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

Reaching the peak in 12 degrees...with my muggle

 OK, so who all is participating in the "Reach the Peak" challenge?  ME!  And Squinch:) of course lol.  So far we have reached them all, but this month kinda

crept up on me.  Squinch:) is on a road trip.  It's cold outside. I got sick. And then all of a sudden I had 3 days to reach all my points?  Heck, it ain't happening.  I had resigned myself to the fact that I was not going to reach Denali basecamp, let alone the PEAK! But I held out a small bit of hope, and asked my muggle to take me on a date.  Where to he asked.  So, I simply said I need to go to River Front Park and walk around and find 3 Adventure Labs to reach my peak!  His response?  "How cold is it supposed to be?"  I agreed that 

if it was too cold I would forfeit, and we could just go back to the car and come home.  So, we got up New Years Day and headed out.  If you haven't done an 

The Looff Carousel

Adventure lab yet, you gotta!  They are so much fun!  Each has 5 stages, and a bonus cache at the end.  Your numbers go up and you  learn things!  Win-Win!  So first stop was the Looff Carousel in the park.  My kids rode this thing so many times, and I think they all, at some point, grabbed a gold ring.  As we left, I happened to look down and there was a green one laying in the snow.  Yep, that's gonna be sweet swag.  We walk around and find all 5 stages of the first Lab, and I'm tellin ya, it was cold!  I had dressed for the challenge, but Jim, not so much.  I tried to tell him.  Do you want long johns under your jeans?  Nah, I got jeans on.  OK. I had brought a full hooded cap for him, because I knew he'd want it.  And he did.  So as I clap my hands and say "ok, one down, 2 to go", he got this look on his face and said "What?"  Ummm, yeah, these 5 stages we just found, I have to do two more of those. I told him, we are in the park...go to the car and get warm!  My tablet is there, so read your book.  I'll be fine.  It won't take me very long.  Nope, he was a trooper.  He stuck with me for the whole 

BloomsDay Runners

adventure.  We were all over that park, looking for the object and answering the questions.  It was so pretty out, and I have so many memories of our family coming down here, that it was just a special day.   These are the BloomsDay Runners.  I didn't realize these were actually created from actual RUNNERS!!!  How cool is that?  We saw the Veterans Memorial, and walked across the bridges.  Then back to the carousel to warm up again.  Got a couple of souvenirs to take home.  I even got pictures of the Goat!  This was 

The Litter Goat

one of the things my kids loved about the park.  You hold a piece of trash at it's mouth, and the vacuum would come on and suck the trash into it's belly.  They would stand and feed this goat for as long as we'd let them.  We saw the Clock Tower and walked along the Centennial trail. I found all three Labs, and that gave me enough points to reach Denali Summit, with a couple hundred points to spare.  I also enjoyed a nice date day with my muggle, and he said he actually enjoyed it!  I know, it's probably silly, it really doesn't matter if I reach all my peaks or not.  No one would know except me.  And I know that some of you cachers don't really collect or care about the souvenirs.  But to me, they are important. You see, it's all about leaving 'footprints'. Whether they are a solid actual thing, or a virtual sticker. I want to leave as many as I can before I'm done on this earth. Oh I know, I'm only 62.  But man, time is flyin' by! And what I want the most?  I want my future people, my great grandkids, and maybe even my great great grandkids to use these footprints I'm leaving, and know me.  To know who I was. I want them to be able to look at a photo of me, and know who I was.  To know what kind of life I had. 

My wonderful good hearted MUGGLE!

Maybe they won't be interested.  And that's ok.  But, maybe they will.  And they'll know... That I loved my family. That my Grandkids were the most important thing to me. That I rode horses.  I scrapbooked.  I owned a bar.  I loved dogs.  And cats.  I loved to go camping.  And have smores by a campfire. I loved road trips.   I loved my muggle.  I did amazing things....


 

  

...AND I GEOCACHED!!!!

Road Trips ... and caches!

 

I've always loved road trips.  Load a cooler, map out a route and grab the camera.  Thankfully, since we didn't really do the road trip thing till the girls were almost all grown, the youngest two were all for it!  We did so many.  Looking for small no-wake lakes when we got our canoe.  Going back to one of my childhood homes and sharing those memories.  I loved it.  Imagine my glee when I discovered geocaching and realized I could combine the two!  Now, before we pack the cooler and load the car, I search for any caches that might be grabbed along the way.  And there always are some!  We all know they are EVERYWHERE, right?

