is one of those 22 caches in the challenge. Dana put out an email to garner interest - I bit right away since Pat and I were already scheduled to be in Portland the weekend he had planned…..today!

Dana booked the boat for four hours so as to avoid the “Gillian’s Island” curse (you know…..a three hour tour….). We were scheduled for 10:30 am to 2:30 pm.

So who were the eight going? Dana and his daughter (ukrainian princess), the TREKKS (couple), Team Greenwoodturner (couple), Rod of Family Explorer and myself.

We couldn’t have asked for better weather! No rain (that was coming next day!). Clear skies. Some wind to contend with but not bad.

Rental guy launching the boat for us

After an hour long checklist and instructions from the rental person, we boarded a pretty sporty looking boat with Captain Dana at the wheel. We headed over to Government Island talking strategy all the way. The hope was that we could pick up six caches associated with the island or very near by. As it turned out, we only managed to get three - just took longer getting to the island and docking at the three locations. But the important thing was getting the main prize - the Government Duck cache.

But first we pulled up to a public dock on the north side of the island to get the Pyrat’s Booty cache. Once on the island it was a short walk to the cache and fairly easily found - not surprising given eight experienced cachers in fine form! Back in the boat and off to one more dock-accessed cache…...Dock-it Up. That hunt went much the same way. The exciting part of that one was parallel parking the boat between larger boats in a very tight space! Dana did great plus we had help from folks on the dock! One of those people turned out to be a geocacher and had a container with her that she was planning to put out on the island that very day! We promised her we’d return another day to find her cache…..then we all mumbled “NOT” under our breath as we headed ashore to hunt our quarry! LOL ONE time to the island is probably enough!

Docking Up at the Dock-it-up Cache

The final, most important was next! We had to go around the east end of the island and come around to the south side and look for a sandy beach area to anchor by…..nope, no dock here! We were a little concerned with this strategy since we got quite the lecture from the rental guy about not getting sand up in the jet engines! So we start rounding the eastern tip of the island and all we can see is a shoreline of large riprap rock! No sandy beaches! Then as come around further, we see the sandy beach finally and are happy once again….for a moment anyway! Waiting between us and the sandy beach is a line of pilings. Well, not to worry, we just have to boat out around them….no problem. We get around the end piling only to discover a second row of pilings connecting with this one in a T-shape blocking access to the sandy beach! EXCEPT for a little tiny break just wide enough for the boat! With the water a bit choppy and the wind blowing we circle a couple of times pondering and talking over whether to go through or not. No choice really - we have to since we didn’t have time to go all the way around the other side of the island. Dana did a great job slicing through there! Just like a pro!

Beached! Pretty pic of Mt. Hood in back!

Finally we approach the sandy beach and ease in as far as we can and come to rest on the sand with about 20 feet of really cold water between the boat and beach! We hop off the boat and wade to shore. We realize that we have to break into two groups because someone has to stay with the boat holding in in place by rope - we had nothing to tie the boat to at the beach! The cache is about 400 feet from the beach so Rod leads about 2/3 of the group inland through blackberries and nettles while Dana, Elaina, one of the TREKKS and I hang back to watch the boat.

Mrs. Greenwoodturner and Rod fighting through the berries and nettles!

As we waited, we pondered an alternative approach to the cache because we were sure the others were having a tough time getting through the vegetation. I decided to try walking on the jumble of large rock rubble lining the island edge around the tip instead. Sweet! It was much better and I beat the others to GZ but couldn’t find the cache! Yikes! Not good! With the others now helping, the cache was finally found and signed. Hurried back so Dana and Elaina could make their way around and sign the log for themselves.

Captain tobe4evr1 and ukrainian princess returning via the “easier” route!

With everyone back at the beach, we push the boat off the sand and start back to the rental place - time had run out, no more caching for this trip! Had to play slalom with sailboats on the return trip. Also lots of fisherman out on the water today.

Once back at the rental office we finalized the paperwork and said our goodbye’s. Fun day getting cool caches and meeting new cachers!

Big thanks to Dianna Fisher (half of the TREKKS team) for the photo’s!

Geocoins given away…...

Our weekly geo-coffee down at Kaffe 101 turned into a full-blown and logable event this morning. We didn’t quite overwhelm the staff at the coffee house but had them scrambling for a little while.

Mostly the regulars attended but a handful of others came down to join the fun. A couple of nice geocoins and some other geocaching items were given away.

I decided to take a back road geocaching from Drain to Veneta. There were several caches along the Territorial Highway but many had been there for quite awhile and needed maintenance. Some I couldn’t find at all. None were memorable but one took me to a lovely little cemetery near Loraine, one showed me a cute mom-n-pop grocery store and another led me to a run-down looking carnival at Curtin.

