Jen and I have been geocaching for nearly 4 years. Cousin Sara has been caching with us for 3 years. And today, we spent the day in Keizer at the 2nd annual Keizer Iris Festival Geocaching Event. We had a great time and collected a great new geocoin for our efforts.

After the event, we cached for a couple more hours and found our 1,800th career geocache. It was called Foghorn Leghorn, and when we arrived this is what we discovered! How would you like to have this eight foot statue in your front yard?

This was a memorable day, and an accomplishment to really crow about.

Team Mud ‘N Blood* spent a memorable day caching in Snaqualmie Pass. The intent of this 4 hour drive from home was to visit the famed “Tunnel of Light.”  This is a 1,600 acre Washington park that is only about 10 feet wide.  It is a converted railroad bed that runs from Seattle to points east.  The trail itself is nicely packed gravel and an easy walk. Nothing overly special.  But the highlight is the tunnel.

Almost half a mile up the trail from the parking lot, you see the opening of the 2.7 mile tunnel. 

 

After a slight dogleg, the light fades behind you and all you see in front of you is the smallest pin prick of light in the distance.  The walls are black with the soot of trains gone by. 

There is a cache hidden inside the tunnel.  And we were able to locate it on the first pass through. The ultimate goal, however, was the Project A.P.E. cache.  Hidden in 2001 by the movie studio that produced the remake “Planet of the Apes,” this cache has become one of the most sought after caches in the sport.

 

The trek back through the tunnel was equally as interesting, although it took us 20 minutes longer as we were looking for another hidden cache.  But no luck on that one.

 

We figured we’d be alone on this trek, but this is one popular spot.  We passed more than 100 bikers, walkers, and even a group of unicycle riders that were enjoying this hike. 

Overall, we found 10 caches today.  But by far, the Tunnel of Light will be one of my favorite caching stories of all time.  What fun!

*Team Mud ‘N Blood is the name we’ve come up with for my cousin Sara, Jen, and myself.  When we cache, we tend to get dirty and often get scratched up be blackberry vines and the like.  Hence the name.

I spent the day caching with my good friend Josh and his family.  We went to Champoeg Park and rode our bikes between all the caches there.  Bike caching was a first for me and great fun was had by all.  Even 3 year old Nate rode most of the day on his bike.  And we covered about 5 miles.

Today marked our 800th GeoCache find. We have been caching nearly every weekend with my cousin Sara. Today we went to Carlton, a small town just outside of Newberg, and then up into the Oregon coast range to the McMinnville watershed. This was a beautiful day…. temperatures nearing 70 degrees… beautiful vistas. And we found a couple of caches that we had been unable to locate previously. Here is the view from one of those caches.

 

On the north side of the mountains, we had to drive through a foot of snow in some places. A snowball fight just isn’t the same when it is so warm!

 

Here we are at the top of the coast range. On a clear day you can see 9 mountain peaks. Today we only saw Mt. Hood as a hazy shadow.

 

I just love the places geocaching takes us. This waterfall was along side of one of the dirt roads we travelled.

 

Baker Creek runs out of the McMinnville watershed. Here is one of the scenic views we saw while seeking a cache.

 

What a fantastic adventure!

A few months back I discussed my obsession with records in my GeoCaching quest. Since then Sam8994 and DarK JazZ have had many quality excursions. But today was a quantity day. 42 finds in 10 hours of hunting! Our new single day record. In fact, our new weekend record and a tie with the best week of caching.