 Have you read my previous post about the "Seven magic Mountains"?  Perfect road trip!  Even with my muggle husband, I can always find a few caches.  We've taken day trips, where we just get in the car when we wake up and go.  We've taken weekend trips where we actually make a plan ahead of time.  I want to see it all, do it all and now of course....find them all!  This picture was taken on one of our day trips.  I thin, I found about 5 caches that day.  But it's not always about the caches either.  I mean, they are pretty important, but so is the actual road trip.  Seeing new places and things, and sometimes seeing things you've seen before as well.  You should see all of my travel journals.  I keep track of everything we do and see. Oooooo, I see a blog post about that coming soon, ya think?  Anyways......

Like the "Elephant" in this picture.  We look for them and count them every time we drive along the Columbia River.  But this one, she's my favorite. This photo is from this past September when Squinch:) and I drove to North Bonneville to complete the "Bigfoot GeoTour" (that blog post coming soon, so watch for it).   I can always find her.  My  Mother in Law told us about them when we were planning an Oregon vacation, and the girls and I were so excited to actually see them!  They've turned into a kind of tradition. I couldn't wait to show them to my Grandkids when we took a family trip.  I got pictures of this same girl last summer when my daughter and her kids went to the coast without me.  I know right?  How unfair.

This past summer, Squinch:) and I decided to finally drive to Sprague, Washington and complete the Washington Star. We are road trip fanatics, I tell ya.  We loaded up the car, grabbed her Geo-Pup (I have my own now and you can read about him in a previous post), and headed out.  We ended up grabbing over 100 caches that day, completing the Washington Star and also the Historic Hwy 10 series.  A lot of stop and go, a lot of sagebrush and scab rock and a lot of log signing!  But we found them all!  It was just a funfilled  

day.  I have a couple of more road trips planned for Squinch:) and I that are sitting in the to-do part of my brain.  One is a post that I saw on facebook, a place in Oregon that has a big BIG ammo can and a big BIG rock painted like a green frog.  I mean, who doesn't want to go find that?  The other is in Colorado, a sweet little girl and her daddy are building a free little library gadget cache and I MUST go there, just to be a part of it.  Since I'm in Washington State, that's gonna be a FUN road trip for sure!  That one, we may have to let my muggle tag along.  We just might need a driver because it's hard to drive and cache without one LoL.  He may be a muggle, but he is always up for a road trip adventure, even if it involves caching.  Speaking of Squinch:), my geo-buddy is on her own road trip, visiting her mom in Kansas.  So we are caching apart this month, hoping to reach the peak of Denali by the deadline.  I'm kinda missing her, and I don't think it's quite fair that she is in sunshine to complete this task, while I am in 30 degree windy cold snowy stuff.  I mean, c'mon.  I want some warmth and sunshine as well.  Makes caching much more enjoyable if you ask me. Seriously tho, I hope she is having a blast with her family.   One last photo I'm gonna add to this post, only because I love it so much.  It's a virtual cache along the Columbia river, in Carson Washington. We found this cache while on the  Bigfoot Geotour road trip. It's called "We love Highway 14:It's a what? I don't see it!"  The description, kinda like my elephants, is the legend about the mountain that a family told their boy every time they drove by.  He didn't see it till he was 10! I saw it right away.  Do you see it?

 *taken fron the actual cache description:  . Local lore says this is the profile of a Native American man looking towards the heavens in the Southern skies. A jutting brow and large nose are the most prominent features. Depending on the angle of the sun, however, the face is sometimes easier to distinguish than others. This spot was pointed out to me (Dan) by my parents and grandparents on every trip past Wind Mountain, but until I was about 10 years old, my response was always the same: "I don't see it!"

 

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

 

"Log your Dog" ... Yep! You can!

Meet Max. My GeoPup!  He's still a baby, and he has a lot to learn in regards to geocaching and helping me find all the caches we can.  I've only had him a month or so, therefore he hasn't really been on any adventures with me yet, only because I haven't had any time to go play.  

focused on that puppachino

Work.  It really interferes with the fun part of life.  So Max hasn't really been introduced to the geocaching concept at this point.  But come warm weather (yeah, I really don't cache much in the winter),  trust me, he'll be a professional in no time.  So far, he's been learning to not play bite, walk on his leash without tripping me up, and the big one, remembering I am not an animal that needs to be herded!  I never realized how tender the back of your heels can get by those little love nips!  No wonder the cows go where the cattle dogs want them to go.....sheesh!  On this day --> he was lucky enough to get his very first Puppachino at Dutch Bros.  He was in heaven, with a whipped cream overload.   But the reason for my post.... did you know you can turn your 4 legged geopup into your very own trackable?  WHAAAAAAT??? Yep, you can!   I was browsing the geocaching website a couple of months ago, looking for the trackable hoodie (watch for my blog post about my trackables), and, imagine my surprise when I saw this "Log your Dog" trackable tag!!! How stinking cute is this!?  I had to have 

cutest tag ever!!!