I was able to sign the log of the Color Challenge cache that I completed a few days prior. Also picked up a few around the airport.

First order of business was FTF honors on Butch and Beckie’s newly placed cache at the Sandy Creek covered bridge rest area. Darren had already made a nighttime visit last night but couldn’t find it…..until he got home and downloaded some pictures he took of the possible hidey holes in hard-to-reach and difficult-to-see places. One picture caught the tell-tale sign of a cache! So this morning he’s anxious to make the stop and check out his hunch! True to form, he went right to it and pulled it out just like he had placed it there himself!

None of us had any unfound caches to hunt until we got to Camas Valley where we started with a nice cemetery hunt called Those Pesky Critters. We noted a frosty 33 degrees and a temperature inversion in this pretty little valley. Headed into Winston then onto Roseburg after Butch-n-Beckie picked up a couple more in the area that Darren and I previously found.

Once in Roseburg, we adopted the “Next Closest Cache” strategy….with a couple of diversions. Started with a series of five “De Mayo” caches - one, of which, involved avoiding the direct view of a homeless “Vet” panhandling 5 feet from the cache container! Beckie volunteered to go engage the guy in conversation to divert his stare but we settled on a Butch-n-Beckie body blockade giving me a window to jump in and put the cache back! Teamwork! Funny thing about the guy’s sign….said he was a veteran with duty in Iraq but looked WAY too old to be believable! It gave us a chuckle anyway.

One highlight of the day was going for the Boys of Summer cache in the Gaddis City Park. This cache wasn’t the highlight, though we had to maneuver around a muggle dog-walker taking a rest nearby to snag it. No, the highlight was signing a log for a cache we were ill-prepared to hunt - Slaney’s Return - a mystery cache with a Sherlock Holmes theme. Thanks to Darren’s super-sharp memory from many months ago trying to solve this one, we poked around the logical hiding spots and finally made the discovery! Love it when you find a cache you weren’t expecting!

Finally it was time to get to the pizza parlor for the event - which was a lot of fun. Met many new cachers and saw old cacher friends as well. Great job on the event, TheKinneyKrew!

After the event we had a small convoy running around town picking off some caches we couldn’t find earlier but got valuable hints about at the event. Good to get a couple of pesky DNF’s off the list…..like Jose and BubbaJ!

The “Post Event” Mob signing the log!

Family Explorer at the Event

We actually came into town last night and stayed at a motel near Gateway. During dinner at Outback I checked my geocaching app and saw that there was a cache right outside in the parking lot! Sweet!

Back to today - very specific caches to hunt. I researched the area caches for ones that would help me complete three challenge caches I’ve been working on.  I needed two more Color Challenge caches, 11 more S.W.A.G. Challenge caches and two more Earthcache Challenge caches. I accomplished all of that and more. I wasn’t able to sign the final logbooks but will soon. Glad to get these challenge caches completed. These are a fun twist on the geocaching game.

No trail hikes today - a rain system starting to move in so the plan was for easily accessed caches along Highway 101 and a couple of arterial roads.

One of my goals was to complete Osprey 101’s Carpenterville Road series (thirteen caches). I didn’t get them all but it always makes for a good reason to return - this road parallels 101 and provides some nice views of the shoreline.

The last few caches were found as the wind and rain were picking up and pelting my face. Time to go home!

It’s always nice getting down to one of my very favorite portions of the Oregon coast.

Our Seven Mile Track Log

Check out THIS VIDEO from the day’s excursion.

It was an awesome day to be out on the water. Smooth as glass when we started. Saw many types of birds.

One interesting discovery was the note left by a non-geocacher at one of the caches. It went something like this…......“Found by ______________ while out on the lake looking for a ‘Love Nest’” Wow! Too much information!

After completing the paddle caches at Eel Lake, we stopped by the North Bend public dock and put it so that I could get Island Adventure cache then hunt a newer cache at the nearby old docks. Darren already found this cache a couple of years ago - a now legendary excursion involving a much less stable boat, a whistle (...er should I say…Lack of…) and a friendly visit with a Sheriff’s deputy! Today we had sleek water craft and with wind at our back for the out trip. Wind at our backs…INDEED! We scooted out to the island VERY quickly - felt like we were surfing in fact! Found the cache quickly then anticipated a rough paddle back to the mainland guessing we’d be pushed south almost to the casino before getting to the shoreline. Surprisingly we were able to keep a straight line west to the old mill docks and didn’t lose ground at all. Wish we could have topped the adventure off with being second to find this water cache but it was missing! Dang!

Hey Darren, kayaks are for IN the water!

Started off the day by picking off a new cache along Highway 42. Another new one just off I-5 south of Roseburg caught our attention as well since it was advertised as a TB hotel cache - Safe House. Three of us found the “safe” just fine but couldn’t find the key to open it. We gave up after about 30 minutes but did manage to pick up a little poison oak that would later show itself!

