I found the Bigfoots!!!!

  

I grew up in Idaho.  Yep, until I married my muggle and moved to Washington I was a spud girl.  Most of those years were around Kellogg, but we lived in a multitude of all those small towns.  Spent a lot of time camping, hiking and just being outdoors.  Now if you have heard anything about the Northwest, you've more than likely heard of Bigfoot.  Right?  Mythical (?) creature, stays hidden from humans, leaves HUGE footprints in the woods.  Never really showing his self, but always lurking around.  I've grown up listening to those stories.  Imagine my surprise when I stumbled across a "Bigfoot Geotour" (GT3E)!!I was intrigued to say the least.  Seems there is a community in North Bonneville Washington that has a whole family of Bigfoots, just waiting for you to come and discover them (and the caches they hide)!  Let me tell you, I was so excited I'm sure my muggle thought something bit me.  And truthfully, something did! That nasty adventure bug got me again.....I couldn't wait to go see these guys up close and personal FINALLY!!! I had to call Squinch:).  So we plan our trip, and make all of the arrangements.  It was going to be a 5 hour drive, so we obviously needed a motel.  And snacks.  And a map of all the 

One of our many along the way!

caches along the way.  Ok, so we didn't find ALL the caches along the way, but we did find quite a few.  This was the first time I had driven west on the Washington side of the Columbia River.  Man, it is so pretty!!!  I saw my favorite elephant in the hillside (read my past blog post about road trips to see her), and she was much clearer on this side of the river.  Lots of very pretty places to pull off and take pictures and stretch our legs.  We didn't get to our hotel till like 8:30 pm.  It was a great day! Once we get all checked in, it just relaxin' time till tomorrow morning, when we can go on a bigfoot hunt.  Up early and some breakfast for fuel, and we head to North Bonneville.  It was only about 10 miles, so what to do but grab a couple of caches along the way!  It was pretty easy to find this little community, and although you'd think it would be busy with people, we were the only ones there.  We literally saw no one, except some bigfoots!  The trail was marked with 

they welcome us!!!!

footprints for you to follow along.  There are informative signs everywhere, and 10 wooden carved bigfoots (bigfeet?) for you to find.  And every bigfoot has a hidden compartment with a cache hidden inside.  It was the most relaxing walk ever. And no people. It was so quiet it was almost eerie. The only little child we saw was a boy getting off the bus and he just kept staring at us, like we were out of place.  All in all, the peace and quiet was great, because we didn't have to be sneaky because of muggles.  No one to hide from.  We start finding our bigfoot friends and we soon realize they can be standing along the trail, or swinging from a rope between trees.  One was climbing a tree.  One was fishing by the lake, and one was actually holding a golf club on the edge of the golf course.  It was fun!  We found all 10, and

just gotta love this big guy!

 I think only one had a cache missing.  I'm not sure what this community was, whether it was a retirement place, or maybe a military housing place, but this path took us through some really pretty houses. I was hoping we would have seen someone outside so we could ask about the bigfoot statues, and get some background information.  I know it was a 2 mile paved "Bigfoot Discovery Trail", but I'm curious about the carver.  Is he a resident of North Bonneville? Is he a fellow cacher?  Has he SEEN a real bigfoot?  I would love to just thank him for doing this, and how cool would it be to get a picture of him by one of his bigfoots? I wish I had gotten a picture of more of the informational signage, too.

big boys

but, I got pictures of the important things.  The BIGFOOTS!  I can say they DO exist!  At least in North Bonneville anyways.  People ask me why I geocache. I feel like I'm always quick to defend my love of this hobby with a quick answer to satisfy their curiosity, because once someone asked and before I could answer someone else said "you got an hour"?  Well, you can't describe a passion in less than an hour!  To describe my love for this hobby in 25 words or less?  Nope. Not happening.  Now, I'm the one that says, "you got an hour?" Because that's how long it takes to say .... I love Geocaching because....

*of the places it takes me

*of the wonderful people I meet (we met some cool railroad guys a couple of weeks ago, watch for that post)

*of the things I learn about myself while out in the world searching for Tupperware in the woods

*and because today, this weekend with my friends, I learned that not all Bigfoots (or Sasquatches) are big hairy scary legends that only walk around in the woods leaving HUGE footprints at night.  

Some are cute little guys that play golf, watch baseball games, hang from trees, sit and watch the river go by, and have a big smile and a little surprise hidden in a little compartment for you to discover and write your name.  To prove that you, too,  searched and found them.  The Bonneville Bigfoots!!

***September 13, 2021

Just hangin' around!

Watching the ball game!!

  

Hidden well