it, naturally, and one for Squinch:) as well.  I put it on his leash, so that when ever we go caching, he'll have it on.  If we go to an Event, he'll have it on.  I can't wait to take him to a CITO event, and let everyone discover him.  It's funny, how just buying this tag has made me want to get out there more.  Is it because I have a puppy to take along?  Or because my puppy is now an actual game piece in this world wide game we call geocaching?  Or simply because now I have ONE MORE reason to go?  Whatever the reason, I just want to go.  Everyday.  With Max. Just as soon as he gets a little better about riding in the car.  He really has to realize, that is a huge part of geocaching.  I mean, I bought him this tag so he could go with me, after all. And since we live in the middle of wheat field country, we have to DRIVE!  I've already found all the close ones ... now they are all at least 50 miles away.  That requires getting in the big red thing with wheels.  Which so far he isn't too keen on.  But, he'll get there. He will. I hope. 

Ok, time to fess up.  I actually bought the tag about 2 months before we got the dog.  But, I knew I was GONNA get a dog! I thought she'd be a female named Annie.  I had it all planned out.  I didn't really want a puppy, with work, no time to train one.  Then we saw this fella at the rescue center, and well, the dog turned into a puppy.  The male turned into a female, and Annie became Max.  It's all good tho because he is such a sweet thing.  And I can already tell, he is gonna be one heck of a geocaching partner! SO now, you know.  If you have a pup that goes caching with you, or you're thinking of getting one even, rush over to the geocaching website, and get yourself a new trackable!  Put it on your 4 legged caching partner and get out there and let him/her be discovered!

               

                           and now feel free..... to LOG MY DOG!!!!!

GSMQPW feel free to discover

  

Life ... with my muggle!

 Muggle. Noun. A person who is not familiar with a certain subject.  A word I had never paid attention to. Being a non "Harry Potter" folk, I guess I WAS one?? I mean, my girls have all watched the movies.  I just never have (no judgement please).  And even though I must have heard the word, it was never important, until I learned that's what a "non-geocacher" was called.  That's when the 'A-HA' moment hit me.  My husband and I found our first one together, thanks to our daughter, Cassie. (Read my previous post about my first cache and our Blair Witch experience!).  I'll admit it was exciting to think about us loving this hobby together.  Just imagine the fun we could have, and places we could go!

But, back at camp, when us gals were looking on the laptop for more, and all the fellas were like "Oh NO!" ... and my fella just looked at the other fellas and jokingly said "I'm just wondering how much this is gonna cost me?".  Yeah.  I knew I was in it by myself lol.  And that's ok!  He takes me to find them. And he walks up mountains and hikes trails with me, too.  Heck, he's even found a few before I did! But mostly, he'll be waving from the front seat, or like in this particular instance, reading his book.  When we pulled into this rest area, I remember saying I was going to check to see if there was a cache here. Duh.  Of course there was, almost every rest area has one.  BUT, what was exciting to me was the fact that a trackable had just been dropped here earlier in the day!  I don't think he shared in my enthusiasm, but that's ok, because I was

I found it!

excited enough for the both of us.  I start my search following the arrow on my phone app, and it takes me to the end of the rest area where all the scrub brush is.  As excited as I am, thinking of the TB, I'm evenly nervous about rattle snakes.  It's hot and this is their territory.  As I follow the trail, and get closer to ground zero, I look around, and spot my treasure!  And it's an ammo box, which means it could have trade items in it.  Now remember, I'm alone, and my muggle is way back at the table, engrossed in his book.  It doesn't matter.  Even when I'm all by myself, I still whoop and make noise when I find a cache.  Then glance around to see if anyone saw me.  Sheesh, I'm in the middle of NOWHERE!  Who could possible see?  As I peek inside, I spy the 

The trackable was still there!

familiar chain and dog-tag associated with a trackable, and squeal yet once more!  And can you believe it?  I again looked to make sure no one was looking.  At this point, I am absolutely giddy!  Because for one, I found the cache, AND all by myself.  I've only started caching by myself just recently.  And for two, I FOUND A TRACKABLE!!!!  I look through the rest of the trade items, make a swap, and sign the log.  I tuck everything back as I found it, making sure the cache is hidden, and start making my way back.  And even though I am still on the lookout for snakes, I have a spring in my step.  Nothing beats that feeling of accomplishment you get when you search, find, sign and replace.  Well, maybe somethings do.  But not today!  As I walk up to Jim, he  

