CACHE ACROSS IDAHO - DAY 2

This was to be my short day but after a good night’s rest on Milo’s couch I got an early start anyway. I had several caches lined up in Mountain Home for Elmore County. It was cool as it is every morning but at least 20 degrees warmer than the previous morning crossing the Camas. After about a 45 minute blast on the Interstate I arrived at the first cache called “Honesty” that was placed by a law enforcement officer to honor another officer. The write-up recommended entering by Wally’s parking lot. Not knowing Mountain Home I had no idea where Wally’s parking lot was. Turns out he was referring to Walmart’s parking lot. At any rate, I took a more direct approach (can you imagine that?) and unknowingly was trespassing on police property. I was shortly accosted by a police officer wanting to know what I was doing there. Apparently he knew nothing about the geocache. Anyway, I didn’t get arrested even though I went through a hole in Walmart’s fence to find the cache in a hedge.

I won’t forget the next cache. It was in a crummy section of town requiring you to find a bridge to cross an aqueduct which butted up against backyard fences. I found the bridge and crossed to find the cache location was against the chain link fence kennel of a fierce Pit Bull that was going crazy to get at me. On top of that I had a hard time finding the cache which was in a piece of 4” pipe. I finally found it and was very happy to get away from that loud stinking dog.

I found two more caches on the northern edge of town. One was very ordinary but the other one required about a ¼ mile hike out through the sagebrush in an area that bordered a lake. I appreciated the quiet and solitude after the dog encounter. I completed this cache at 8:45 and was ready to hit the road for Camas County.

Camas County is the least populated county in the state with less 1,000 people living there. We live half the year on the Camas Prairie but not this one. I didn’t know there was another one in the state. From Mountain Home to Fairfield is a beautiful drive taking you up to mile high elevation through beautiful mountains overlooking lush valleys with streams meandering through them. My first stop was at a wide spot in the road called Hill City which was about where the prairie begins. The cache was supposed to be out by some silos but I couldn’t find it. An old van was parked right where the coordinates took me. Others had had trouble with this one too. Just down the road which had now turned east I found one called “Idaho Soldiers” which was attached to a reflector in the middle of a wagon wheel mounted on a billboard type sign. I was fortunate to find it quickly. I reached Fairfield, the county seat with no paved roads except the intersecting highways, about 10:30. This cache, which to my surprise turned out to be a micro, was in the back of an old steam tractor located in a little park. It took me a long time to find it because I was looking for something bigger. That finished Camas County so I headed east across the sage brush desert with the highway paralleling the Camas creek to the south.

At the intersection of hiways 20 and 75 I turned south for Shoshone and the Lincoln county caches. This is still the high sage brush type county with some ranches scattered about. North of Shoshone I noticed a cache on my GPSr for which I didn’t have a print out. I vaguely remembered it in my planning but must have lost the sheet. At any rate, it turned out to be a regular sized cache located under a bridge that I was able to find. I arrived at Shoshone about midday and turned east along a road bordering an irrigation canal and found two caches by the same owner that were micros listed as smalls. I returned to Shoshone, gassed up the motorcycle and had lunch at a picnic table on the shady courthouse lawn. After a pleasant lunch I continued south out of Shoshone and into Jerome County for a desert cache called “Coyote, Come to Me”. It was placed by a man who had had some successful coyote hunts there in past years. This cache required about a mile and a half desert hike which ordinarily I would welcome but time was a factor and it was hot. Nevertheless, after a short ride on a gravel road I set out across the sage brush and soon arrived at the cache site. I must have spent at least a half hour searching and was just about to give up when I found the cache under a rock. The coordinates were accurate. I guess there were just too many rocks. I later discovered that I had left my deerskin gloves (which I always carry for rock caches and grouping around in holes) at this cache. However, it was a beautiful remote area and I felt good to have finally found the cache. The next cache was also in Jerome County and was also located out in the sage brush. It was at a Wildlife Management Area. Although it was just under a sage bush I had a little trouble finding it because the coordinates were not accurate.

It was 2:50 and this finished my caches for the day so I headed for Clint’s. Unfortunately my weather window coincided with the weekend Clint had a camping trip planned so I had his place to myself. Clint lives in an Idaho Power house located in a beautiful little valley where the Malad River dumps into the Snake. On my way there I met scores of Harley riders in groups out cruising with their fat chicks on board with not a helmet or any protective gear to be seen. I guess those guys “don’t need no stinkin helmet”.

I must have arrived at Clint’s about 3:30 with plenty of daylight left so I borrowed his mountain bike and rode up the Malad River to the end of the road then out to the Idaho Power shop and then into Hagerman and back. I must have gotten in about 15 miles and I was really thirsty because I hadn’t been able to find a water bottle to take with me. After getting cleaned up I went into Hagerman to the Snake River Grill and had a delicious Malibu chicken sandwich. Then back to Clint’s where I used his computer to post all the caches I had done the previous two days. Time to hit the sack after a beautiful and full day.