CACHE ACROSS IDAHO - DAY 4

After a good night’s rest I was in the lobby of the Super 8 at 5:30 am hoping I might get a jump on the scheduled 6:00 am breakfast. Sure enough, I did, and had a good breakfast all by myself. After loading up I headed northwest to Soda Springs. The first Caribou County cache was called “KITT CACHE”. KITT are the call letters of the local radio station and a couple of the DJ’s are geocachers. I found the cache which was a small cylinder located on a fence right next to the studio. The write-up invited cachers in to say hello but I was too early.

Next on the list was one just out of town at the Y of what used to be the main highway. It was supposedly located out in the sage brush but I searched for quite a while with no success. Next I took a side trip south to Black Canyon at Grace. Again a half hour search in the rocks yielded no results. Two misses in a row! But this site did have an outhouse which I appreciated. This was the only county on the five day journey where I found only one cache.

I retraced my tracks north to get back on the main route to the north-south Interstate going through Blackfoot. Soon I was in Bannock County which was much more scenic than the western and northern parts of the county familiar to me. There were three caches along this stretch of highway leading up to Fish Creek Summit. One was called “Freshen Up” and was filled with air fresheners. You could almost find it by smell and believe me, you didn’t want to keep the container open any longer than necessary. This was beautiful open country with mountains in the background.

After descending from the summit I hit the Interstate heading north toward Pocatello. I also hit the wind which did not abandon me for the next day and a half. I had my only brush with John Law during this stretch. The speed limit was continually changing partly due to road construction I think. At one point I thought I was in a 65 mph stretch when it was really 55 mph. A State Patrolman pulled me over and set me straight but just gave me a warning.

Blackfoot was windy and not too impressive. It was larger than I thought but it had been many years since I was there. This is Bingham County and the first cache was on the west side of town in a tree stump located at a Y where two highways meet - not very scenic. The next one was kind of neat. It was at a recreational vehicle dealer’s business stashed in the back of a flagpole accessed by putting your hand through a hole in the back. (And I no longer had my geogloves used for this purpose)

So much for Bingham County. Now I’m heading northwest in the desert toward Butte County leaning about 20 degrees into the strong wind hitting me from the south. Just over the county line Highway 26 makes a Y with Highway 20 and that’s where I found the first cache out in the sage brush (where else could it be?). Now I reverse my direction on highway 20 heading back east toward Rigby. I shortly picked up one more Butte County cache located in a culvert. As I head east I’m practicing my lean in the other direction.

I arrived at Rigby, a clean Mormon community between Idaho Falls and Rexburg, about midday. I found two caches there, both placed by kids. One was in a bush in the family’s front yard and the other was behind a sort of tombstone-like marker for a sub-division. I found a pavilion in a park that gave me a little shelter from the wind and had my usual smoked salmon and milk lunch.

I got to Rexburg around 2:00 pm and checked into the motel. Now I was able to leave my gear and proceed somewhat unencumbered. The wind was really blowing. I’m sure it was gusting at least 40 mph. There’s no way I’d be out doing this for fun at this point. The first Madison County cache was on a side road off the highway hidden in an old farm machine of some kind. The coordinates were really off but I found it anyway.

Now I was heading for Teton County where there are few caches. I went all the way south to Driggs to find one in a shopping center that turned out to be a micro. My next attempt was for one located down a gravel road but the road was so bad that I didn’t get far before turning back to the highway. That left only one cache on my list for Teton County and some had had trouble finding it. As it turned out this was one of my favorites. It was called “Barrelin’ Down Bitch Creek”. It was in the northern most part of the county just before crossing (you guessed it) Bitch Creek. There was a 2” hole drilled in a boulder with a pvc pipe of that diameter with a reflector attached to it down in that hole. I had no trouble finding it. The bad news is that now my camera has developed a lens problem and is no longer operable except on rare occasions.

I now turn west into Fremont County where I will circle back south to Rexburg. I can’t help repeating – the wind is terrible! I found three near Ashton, the only one of much interest was called “Bridge Out” where there had once been a bridge and it was in a scenic location. As I get back to Rexburg I score another “no find” on one that is supposed to be in a bush in front of a bowling alley.

After a short dip in the hot tub I found a Subway for supper and tried their Tuscan wrap. It was delicious. After posting my caches on the motel computer I hit the sack. I was dead tired.