Treasures inside the trackable

asks if I found it.  I proudly shout "yes" and show him my prize. I'm not sure if I expected him to jump up and shout, or give me a high five or what, but I now know how excited a (my) muggle can really get.  On a scale of 1 - 10, he was maybe a 5?  Doesn't he realize that you don't just find these things willy nilly?  I mean, they are hard to come by!  He watches me giggle and looks on with interest as I examined the trackable.  It's a pill case with a hole drilled through the center and there's a chain threaded through it. After looking through the contents, I can't help but feel that there's a reason for these items, so I make a mental note to look it up when I get home (see below). I can't wipe the smile off of my face, and for the duration of the drive home, all I can think about is telling DDCA and Clairum that I found a trackable!  THEY'LL get it!  So.  That's how it is when I'm caching with my muggle.  

On our waterfall hike

He rides along.  Gets a few pages read in his book, or waves at me out the drivers side window.  Sometimes when I seriously can't find one,  and I just keep looking, he patiently just sits and waits.  He really is pretty cool about it lol.  I'm also patient with his 'lack' of geocaching enthusiasm, because he does lots of OTHER stuff with me.  Road trips, shopping weekly for work, watching my reality TV shows,  hiking a 3 mile waterfall loop, he even got on a bike to see if he might want to buy one!  I'm pretty sure he knows that if he does get one, we'll be caching while riding!  So all in all, life with my muggle's not too bad.  He trudges along with me, smiles at my giddiness and takes it all in stride.   At the end of the day, I think I'll keep him!!💓

*July 28, 2014

*When I logged this Travel Bug, and read the description, my heart smiled.  It did indeed brighten my day!  Also, since this is not my trackable, I have blacked out the tracking number.  

"This has a hitchhiker with a Lego and a marble in it. These were two of my son's favorite things, collecting marbles and playing Legos. While he can no longer enjoy them hopefully they can brighten someone else's day as they travel. Please don't pick it up unless you can keep it moving, Thanks."
  

A cache for Squinch:)

Just two gals and a cache

 When I started Geocaching it was with my daughters and grandkids.  One daughter showed me my first one.  (Read past posts to learn about our Blair Witch cache).  Then I quickly got my other daughters interested, and it went from there. We would cache all the time. But we all have that thing called life.  And it gets in the way of the fun stuff sometimes.  For me, that life is our business.  We bought a bar in 2011, and for the past 3 years we have had zero employees.  So it's just my muggle and I, 6 days a week from open till close.  And on that seventh day?  Well, we shop for the bar, we clean the bar, and maybe have time at home to wash the underwear and pet the new puppy (who already has his own "log-the-dog" tag).  The point is, those fun afternoons caching with daughters and grandkids are few and far between these days. Enter Squinch:).  Don't get me wrong, I still love

"I got it!"  "No I got it!"

 grabbing an afternoon with a 'DDCA', 'Clairum and the bean', 'MammaMissa', "han~geo", well you get the picture. Those afternoons take some planning now.   But for those impromptu quick "let's go grab a cache?" days? Squinch:) is the one I call.  We've done day trips.  We've just ran and grabbed one.  We work on challenges together. Just last month we took a road trip to N. Bonneville, Washington to do the "Bonneville Bigfoots Geotour" (blog post coming soon.) We cached on the way, and we cached on the way back! She is my geo-buddy for sure.  We've had some DNF's, and we've also, while looking for a cache that was part of a series on Mullan Road in the Idaho mountains, called out "Got it!" at the same time.  Yep, two caches at that location.  We LOOK  for chances to grab a cache!   So, imagine our frustration when we discovered that we were both going to be vacationing in Lincoln Beach, Oregon, but a week apart!  Yep, I was going first, and I'd be able to wave at her when we passed each other while I was on my way home and she was on her way there.  I mean, c'mon.  It's not like I wasn't going to be able to geocache while I was there.  That's not it at all.  I wasn't sure SHE would be able to geocache while She was there.  Her muggle at the time, yeah, different than my muggle.  So, that's when I came up with a plan.

The perfect place to put this....

I took a plastic chocolate covered almond jug from Costco (everyone has thought of using one of those for a cache container, right?), and every time I saw something that I thought she would like, I stuck it in there.  Just little mementos to make her smile.  A keychain.  Some candy.  A magnet I think.  I don't know,  Just stuff.  And then I waited.  One of the parks we were caching at was proving difficult.  The cache was supposed to be by an old picnic table all overgrown in the weeds.  We looked and looked,  and then decided we had to log a DNF.  Discouraged, as we started to leave, I was like, no WAIT!!  This is perfect!  So, I wrote a note. 

