CACHE ACROSS IDAHO - DAY 1

Cache Across Idaho is part of the National DeLorme Challenge caches. You must log a cache in each of the 44 counties of the state. I had wanted to do this by motorcycle before I found about the Challenge and related cache. When I found out about the cache and that no one had completed it, that really put the spurs to me.

I mistakenly thought that the geocaches could not be micros (35mm film canister size) which caused a lot more travel because I had to revisit counties where I had logged only micros. I didn’t find out until I had finished that this was not correct. My first step was to make a list of the counties where I had already logged caches. I believe I had already done about 18 counties, mainly in the north and ones on the way to Boise. Next I tried to line up at least three caches that weren’t micros in the counties that I needed. I figured if I lined up three I should be able to at least find one. This preparation took a couple of weeks. I used an Excel spreadsheet, Mapsource software and, of course, the Geocaching site along with my GPSr. With the Mapsource I laid out the routes and it gave me the mileage and time. I added 15 minutes for each cache to get an approximate time for each day. One page of the spreadsheet was five day weather forecasts for the places I would be traveling on this first leg which would take five days and four nights. I got forecasts each day until I found the right window for the trip.

That window opened May 16^th and I was on the road at 6:00 am. It was cold crossing the high rolling hills of the Camas Prairie and I had to stop about three times to warm my hands and gloves on the engine. My first cache was at Slate Creek in Idaho county which was not one that I needed but I had figured it would be a good time for a break (two hours out). It was called “Dinner and a Movie” which is a series of caches with movie themes and a recipe. This one was on the Salmon river and based on the movie “River of No Return”. It was a good break and now much warmer since I had descended from the Prairie down the White Bird hill and was traveling along the beautiful Salmon river canyon.

I now had about three hours of traveling south through beautiful but familiar country down the Little Salmon, across the flats north of New Meadows and down through the Payette National Forest to Council and into the more open country toward Weiser. My first real cache was all the way down to New Plymouth in Payette county. This is agricultural county and fairly open with mountains to the north and east. This cache was called “Passenger” with the idea that someone in the passenger seat of a car could pick it up if they could bend down far enough. I had a hard time finding it. It was at a rural intersection under a guard rail and consisted of a small tin container covered with gravel. It was now just past noon as I had passed into Mountain time. The next cache was just down the road at a canal water wheel which was really neat. About 12:40 I picked up another cache at a rural intersection called Hamilton Corner on the way to Emmett in Gem county.

The next stop was Gem Island Park and for the first and only time on the trip my GPS software had me going in circles. Gem Island Park is not easy to find but after a bit of wandering I finally found it. It was a big athletic complex with a beautiful shady park inside where I eventually found the cache and had my lunch of smoked salmon courtesy of Ken McKim. It was 1:20 by this time and I was hungry. It was also getting really warm. After lunch I was unsuccessful in finding another cache in the park.

Next I headed east along the Payette river toward Horseshoe Bend. I found another Gem county cache on the river called “Can I hear Niagra?”. It was a picturesque little falls extending all the way across the river.

Shortly I passed into Boise county and got another cache on the river bank under some Cottonwoods. I had two more caches lined up in Horseshoe Bend (also Boise county) but it was 1:50 by now and I knew this would be the longest day of my journey so I just passed on through Horseshoe Bend and headed south toward Boise.

After climbing over and down the mountains south of Horseshoe Bend I descended into the Boise valley. As I already had caches in Ada county, I turned west toward Star and Middleton (Canyon county) which is fairly open and flat agricultural terrain. I found an interesting cache in Star which was in a piece of concrete that looked like a tent with a rock as the door that had to be moved to access the cache. The cache in Middleton was on a rural road under some Cottonwoods beside a creek. By now it was 4:25 and really hot. I shed my chaps and opened all the vents on my jacket. Still heading west I stopped in Greenleaf but was unsuccessful in finding a cache in a residential neighborhood.

Now for the big desert of Owhyee county. For the past several years we have made chukar hunting trips down to this huge sparsely populated county. I knew I would not have the time or equipment to explore the caches in the heart of the county. At 5:45 I found a cache just over the county line but it turned out to be a micro which I thought were not allowed. I had also stopped in Marsing and had a “no find” on one in town. I now headed southeast out across the desert toward the county seat of Murphy. In the middle of nowhere I found one of my favorite caches at Wilson Cemetery, an old pioneer cemetery that is still in use. The last one for the day was “Murphy outskirts” which was a small can stuck to the inside of a guard rail with the most powerful magnet for its size I have ever seen. It was now 6:45 and time to head for Milo’s in Boise.

I had to retrace part of my route to get to Boise and it was about 8:00 when I arrived. Milo had some hamburger patties all ready for the grill when I got there and I don’t know when I’ve had a tastier burger. A great end to a tiring (446 miles and 13 geocaches) but adventure filled day.