Seattle Geocaching Trip.....Our 1000th Geocache Find!

Craig and I have been planning this trip for about 1 month. It seems like we never get time off together and especially not to go caching. Since we are both in school usually homework comes before caching (at least for him!). We both took Saturday and Sunday off to celebrate this occasion. We decided to go to the Seattle area to find our 1000th(!) geocache.

I worked Friday night but was able to get most of the stuff together to prepare for this trip. I made the required pocket queries and got fixings for food while on the road. PB&Js and a couscous salad. I filled our caching backpack with fresh swag items. I brought my notebook that I keep track of my challenges and other cache info in. I was ready to go.

Craig and I woke up at a decent time and actually made it out of the house by about 9 am. If you know us then you know this is a major accomplishment. We usually say we will leave at a certain time and then we won't leave until about 2 hours after that time. We really need to work on that. I thought we did well this time with as little sleep as we had.

Our plan for the trip was to find 3 challenge caches that we have completed but needed to make the final find. This included the following caches: Fool's Errand-A Washington Challenge Cache (GC1HPN3), Cache By Numbers-Challenge Cache of Washington (GC16R01), The C5 Streak Challenge (GC1E0RB). We figured we would find all of these on one day so we wouldn't have to make a second trip if we didn't need to. So off we went.

The first cache we went to was Tacoma Travel Bug Vault (GCHPR1). There was not much to this one but we were able to drop off a TB and grab a geocoin.

Then we went to canine cache (GCHTJY). This cache was located in a dog park. Craig and I don't have a dog but wish that we did. We are big lovers of dogs so we were happy we got to see some to pet and love on. Here are a few pics from this cache.

Craig near the cache location. Cool, hollow tree.

This is a mushroom near the cache. It was broken and red inside. I thought that was odd.

This a view looking down onto the dog open sand area for the dogs to run around in.

On to the next cache: Cache By Numbers- Challenge Cache of Washington (GC16R01). This is a cache I talked about previously in my Geocaching challenges blog post. We of course parked in the wrong area and ended up walking a little ways to the cache location. The cache itself was not a hard one to find. A classic hide in these neck of the woods.

As we were leaving this cache a car pulled up. I wondered out loud if they were cachers. We continued on our way and I kept looking back as we were walking away. We saw them go right to the cache and then get back in their car. Cachers! I wish we would have waited so we could have met them but we had to keep going.

Next cache was an easy drive up cache at a pizza place. The cache was called I Wanna Rock! (GCT5YN). Not much to say about this one.

The next cache was one that I was really looking forward to because I worked so hard to make the requirements to find it. The cache is The C5 Streak Challenge (GC1E0RB). It is an unknown/challenge cache and I had to cache for 65 days straight before I was eligible for the find. We got to the cache location with the printout emailed to us by the cache owner prior to our trip up there. We looked high and low and were unable to find the cache. We were at the cache location for about 45 minutes or even an hour. We made the decision to leave because we wanted to find our 1000th cache before it became dark. That was a very hard decision but it turned out to be the right one to make. It turns out that we were at the wrong coords and that we were looking in the wrong spot! Oh well we will get it next time we make a trip that way.

Since we spent so much time at the last cache we made the decision to go for some easy ones to make sure we had time to get the last cache before dark. We drove to the next cache which was in a park.

Selena's Letterbox (GC163RQ) is a letterbox hybrid cache which means it has a letterbox aspect and also a geocaching aspect. I enjoy these and have an account on 2 letterboxing websites but don't usually go unless out caching. We do have a stamp and a book that we put the letterbox stamps into. The park had really nice trails to walk on.

The next cache was in the same park. The cache was called Communitas Hortus Ortus (GCV5F0). This cache was in great need of maintenance because it was very wet and rusty. We also found a letterbox about 1 foot from the cache!

The next cache was The little White Gazebo (GC1C814). It was at a gazebo in a shopping center next to a Starbuck's. It was a nano cache so it had the potential to be difficult but Craig found it fairly fast.

The next cache was behind the very same shopping center. Altoids cache (GCWV26) was a camoed altoids tin (Which I don't recommend in the rainy state of WA!). It was a quick and easy find which is just what we needed. The container was wet and rusty though.

On to the next cache which was one of my favorite types of hide. Kirkyard #2 (GC173ZG) is located in a cemetery! I love finding cemetery caches. I know that some people get creeped out by cemetery caches but I love them. As long as the cache is respectful of the graves I think it is wonderful to have caches in cemeteries. Okay, enough of my rant. This cemetery was very interesting.

A few of the interesting grave sites. The headstones were in another language. Unsure of what language it was.

The next cache we went to was Brackett's Landing (GC1M52F).  This cache was in a small little park on a river.  It had picnic tables and a few benches.  It looked like a great place to stop and sit during the summer.  This cache was small and was easy to find.


The next cache we went to was Fool's Errand-A Washington Challenge Cache (GC1HPN3).  This cache is the cache we planned to have be our 1000th cache find if all went well.  When we arrived to the cache location it was starting to get dark so we knew we had to find it fast or else we were going to have a really hard time.  It can be quite difficult find a cache in the forest when there are so many possible hiding spots.  Craig took the lead with the flashlight and I followed behind with the camera.  Luckily, Craig found it really easily.  So we found 1000!  I don't know how Craig felt about the moment but I felt a great sense of accomplishment with finding that many caches.  Not everyone can say they have found 1000.  

Craig right after he found the cache!

Our usual milestone picture.  Cache is in bottom right corner.

To round out the day we found one more cache on our way home. Freddy's (GCHWYH) was just a quick stop and grab so we had 12 caches for the day.  Since we found at least 1 puzzle cache that day and a total of 12 caches that made us eligible to find another challenge cache we had been working on: A Baker's Dozen Challenge Cache.  We will find that final cache another day.

Overall it was a great day of caching.  I got to spend some much needed time off with my hubby.  We made the milestone that we were working on and the specific cache that we planned on finding.  We did have the 1 DNF but that happens sometimes.  Now we go for 2,000!