...right here!

"If you're not Becky, then this isn't the cache!  Keep

looking!  Please put this one back, it's for Becky!"  I tucked it nice and snug down in the thick bushes, covered it with some branches and pinecones, and hoped for the best. I got out my phone, and checked the coordinates, and then I checked them twice.  That all done, I sent my friend a text, told her I hid a surprise for her and to go HERE!  I did give her the name of the Park, I mean she needed a clue at least. I also warned her about the other side of the park, and knew she'd be thankful that I didn't decide to hide this cache for her over there.  We also logged that one as a DNF because of the bees.  We did not know it was well guarded until it was too late, and they sent us running for cover.   Decided the little buggers could just have it. The rest of our vacation week flew by fast, because that's what vacations do.   So, we pack up.  Make the drive home, and even though I did look for their car, to wave, yeah, that didn't happen lol.  I remember hoping that if someone DID find it, they would be honest and put it back for her.  I also hoped that the coordinates were right, because we both know what a wild goose chase that could have been.  We been there before!

Mission accomplished!

I got a text from her a few days later.  It took a couple days for her to make it to the park.  She found it, and LOVED it.  I was so happy that I could make this lady smile like that!    And I learned something.  You don't have to physically be with your geo-buddy to cache with them.  All you have to do is use your imagination. Well, and eat all those chocolate covered almonds, buy silly little trinket crap that doesn't cost much, trek through some bees and bushes, check your latitude and longitude, write a sappy note, send a quick text and then let nature take it's course.   Easy Peasy!

*July 2018*

 

 

Neither snow nor soggy caches.....

It's that time again.  Spring.  Which, in Debbie world, means geocaching season is upon us!  Today is June 2nd, 2009.  Now when you think of June, you think sunshine, warmth and maybe a day at the park.  You know.  Kids just getting out of school for summer break.  Summer vacation plans in the works.  Nope.  Not today.  It's cold. Windy.  And if you live in the Palouse Region of the Northwest 

A blustery spring day

you know that wind stings and BITES!  And it's not bad enough we have dang cold wind, but this weekend we have that white stuff as well!  SNOW?  What the heck.  All I wanted was a day with my girls to get the caching season underway.  Did we cancel or reschedule?  Absolutely not!  Nope, we made a date to cache and by gosh we are gonna cache.  Besides, last fall, I bought my first pair of waterproof Keens just for a day like today.  I'm gonna try them out for sure! We planned out a few, and we start with the one at the bottom of Steptoe Butte.  Whitman County has a couple Buttes, and of the two, this one is the most unique I think.  Just a big mound with a spiral road that winds up around it. (Thought I had a pic handy, but can't find it).  And from the top?  Oh man.  You can see forever.  So, we park at the bottom in the designated area, and realize you have to have a Discover Pass to enjoy the Butte.  Yep, It's a State  Park.  Well, that is also not going to dissuade us, so we get the wallet out.  Put the money in the envelope, put the envelope in the box and hope we did it right and there's no

Untangling myself again

no ticket waiting for us at the car when we return.  Looking at our GPS gadget, we have to cross a downed barbwire fence and head up the hillside.  It's obvious at this point tat no one has come looking for this cache since the snow fall, there are no footprints at all.  Lots of deer tracks though.  We start navigating through the weeds and soon I'm all caught up in thorns and stickers.  The more I got my jeans untangled, the dang things would snag my gloves.  Sheesh, the troubles we go through just to find a Tupperware in the wild!  I get myself unstuck and catch up while Cassie and Darci have gotten us pointed in the right direction. We know we're getting close and soon we see a pond.  Sure enough!  We spy the cache.  All snug as a bug under a tree.    As soon as we scooped it up, we knew there were issues.  You could feel the water sloshing around  in there.  I've read this is  when

A soggy one...

 you open your geo-bag, and pull out your trusty repair kit baggie.  In it you've got replacement logs, baby wipes, little ziplock baggies, and other TOTT.  And I also read that it's a good idea to mention all of this when you log your find on the website too, which lets the cache owner know that there may be a problem with the container.  Maybe a crack in the lid or something, that's keeping it from being watertight.  I make a mental note to do that! We dump out the swag (more on this in another post), dry the container, add a new log and then see if anything is salvageable to do some trading.  For me, that's the second best part.  The first, of course, is finding it.  Honing your Spidey sense  to find something that has set out in the snow all winter! We finish up, replace the cache and I grab a quick picture of my girls by the pond. We are off to find another!  We head up the 

