aka sept1c_tank
Although I didn't realize it at the time, I breezed through airport security in Indianapolis with a 4-inch pocketknife in my carry-on bag. It was to be a sign; a sign of how unique my journey would be. I was about to find 80 some caches and meet a herd of geocachers in a three-week swing through northern California, Seattle and Vancouver.
Arriving in San Francisco with a few $5 airline beers (and my knife) under my belt, my hostess, Huntnlady, geared up for a quick rush hour tour of downtown to be climaxed with a crossing of the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge.
When push comes to shove, you get shoved in San Francisco. Due to heavy traffic and possibly some distractions from yours truly, we ended up going the wrong way on the Bay Bridge. And guess what? Some guy was trying to jump off the bridge and traffic was frozen.
So, we got an unexpected but delightful tour of Treasure Island, watched a drunk get kicked off a bus, and headed back into the city. It's been 40 years since I have been there and one thing really jumps out at you. The hills. I could never ride my bicycle in that city!Now, Huntnlady is quite a lady. Oh yeah, we finally made it across the Golden Gate.
We picked up a couple of drive by caches on the way to Napa and settled in for a few days of quality caching and wine tasting.
Now, Huntnlady is quite a lady. She not only hunts big game, she's a true wilderness survivor, a writer, and an artist.
It was the artist thing that led to my next adventure. After a full day and night of caching, my hostess led me into her garage where she humbly presented a variety of horns, antlers and wild animal skulls, all pristinely cleaned and painted artfully in a style reminiscent of the Native Americans.
It was right there, in her garage, that I lost my signal. Actually, it was my GPSr that got lost and we didn't find it until the next morning after a couple of hours of panicked searching (and a trip back to the final cache of the day before). I was resigned to buy a new unit when she screamed, "I found it!" (Sound familiar?).
So, off we went, caching in the beautiful Napa valley. Huntnlady was somewhat frustrated when she took me to several caches that she had deemed difficult and watched me find them in mere seconds (us Hoosiers have been around the block a time or two).
Then we went to High Caliber, one of her own caches. Without giving up any secrets, all I can say is "Doh!"
I spent at least 45 minutes searching for this one while the lady sat in the vehicle with a big smirk on her face! The next day she treated me to caching along the coast and in the redwoods.
While I was in the region, I had the pleasure caching with GeoWorms. We chose a 4-1/2 terrain cache, When the Going Gets Rough.
The going didn't get rough until we became slightly disorientated (lost). Of course, we had all the high tech equipment, and being the macho cachers that we are, we simply followed the arrow and BUSHWHACKED! Don't do this at home!
We encountered no rattlers or cougars, but that tenth of a mile is one I would choose to avoid the next time!
...we spotted a white-tailed kite, a sure sign that life is grand.Part of my excursion into the Napa valley was reserved for wine tasting. After all, I work for a winery in Indianapolis that buys grapes from Napa. And guess who didn't stop at one winery in the Napa valley? I did, however, squeeze in a couple of stops in the Alexander valley.
Picking up one last cache on the way to the airport along the Napa River, we spotted a white-tailed kite, a sure sign that life is grand. With my knife safely tucked away in check-in baggage, I headed for Seattle.
Now, Criminal is a hoot! Early on my first day in Seattle, he picked me up in a lovely, beat up truck with Patch (his best friend) secured in the back and we headed out to meet Moun10Bike for a day in the mountains searching for Got Fire? Otter Falls.
Conversation with Criminal on the drive out was intellectually stimulating. He's not really very funny when he's on his meds. Then he realized that he didn't have with him the instructions to the trailhead and meeting spot. Thank God for cellular phones! We arrived only about 45 minutes late.
Joining us on the mountain bike ride to the falls were Hazzard, KimPossible, EraSeek, Og's outfit (she graduated from the same high school in Indianapolis as me), and badash.
