Stott Family Thanksgiving Geocaching Adventure

It is the day after Thanksgiving and we decided to introduce a few more relatives to the fun of Geocaching. There was a group of 16 of us that went together in 3 cars. Up the Teton road and into the canyon was our destination. First stop "Eureka, I Found It"

Even with all 32 eyes it took a bit to find. It was under a rock, that I pointed out fairly quickly for someone to look under. Several people did look, but it took Trenna to get brave enough to reach her hand in deep enough to find the cache.
Time to pile back into the cars and head up the road to find "Relic's". I love Montana's creative caches. I'm glad that this one noted in the description that it was not in a rock because there were a lot of those. Sylvia was the one to claim the find as she spotted and picked up the bone in the general area where the GPS was pointing.


On up the road to our next cache. "The Ear Sees" with a nice view of Ear Mountain in the background. It was a quick and simple cache. Dailen and Trenna claimed the find. (continued in part 2)

Traveling to Montana

Since we decided to go to my parents place in Montana for Thanksgivng, we though we would take advantage of picking up some geocaches in a couple of states we hadn't cached in before. On our way out of town we passed this wreck so I snapped a picture as we drove by.

We wanted quick roadside caches that wouldn't take a lot of time out of our traveling, but just be a nice stretch of the legs. The first one we had planned was just off of an access road on the other side of a rest stop. When we got there the access road had a more than a foot of snow on it and we really didn't want to trudge through the snow to get to the cache. It also would have been a longer hike than what we had planned on, so we saved that one for another trip.


Our next planned cache was at a rest stop and it is called Rest 2. I had read the logs and the hints and figured it was something magnetic in the covered picnic area that you would have to reach into to find. So I headed to the picnic area and started searching. It was only a few moments until I had found it. Meanwhile hubby and the girls had followed the GPS to the flagpole not far from the picnic area and when I looked to call them to the find, they were busy doing a thorough embarrassing search of that flag pole. It's a good thing they don't mind looking silly :)

Our next cache is called "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" and it is located just off of Rainbow Bend Drive. A very pretty spot between the river and the freeway. It was an ammo can and so of course hubby was the one to claim the find as he followed his GPS almost straight to it.

One last cache along the way. This one is called "Wye Come Here". It is located along the old Wye Railroad track at the place where they used to turn the trains around. Lots of ruins and a very pretty spot. We though at first that we might have to hike in from another location that would have been to long of a hike for our traveling day, but we discovered there was a pretty nice parking spot just along the side of the highway that was only a short distance from the cache. The first GPS GZ was in the middle of the river. We knew that wasn't right. We searched around and finally registered a GZ at a likely spot. It was a small broken railroad bridge, so we were looking over and under and I finally spotted some sticks that looked like they had been placed in a way that they would not have been naturally. It was just out of my reach and MBW was close, so I pointed it out to her and she retrieved the cache. (I really didn't want to crawl through where I  had just been in order to get to it)

By this time it was getting close to sunset and we wanted to hurry to grandma's house for lots of good grub.

#100

We went into town today to see the movie "New Moon" and after that it was time to get my 100th geocache find. Nuttyguy(my son) and an older daughter had hidden it earlier in the week hoping it would be a first to find for us, but since we live almost an hour away from where it was hidden and we don't have the instant pop ups on our phones to let us know about new caches, we had missed the first to find before we even had noticed it published. As it was we got second to find. Anyway I figure it was special enough to count as #100 because of the family connection. I knew with Nuttyguy involved it would be a little tricky is some way so that gave me a clue where to look even though the actual cache posting was not very forthcoming about that sneakiness. I found it fairly quick but accidentally pushed it to far up into it's hiding place while I was feeling for it. I tried hubbys pen to bring it back down where I could grab it with my fingers again but, it was to no avail. So we called my daughter on the phone and had her bring out a magnet.

 Of course it was also a great excuse to see my adorable granddaughter in the process. The magnet worked great and soon we were signing the log and snapping pictures.