My caching buddies for the day

spiral road to the top of the Butte, because there are two up there!  A traditional cache AND an earth cache.  Once up at the top, we make quick work of the traditional, there isn't a buffer up here for the wind, and it's COLD!  We read the informational signs to answer the questions for the earth cache, so we can log it later.  Done!  For our reward, we stand and gaze in awe at the Palouse.  Like I said before, you can see forever from up here.  And even though our nice pleasant spring day caching, turned into an overcast, cold, windy and drizzly day, it was amazing! We found both that we set out to find and we learned about the Butte by doing the earth cache. We also learned that not all caches are snug as a bug all winter.  Some need a little help when you find them. We may have left it nice and dry and warm, but we were not as fortunate.  We had trudged through snow, soggy meadow, and wet high weeds.  I think my jeans were wet up past the knees.  Was I cold and wet?  Yes.  Was I miserable?  Maybe a little.  But was I absolutely giddy?  YES!  Nothing beats a day caching.  It doesn't matter what the weather's like.  Or, if you read my Blair Witch post, weather it's daytime or nighttime!  Well, ok, that was a little scary, lol. But mostly, when you're in the moment, it's all sunshine and happiness!

The view from the top.  Breathtaking for sure!

SPIDERS ... and a D5T2

 It's my birthday weekend, and I want to go South.  As always, I love two things.  Geocaching and being with my family, so I made some calls and invited who ever wanted to tag along.  DDCA and Clairum both were up for a road trip and some caching along the way.  I did some research and found a cache that would get me my souvenir in the "Let's Get Extreme" category in the "Geocaching Road Trip '15" challenge that I was currently trying to complete.  Now, when I read the description, I took note of two things.  First, we would need a TOTT (tool of the trade).  And second, so many of the previous logs mentioned the spiders.  SO many spiders.  Ok, so I was prepared for some spiders.  What I wasn't prepared for was .. well, I'll get to that in a second.  We get to Lewiston, go to the cemetery and say hello. Do a little house keeping, you know, sweep off the leaves, clean up the sod edges, cry a little.  Then we are off to find this cache that I've scoped out.  It's up the river from Clarkston Washington, and it's a D5T2.  In muggle lingo, that means that the difficulty is a 5 (the hardest) and the terrain is a 2.  Ok, doable for sure. The difficulty, we figured that part out pretty quickly.

can you see it?

The cache was a micro, and we spied it on the top of this I beam.  If you look closely, you can see a fake magnetic bolt sitting on top.  Now how in the heck are we gonna get up there to get that thing?  Ah, we have a shovel in the car, used for the housekeeping at the cemetery....yay! About this time, we all start looking around, and I am being completely honest when I tell you that there was NOWHERE that didn't have a spider in a web!!  The biggest spiders I have EVER seen.  And I've seen some spiders.  It's like a train wreck, you can't look away, and you just keep looking for more! I think by this time the kids are back in the car, safe and sound.  Us three gals are just creeped, because you know every spider has 8 eyes, and that's a lot of eyes on you!  Jim gets the shovel, and he manages to knock the cache off of the beam, and we scoop it up.  We do double duty, sign the log and make sure no spiders are crawling on our shoes.  I'm still thinking about those previous logs, and how they 

TOTT

could have maybe been a little more forthcoming about the reality of these spiders.  Maybe some capital letters!  Or more exclamation marks?  Or maybe a subtle hint. Like JUST DON'T GO!  Something.  Because I was not prepared even a little.  So, we get the micro down, we sign the log, we toss it back up.  And, since there is another cache close by , we may as well try and grab it.  We find the trail, kinda.  Walking through these dry weeds that look like sagebrush almost.  And all of them have these black spots in them.  So as we are searching, I feel something on my arm, and at the same time, realize that all the black spots in these bushes are more spiders!  And one was on me?  Maybe? Yep, that second cache we were looking for, who knows if it was there or not because now  we're done.  Once we're back to the car, we do a clothing search, make sure there are no stow-a-ways hitching a ride back to Washington 

Got it!!!

with us.  I mean, that could make a person drive right off the road.  I'm gonna add a couple pictures of said spiders here, but literally, they won't due the monsters justice.  I'm tellin' ya.  One thing that still blows my mind, I did not know that different species would cohabitate like that.  Don't the big species eat the little species?  Heck, I don't know. And how can they just grow so big anyways? What I do know, is that the word Arachnid has taken on a whole new meaning for me. 

all cohabitating together!

