July: Pacific Northwest/Geocaching Trip
I haven't gotten any better at keeping this blog up tp date it seems.... I have been busy though. Took a trip to Seattle, WA and to Portland, OR at the beginning of July. I had never been to the Pacific Northwest and it was Awesome. The trip started as a Geocachig Event that Michele and I were looking forward too. and we cached our way to the Event and back home. It was the 10 year anniversary of Geocaching and it was held in Carnation, WA, just outside of Seattle. GeowoodstockVIII, as it was called was a 3-day Event and brought geocacher's from all over the world. We stayed at a local campground just south of Carnation called Fall City, WA with a fellow Montana geocacher. We also took a side trip to Snoqualmie Falls, to check out an awesome waterfall taller than Niagara Falls.
We figured while we were in the area we would visit a friend of Michele's family that lived in Montesano, near Aberdeen, WA. Michele's friend Judy took us up the 101 along the coast of Washington to a cool beach called Kalock were we kicked off our shoes and waded in the Ocean collecting shells and sand dollars before a nice little lunch at the bearby picnic area.
After spending 2 days with Michele's friend Judy, we decided to head south to Mount St Helens National Volcanic Monument and tour the Volcano. I can honestly say that I don't remember much about the volcano's eruption in 1980. I was only 10 and living in Western Pennsylvania and probably had better thing to do. It was a great experience to see the volcano and read more about the history and devastation it left on the surrounding community.
We knew that we wanted to tour the Ape Cave near Mount St Helens so we headed that way after a quick lunch the Mount St Helen's visitor center. The Ape Cave is actually a lava tube that you can walk through. It requires that you bring strong flashlights with you because once you enter the cave it is pitch black! The tube was awesome and even thought wasn't looking where I was walking while shining the flashlight at the ceiling and trip over some good size boulders and face planted on the hard volcanic rock I had an great time.
After hobbling back to the car with rip in the knee of my jeans and a few layers of skin missing and some blood we were on our way to Portland, OR to find the original Geocache. The "Original Stash" as it is called is the holy grail of Geocaching. and if a geocacher ever gets the chance, they have to stop by and get it. We were on our way. We got there mid Morin and met some fellow cachers making the trip from Geowoostock. After getting some pictures of the cache ans plaque we headed out on our return trip to Montana through the Columbia River Gorge scenic highway. Only when we were well out of range of the "Original Stash" geocache and wanting to grab a few more caches did we realize that I had lost my GPS and we could only figure that it was left at the "Original Stash" geocache back in Portland, OR and we were almost half way through Washington. We decided not to go back for it and hopped that another geocacher would find it. No one has reported finding one and I purchased a new one. We didn't do anymore caching on the way home, so it made for a quick trip home. All in all it took us 8 days and it was well worth it! It was our first Vacation in 3 years so we thoroughly enjoyed it!
We figured while we were in the area we would visit a friend of Michele's family that lived in Montesano, near Aberdeen, WA. Michele's friend Judy took us up the 101 along the coast of Washington to a cool beach called Kalock were we kicked off our shoes and waded in the Ocean collecting shells and sand dollars before a nice little lunch at the bearby picnic area.
After spending 2 days with Michele's friend Judy, we decided to head south to Mount St Helens National Volcanic Monument and tour the Volcano. I can honestly say that I don't remember much about the volcano's eruption in 1980. I was only 10 and living in Western Pennsylvania and probably had better thing to do. It was a great experience to see the volcano and read more about the history and devastation it left on the surrounding community.
We knew that we wanted to tour the Ape Cave near Mount St Helens so we headed that way after a quick lunch the Mount St Helen's visitor center. The Ape Cave is actually a lava tube that you can walk through. It requires that you bring strong flashlights with you because once you enter the cave it is pitch black! The tube was awesome and even thought wasn't looking where I was walking while shining the flashlight at the ceiling and trip over some good size boulders and face planted on the hard volcanic rock I had an great time.
After hobbling back to the car with rip in the knee of my jeans and a few layers of skin missing and some blood we were on our way to Portland, OR to find the original Geocache. The "Original Stash" as it is called is the holy grail of Geocaching. and if a geocacher ever gets the chance, they have to stop by and get it. We were on our way. We got there mid Morin and met some fellow cachers making the trip from Geowoostock. After getting some pictures of the cache ans plaque we headed out on our return trip to Montana through the Columbia River Gorge scenic highway. Only when we were well out of range of the "Original Stash" geocache and wanting to grab a few more caches did we realize that I had lost my GPS and we could only figure that it was left at the "Original Stash" geocache back in Portland, OR and we were almost half way through Washington. We decided not to go back for it and hopped that another geocacher would find it. No one has reported finding one and I purchased a new one. We didn't do anymore caching on the way home, so it made for a quick trip home. All in all it took us 8 days and it was well worth it! It was our first Vacation in 3 years so we thoroughly enjoyed it!
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