Stopped for a few more along I-5 as we made our way south until stopping for some breakfast at Heaven on Earth in Azalea. Turns out a regular part of this restaurant’s Sunday menu is a guest singer of hymns. Today’s performance was really irritating a man at the table next to us and was getting rather rude! Too bad some people are so easily upset! Darren picked up one of their famous “Giant Cinnamon Rolls” to bring back to Lisa - that thing was HUGE!

Bellies full, we head directly to Grants Pass to begin a day of caching fun.

Our Caching Zone - Not many left in the Red Box now!

Highlights from the day include:

Photo Op with a Neanderthal

      *  Bruises from emeljay’s elbows in the ‘race’ to each cache!

      *  Regular application of hand cleanser - especially after seeing the nasty latex gloves Bad Duck found tucked in a rock wall!

      *  The always interesting sites of the obligatory cemetery caches.

      *  The security alarms going off as Darren drove onto an apparently closed museum driveway. Lights! Sirens! Dogs! Oh My!

      *  Caught by a muggle lady who knew where the cache was but WOULD NOT help us one little bit!

      *  Personal single day records for both Bad Duck and emeljay.

      *  Guided by local cacher - Duck - for the final hour of caching

Duck joined the three of us for some dinner at Applebee’s then we headed back to the coast. Fun day and soooooo much better than slogging through sand dune puddles!

The day began on a very positive note as we nailed FTF on the newly reconstituted The wedding cache, The old ball and chain II. Just as we were leaving the parking area, we spied a familiar vehicle belonging to a well known FTF addict…....Mr. Copper! Approaching the vehicle we noticed he had company…..Bad Duck. Their collective shoulders dropped in disappointment when they saw us - FTF stolen right out from under them!

With that high note accomplished we headed to Siltcoos Campground to start our dune trek for a group of six caches:

The “wet” theme of the day raised it’s ugly head right off the bat as we made our way to Vehicle Closure - had to broad jump a submerged sand road twice to sign the log - feet wet to just above the ankles! ....It would get worse!

Next cache was Sand Dunes #2. No wading involved at this one, thankfully.

The next two caches (The Firefly Cache and Sand Dunes #3)allowed the boots to dry some more as we made our way along a sand road and into the open dunes where we spotted an ATV class underway.

Minor water obstacles getting to The Firefly Ladies cache…..........then the fun began!

One final cache to get - On the Road to the Sea. Had we known how much standing water was in the sand road giving access to this cache we might have just bagged it and came back during drier times. However, once we were within 500 feet there was NO going back! And that’s exactly where we encountered a two foot deep ‘river’ running down the access road to the beach. We managed to keep fairly dry by skirting the edge of the road but the final 60 feet left absolutely no other choice but to wade right in…..so we did. To make things worse, we weren’t finding the cache right away and we’re sloshing around in the water looking here, looking there - finally spotted it but not before feeling the cold February water soak completely through our boots.

Our return to the vehicle would be best accomplished by heading west to the beach another 500 feet then south one mile. The problem was another 100 feet of deeper water to slog through before getting to the beach! It didn’t really matter at this point so we just plowed right through it and made our way back…..our cadence set to the regular ‘squish’ ‘squish’ ‘squish…...

Despite the water filled boots, we had a good day and chatted about future plans to complete some of our common geocaching challenge caches. At least it didn’t RAIN!

Finding a new cache in town this morning - Return of the Spider - filled in one more day of the calendar with a cache find. This brings my total to 355 of 366 days (96%). Fourteen more days to completion! ........ Except my final calendar day where I’m missing a cache find is…....wait for it…...no, literally I need to wait for it….....September 24th!!

I have so many challenge caches partially completed…...would be great to get them completed! Road Trip!

Started with Sunken Grade cache just east of Reedsport up Schofield Creek. Then went to the Dean Creek Elk viewing area for the next two caches. Finished the group off with the Mill Creek cache 13 miles east of Reedsport where one turns south to Loon Lake.

Fun half-day excursion close to home.

Our path home would take us over to the coast at Lincoln City in order to pick up things we left at a motel there recently and to have a whole bunch of coastline to enjoy and capture on film (well, in digital form really). It also meant some geocaching could be done too! Let’s not forget about that!

I stopped for several caches in the beautiful forested Van Duzer Scenic Corridor along Highway 18. No caching in Lincoln City as we stopped briefly to retrieve our items from the motel. Continuing down the coast we took photo ops breaks at Depoe Bay, Yaquina Head Lighthouse, Nye Beach district of Newport and finally a nice sunset view at the Heceta Head Lighthouse north of Florence.

Getting an Earthcache at Yaquina Head Lighthouse

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!.

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!)

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