I'm Pretty sure that spider that sat down beside Miss Muffet was nothing compared to the creatures living down along the river in Idaho, and the caches down there are gonna be just a fleeting thought as I look elsewhere.  My brave is not big enough to go back to look for more.  As much as I am not a cold weather girl anymore, it does serve it's purpose!
 

Look at this big guy on a piece of rebar

And on another note ... at the beginning of this post, I mentioned that this cache was a D5T2.  I have to say that I think it should have been categorized as a D5T5.  I know, now, that a T5 terrain doesn't have to be a hike up a steep mountain.  Or a dangerous cliff that you have to shimmy out on while hanging on tight.  It can be simple flat terrain along the river in Idaho.  With an equipment shed that houses equipment so important that it is guarded by an army.  Even flat ground can be treacherous when you are sidestepping and hopping all around to avoid anything that has eight legs, while trying to grab the prize!  I do love an adventure, but from now on, I'll trust the previous logs whenever they mention spiders.  Or any other critter with more than 2 legs.

spiders-0 koko-geo-1

 I did secure my souvenir and log my first D5.  I'm pretty proud of that!

*August 30, 2015*

Blair Witch? (how it all got started)

It's September, 2010, and we are camping at Priest Lake with Cassie, Matt, some of their friends, and his dad and step-mom.  We have just hiked the short hill to see Hunt Falls, and after all of the oooo's and ahhhh's, Cassie nonchalantly says to me "Hey Debbie, there's a geocache right over there."  Huh?  A what?  "A geocache."  I had no idea what that even was, and said as much.  She just smiled and said "Go look in that bush by that log."  Ok. So I pull this thing out, I had no idea what an ammo can even was, I had no idea how to open it, and what to do with it AFTER I open it.  Matt opens it up and .... whaaaaat is all this stuff?  Cass explained, you trade items.  Take something, leave something. And then you sign the log.  How in the heck do you sign the log?  It's a LOG!  She explained no, the paper log.  Duh.  And all I had to trade was a couple of mints in my pocket!  (Yes, I have since been schooled about leaving edibles in caches).  I was hooked, and wondered aloud if there may be more close by.  Cassie just looked over at her FIL and made sure his laptop was back at camp with service.  We 

my first geocache!!!!

headed back to camp and did a search.  There are SO many!  Ok, so we found a few to find, but we have no equipment.  How did we survive back in 2010???  We have a notebook and a pen.   Nothing to do but write down the coordinates, every clue, the hint, and anything in previous logs that may help us.  Our list consisted of about 8 caches.  We are off!  Found one in a log pile.  found our first fake rock at the base of a tree.  Found a couple along the road.  Pesky Priest River bugs had us in the woods just going in circles, so we had to return to camp and grab that cell phone so we had a compass.  Amy finally found it in the trees!  And the container was so cool!!!  Then we have just one more.  It's 

pesky bugs

a little bit of a drive, and it's getting to be dusk.  To go or not to go?  That was the question.  We went.  We have a little guy with us, but we think we can find it (because we're getting so good at this), and be back before dark. We park, start walking down a trail into the woods.  Let me tell ya, it was a lot darker in the woods than out on the road.  We have our trusty flashlights and a lantern, but I think they are making the surrounding area look even more creepy if you want the truth.  It's not much farther, so we trek on.  The clues are saying to not let this one "stump" us.  Ok, it's a stump.  And we see one, off a little to the right way up ahead.  Yay, we found it!   "Wait, shine your light over here, I see something......" and we all stop breathing.  What in the realm of all evil is that thing?  It's a cage?  Chicken wire formed  around an iron arc about 4 feet long, and about 2 1/2 feet high? With what's left of a critter, and we can't tell what type of critter at all, but it was a critter,

Right out of the Blair Witch Project!!

hanging from the middle?  And skulls laying around on the ground too!  I am thinking two things at this minute. Well, ok, three.  First, I want to run.  Second, we have a little with us, and can he keep up?  Third, are we brave enough to go to the stump, collect the log and then run, hanging on to the little so he doesn't get left behind?  We huddle, and even though Cassie says she just wants to go home, go home right now, we quickly make our way to the stump, snag out the ammo can, rifle through the swag, do our trading, and then skirting WAY around the scary cage thingy, we run.  Who had the little?  Shamelessly, I have no clue. More than likely his momma?  I wish I could say it was me? And maybe I  

quick pic before we ran!