After spending a little time with my granddaughter we moved on to pick up a few more caches while we had daylight. Next on the list is Wall of Vines. Hubby spotted it quick and we enjoyed see our older daughters name on the log as we signed it.

Next on the list is Logged. The girls and I start heading in the general direction looking for logs on the ground and waiting for hubby to find GZ. Meanwhile he walks right to it and has it found before we even see that he is going a different direction than us. It is one of those that could be tricky hidden in the log like it is.

On to the next Cache: There is a Spring

This one is located in a very pretty spot close by the ones we just found. Drumheller spring comes right out of the rocks. The cache is up the hill a little ways.

You can see the cache in this picture. 

Almost 100

We dropped the girls off at EFY(especially for youth) and while we waited did some geocaching hoping to get my 100th find before it got dark. Our first geo stop, not far from the church where we dropped the girls off, was near the Temple Beth Shalom. It was called Spokane Religion: Judaism.  

This picture show hubby getting in touch with his inner Jew or maybe he is just kneeling to the geo gods. Actually the cache is down inside that cable covering and even after several attempts we were unable to get it out to sign the log. We will have to bring one of the grandkids with smaller hands to help retrieve it if we come back to sign the log.

Next we went to Circle of Life. With the clue [look where the yellow lines meet] it was a quick and easy cache. I had it retrieved before hubby even made it out of the car.

On to Comstock Park where we were hoping to find 2. The first one was fairly easy if not a little cold. I am glad I had my gloves to wipe away the snow while I was looking in and around the rocks. The first of the two is called Comstocks Rocks and obviously it was found in the rocks.

The second one is called Woodstock. We couldn't find it, but we found a likely spot and I suspect it might be missing. I put a watch on it to see if someone else finds it or to verify that it was missing.

On to Manito park- I know it is a very beautiful place and would be a great location to take pictures of my 100th find. Since we couldn't find the Woodstock Cache, we need to find # 99 before we go to Spirit of Nature that I chose as a potential to be my 100. For #99 we did Child's Play-Manito Upper. It is located not to far from the playground. It did take a little bit of searching but had great clues so we knew we were in the right spot.

We also knew it was a full sized ammo can and there are only so many places "that" can hide in a city or park setting. Hubby claimed the find. He is good at finding those ammo cans! The contents were explored and the log was signed. Everything was put back as it was found and the rush was on. Getting to and finding the #100 before it got to dark to take pictures. If it is a quick locate and find we can do it. We found the parking spot and started following the directions of the GPS. We also know it is behind and under a large rock formation. Okay, there are way too many large rock formations, we are going to have to count on the GPS to narrow the choices. The GPS starts wigging out and not giving us a good read. We start searching but it is getting darker and darker. If the GPS doesn't give us a good GZ read or we don't stumble across it in the next few minutes we are going to have to save the #100 find for another day, because I definitely want it light enough to take a few pictures. Obviously, that didn't happen since the name of this post is almost 100 and I am still sitting at #99 for my geocache finds. Time to go out to dinner at Applebees and then to see the movie "2012" before we pick up the girls after their dance.

Lost in the woods

Our afternoon plans were to find a couple of fairly quick caches in the same area and a short hike. One was a multicache with this sign as the first point and using the clues and numbers of of this sign it would take us to the next set of coordinates which would lead us to the final.

After we determined the coordinates for point 2 we realized the other cache we were looking for would be closer so we went to it first. Once we got to the right spot we found it fairly easily and we were off to finish the multicache. And that is where the real adventure begins. Hubby takes off in the direction of the trail, at least that is what he was attempting. I thought it was a different direction and wanted to follow the GPS towards Point 2 of the multicache. After quite a bit of walking I convinced him we should be going a different direction. Just a short distance after that we came to the fenceline along the road so we followed it hoping to run into the trail again, and then we came to another fenceline surrounding the missle site. We thought it was a whole different spot than where we had found the the first micro named Deer Park's Cold War History Micro. It took us to a spot where we could view the historic site of Deer Park's Atlas Intercontinental Ballistic Missile site.    