Otter Falls is truly one of the most spectacular cache sites I've seen and the company I was keeping was profound (Criminal found his directions to the trailhead as we were driving back to Seattle).
Later in the week, I attended the Welcome to Seattle event held in my honor. WeightMan did an excellent job of organizing a mid-week event with more than a dozen quality caches including one where I INSISTED ON BUSHWHACKING (don't do this!), and a couple of creative night caches.
In attendance at the event were The Jester (who lives up to his name), TotemLake, Seattle Seekers, BillP3rd, MarcusArelius, Right Wing Wacko, LindaLu, NomadRaven, McLaughlin's Marauders, and madfamily (visiting from New Jersey).
It's tough caching in Seattle when your GPSr thinks you're in Indiana.The next evening, Rothstafari and hydee graciously hosted a homemade dinner (when hydee makes dinner, she doesn't fool around). After dinner I decided to walk into downtown Seattle and pick up a few caches, but the batteries in my GPSr were dead.
It probably had something to do with the two bottles of wine with dinner, but I couldn't seem to get the darned thing initialized correctly after I changed the batteries. It's tough caching in Seattle when your GPSr thinks you're in Indiana. So, I walked around the space needle, saw some interesting night views of the city, and jumped on a bus back to the hotel. Luckily, I awoke just as the bus was passing in front of my hotel (must have been the wine)!
The next day, LindaLu gave me a lesson in birding as we cached with Wander Lost and misguided one. Oh, and I got a free cup of coffee from some little place called Starbucks (it was apparently their grand opening; the coffee was good. I bet that place will make a name for itself).
I boarded a tiny little prop airplane for Vancouver the next day. I guess since you have to walk out onto the runway and climb stairs into the airplane, they feel like they owe you a drink. The 45-minute flight on Alaska Airlines was the only flight on my agenda that served complimentary beer and wine.
Now, Jomarac5 is a character. The former "bad boy of the forums" is not really a troublemaker. He's a levelheaded, responsible family man who's well respected in his community and believes everyone should hang on to a little piece of childhood. Some of the best experiences on my journey occurred while visiting J5.
For instance, my first night in the city, we did some night caching with Gorak, RobertM, and _canadianbacon_.
The letters on the side of his car were RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police). Only J5 and Gorak were still up for caching as the wee hours of morning arrived. Somehow, J5 managed to lock his keys in his vehicle, so Gorak offered to drive him home for spare keys and I stayed with the locked vehicle, which was in a rural suburb somewhere in the vicinity of Vancouver.
There I was, sitting on a log, holding a GPSr in one hand and a one million power (BFL) light in the other when the nice man drove up and shined his own spotlight on me. The letters on the side of his car were RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police).
Have you ever tried to explain geocaching to an officer at 2:00 AM when you're from another country, you don't know where you are or where you're staying, and you can't even explain where the cache is hidden because J5's discovery of his lockout came just while you were loading the coordinates?
The officer was very understanding, considering he didn't understand much at all of what I was trying to explain. He kept asking over and over, "Now, what's this geocaching thing?"
The rest of my stay in Vancouver was uneventful, unless, of course, you consider that we paddled Jomarac5's beautiful African mahogany kayak nearly 120 kilometers in three striking voyages, including a spectacular night cruise in the harbor, a three day trip up Indian Arm, and a four day trip on Pitt lake, the largest tidal lake in North America.
We enjoyed gourmet campfire cuisine, viewed wildlife such as bald eagles, osprey, hummingbirds, sea otters, seals, and beaver, and hid and found caches in the lush, temperate rainforests of the area.
Oh. Did I mention that Pitt Lake is a tidal lake, and that there is a huge, one-mile by two-mile sandbar in the middle? Suffice it to say, Jomarac5 and sept1c_tank made a little mistake attempting to paddle across it as the tide receded. We ended up pushing the kayak (in the middle of the lake) over a kilometer before reaching the channel. Don't try this at home.