did help keep track of him?  In my heart, I helped, but I really have no recollection of anything till we got to the road.  I actually think it was a group effort to carry him while running through the woods.  In pitch black.  With just scary flashlight beams that were weaving everywhere as our only light source.  Trying not to get caught by whatever scary thing that may choose that very minute to come back and check on his scary cage thing.  Who leaves things like out in the woods to scare of bunch of girls who are just wanting to find a cache?  I mean, jeez!  We were done caching for the night, for sure.  BUT!  We found the cache!  Despite being scared half out of our wits.  That was "A Soldier Meadow View".  My geocache number seven.  It has since been archived.  Whether the scary cage thingy had anything to do with that, I don't really know.  What I DO know is that weekend was the beginning.  It was all about laughing, meeting new friends, finding treasures, and being scared so silly that you can't wait to do it again!  

 
 
 

 

Straight out of a Stephen King novel...

The view from the top

 When I was a little girl, we would periodically go visit my Grandparents in Lewiston, Idaho.  That meant that we had to drive down the Old Spiral Highway.  My brother and I would always tell mom and dad to please wake us at the top of the hill.  Pretty important that we got to see the view, because we had people waiting for us at the bottom.  Some important people.  If you've even been, you know it's a picturesque highway with great views and some great hairpin curves.  One of them, I remember, had a pull out with a picnic table all tucked back in under the trees.  And it seemed every time we drove by, there was a family there.  Sitting at the picnic table, having lunch. I always wanted it to be my family that was there.  Just once.  I don't think I ever even said it out loud.  I just always wanted it to be us.  It never was.  Fast forward to 2013.  The new highway has replaced the Old Grade, therefore it doesn't get nearly the traffic it used to.  Heck, I hadn't been down it in years!  So, Jim and I had plans to go down for the weekend, and being the geocacher that I am, I found some caches on the Old Grade.  One of them was in that hairpin curve! 

Hey, I think that's a grave!

I batted my eyes, asked please and he said YES!  I was going to be able to sit at that picnic table, I was pretty excited!  As we pull up to the pull out, I notice 2 things.  First and foremost, it was still very pretty!  Second, time changes everything.  The picnic table had long since been removed or rotted away, and even though there was a table there, I wouldn't be sitting at it lol.   Oh well.  Not long into my search, I find a mound of fresh earth.  I stopped and said to Jim, "We should probably just go.  I think I found a grave."  Before we can process my words, A guy on a motorcycle stops and walks into the grassy area. Now remember from a previous post, I called Jim a muggle?  well, in true muggle fashion, he just asks "Hey are 

someone's fur baby

you geocaching?"  Yep, no stealth there at all lol.  Biker dude says "No, this place is known as the local cemetery, and I thought my cat might like it here with all the flowers and birds."  WHAT??  Pet Cemetery??  I DID find  grave!  For a large dog!  With that, biker dude seems a little embarrassed, tosses something into the grass and makes his departure.  Now we look around and see little pet markers.  A lot of them actually.  I don't know how we missed them!  Well, I did have tunnel vision, I really wanted to find that cache.  We look around a little, read some of the markers and realize that even though this isn't my special picnic place anymore, it's a different kind of special place.  A beautiful place that we got to experience.  At this point I'm done searching for the cache.   But, as I start to walk away, I stop and say to Jim, "I wonder what he threw in the grass?"  Jim just nonchalantly says, "I think it was his cat."  Huh?  Wait, WHAT?"

Yes, this is a biodegradable cat ball

 Is that a thing?  A cat ball?  Is it weird that I need to see for myself?  I look in the general area of where biker dude tossed whatever he tossed, and lo and behold, I come up with a ball.  A biodegradable cat ball. I had no idea that you could do that? Mind blown!  As I gently replace said cat ball (I couldn't in good conscience toss it), I can't help but feel bad.  I mean, had we not been here, he could have said goodbye to his cat in the way he wanted.  I feel like we ruined that for him.  As we drive off, I happen to look at my phone, and guess what?  The cache is in the next hairpin curve, just below the pet cemetery one!  We stop and I quickly make the find! All in all I think I found 4 on the old Grade.  And finding them served not only to up my numbers, but also keep my mind off of the fact that we were reaching the bottom.  You see, Time has changed more than my special picnic spot.  There is no one waiting at the bottom for me anymore.  Well, not quite true.  They have just  changed residency.  Now instead of them giving me hugs, I make the trip yearly to give them flowers.  Keeping myself preoccupied while driving down that hill was half of the reason I searched out those caches. It's still pretty hard. I'm thinking my muggle knew that,  and that's why I got the Yes to take the scenic route to the bottom.  That would be why I keep him around, even if he doesn't geocache😉