As we followed the fence line I noticed what looked like the exact type of micro we had just found. I took a second look and realized we had gone around in a great big circle and were back at the same spot we had started. That really blew our minds. This time we took off in the direction that I thought we should have gone in the first place and we used the GPS. It wasn't long before we were back on the trail and on our way looking for Point 2 of the multi. As we got close the GPS started leading us in circles. "I wonder is there some interference (magnetic maybe) messing with our readings"
This is a random stump that is somewhere in the general vicinity of where that second point was supposed to be:

We continued to look and look and go around in circles. The GPS never did give us a good Ground Zero and it started to get a little darker and there was no way we wanted to find our way out of those woods with out a flashlight so we had to give up on the multi for now. Maybe on a day when the skies are clearer.





Just another discovery we made as we were wandering around

Kind of reminds me of a TV show I enjoy watching. Now that we were no longer "LOST" It was time to follow the trails back to the car.


But first of all lets take a break and read a little more of the history of the area.

Hubbys 100th find

It's Halloween and this is how we spent our day:
We started off the morning doing a company service project to help homeless youth in the area and while we were in the vicinity lets find some Geocaches. Hubby has 3 more to reach his 100th find.
# 98 is 4th Ave Travel Bug Exchange

Quick find and we didn't think anyone was around to see but as we finished signing the log and headed back to the car, we saw a drunk hanging around the car. I had left my purse in the front seat and the doors unlocked. I was glad to find nothing missing and glad we were not very far from the car but wonder if we were seen with the cache and if it will be muggled now.

Our next stop #99 APC #11 should be an easy find and it wasn't too bad. It was in a great out of the way spot

And on we go to # 100 hoping it will be a nice location to mark the 100th find. We were not disappointed!

We finished our geocaching adventures for the day by finding a couple that we could not find before. Hill and Dale Rotary Park. Hubby finally found a good GZ and dug in until he found it. It was not an easy find and I am very glad to cross that one off our list. The other one Randy BtWWWS was a quick easy find in the daylight but not one we ever would have found in the dark when we were searching before.

It's a good day to find those not found before

It was such a yucky rainy day yesterday and we have had a run of bad luck in finding geocaches in the dark, so we didn't go geocaching for our date night last night. But today was a great day, hubby didn't have any pressing responsibilities and the bridal shower that I went to was over by 1:00PM. I called hubby on my way home and said "Let's go Geocaching". Kcor had been replaced, so we decided to go find it and catch the one we didn't have time to get last week. We also wanted to spend more time looking for Shortline Railroad without the pressure of coming darkness. We found all three.

First was K-cor: I would have found it last time had it not been missing. I recognized the rock immediately. It was just in a different location. Hubby actually got there first and claimed the find.

Next we looked for "The South 40". It is one of my favorites so far. The hardest part was choosing the best place to park. It was a perfect distance, short hike, to a nice landmark and an excellent view. There was a well worn trail straight to the cache location. It was an easy find. We spent some time enjoying the view!

Then it was back to Short Line Railroad. I got a good laugh when I found the cache. When we had looked before, hubby was placing rocks and bark and such in several different likely cache locations to make it look like a cache was hiding there and confuse future lookers. He had placed a rock right on top of the cache after looking where it was at, and not being able to find it. Today, I went to remove the rock, because it was so obviously out of place. I noticed the puzzle piece, removable pieces of the middle of the tree stump and started pulling them out and there it was. I called out that I had found it and they didn't believe me, because I was standing right by the car and we had searched that place thoroughly the other day. So it ended up being another fairly quick find for the day. Yeah! Much better feeling after our streak of bad luck.

Date Night: it get's dark way to early

We were hoping to pick up 7 quick caches tonight. No such luck! Our first stop was a quick one: Caitlyn's Cache 28.0 "ICU2"   Good thing we know the secret to those kind.

The next one stumped us. We spent way to much time and daylight looking for Hill & Dale Rotary Park. We never could get a good GZ read and it wasn't in any obvious spot. We never did find it.

Next on our list is another quick one. Dave's Place VII

Then we headed to one I had already found. Book Madness X (part of a series) Hubby didn't take to long to find it after a little bit of prompting by me.

Our next stop was definitely the fun one for the night. On a college campus, lots of muggles around. It is called Lights On and was a first one of this style of cache. I wonder what the college students thought to see a couple of old people staring at trees and benches and lights and all number of other strange things. Hubby just about got hit in the head by a Frisbe. He ducked just in time. I took this picture for stealth while I was taking a closer look at what I thought might be the spot. It was one that was going to take some feeling around. Finally, the muggles cleared out a bit and I could get down to some serious looking. It only took me a minute before I had it in my hand. We signed the log and were on our way. Only two more to go and it is getting very dark.

Randy BtWW's is close by. We got out our flashlights and started searching, but it was just too dark and we had no luck.

Our last try is a 2 part multi-cache on our way home. It should have been another easy parking lot cache. But we couldn't narrow down GZ and we couldn't find it in the obvious spots. That is 50% of the ones we tried that we couldn't find. A very disappointing night! Hubby was trying to get close to his 100th find so he could go together with our son Nuttyguy for the landmark find.

After the Roller Skating- WAVA activity

WAVA (Washington Virtual Academy) is the girls high school. They had a roller skating activity in SE Spokane and we attended. I even got on roller skates for the first time in many, many years. When I put on the skates and tried to stand up, I just about took them off again. After I figured out how to stand up and get into the rink, it didn't take me long to get back into the swing of things. I soon discovered muscles that hadn't been used that way in many years. It is a whole lot different to do new things with an old body. It just is the same as when I was younger and never even noticed the muscles. [:)] A couple hours later when the activity was over, we went geocaching while we were in the area.

We spent a few minutes looking in Sherwood Forest for Robinhoods Stash, but not enough time to find it. Too many rocks to turn over and we didn't want to spend all day.

On to some serious looking at our next stop. APC#6

It was very similar to APC#10 that we found on Mon night. Not exactly the same but close. I spotted the cache and AA retreived it. We signed the log, took a picture and we were on our way.

Our next stop is Camp Caro Cache ....of Doom. AA found it quite quickly, which is surprising because it was very well hidden in a hole under a rock in the middle of the grass. It was hard to tell there was even a hole or a rock there.

The next cache was from the same parking place but a little bit of a hike. AA didn't go with us. Too much Roller skating had worn her out. This one EZ Apple was a full size ammo container and was much more out of the site of muggles than I expected. It had a nice view. MBW found it quite quickly.

Then it was time to go home and get the school work done for the day.

Family Fun Night

It's Monday night and it is a quick rush to get school work done and meet dad after work at our starting point. We try to get out as quick as possible so we still have some daylight. Our first stop is a new one, only a few people have found it. 

Short Line Railroad

The GPS can't get a good GZ read and there are lots of potential hiding places for that elusive cache. We can't use all our daylight just searching for this one cache. 5 more minutes and we move on. We didn't find it. We'll have to go back another day.

Our next stop could have easily been another 'no find'. It was a tricky one with a very good clue. Its name: A Weighting Game 

I walked right up to it and knew I had found the right spot, but I couldn't find the cache. I looked elsewhere but kept going back to that first piece of wood.

I knew it had to be there, but it took me a while to discover the secret. That log hides the cache. Can you discover the secret?

Next stop is APC#10 

The clue is ready, set, go!

As we pull up to the spot, there is a Stop sign. Is that it? Nope! By then AA had spotted another likely spot and had retrieved the cache. 

Now, it is getting late and we are hungry, but we have to find this one last cache. 

Come Fly With Me

With the clue and a little bit of searching MBW claimed the find. We all signed the log and we were on our way home.