THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES

Our first destination for this day was Rocky Point Lookout and required us hauling the 4 wheeler up Highway 12 to the Powell Junction where we would again get on the Lolo Motorway. So after another cold cereal breakfast we were on our way. This part of the Motorway was vastly improved over what we had traveled the previous day. We made good time and after only one wrong turn we made it up to Rocky Point. The lookout attendant had arrived just ahead of us. She stays up there about 5 days at a time and often has her two children with her but didn’t this time. She knew about the geocache which we found quickly. She invited us up in the lookout tower and had us sign the guest book. It’s a great location for a lookout as there were panoramic views in all directions. After looking around a bit we made a quick trip back to the truck having traveled only 18 relatively easy miles in contrast to the day before.

Our next goal was to hike into Jerry Johnson Hot Springs and find a cache that we suspected was going to be a problem because the only 2 finders had indicated that the coordinates were at least 100’ off. I thought I knew where the footbridge was that we would use to cross the river so I didn’t even have my GPSr turned on. After traveling well past the bridge I realized we had somehow missed it. As it turns out the bridge was right in the middle of a road work area where we had been stopped while workers were clearing a slide off the road. I guess I had been looking at the slide and road work when we passed the bridge. So we reversed course and this time parked at a pullout within the work area.

It was about a mile and a half one way hike up to the springs. We had been warned that there might be “nudies” about. We saw one couple that Jack swore had no clothes on but they were wrapped in towels when we saw them. There was, however, a young lady from Holland in a bikini that could have qualified for a Playboy Bunny. The cache was just as difficult as we suspected but we did eventually find it. We posted accurate coordinates so future geocachers shouldn’t have so much trouble.

It was a hot day so it didn’t take long for me to get enough of the hot springs and make my way down to the creek which was only about 50’ away. Besides, that’s where the Bunny was (with her parents). Tenderfoot that I am I didn’t want to walk back to the hot springs so I called to Jack to bring me my boots. He didn’t come but kept protesting but I couldn’t hear what he was saying due to the loud roar of the creek. Finally I gimped my way back to the springs to find that a Jaccident had occurred. He had slipped on a rock and torn the toenail loose on his pinkie. I had a small multitool with me but it had no scissors, just wire cutters. I said, “Jack, this is going to hurt you worse than me”. Actually, I just cut a small portion of the nail back so his sock wouldn’t hang on it. Jack bravely limped the mile and a half back to the truck still ready for more.

The next cache attempt was a real nightmare. The writeup made it sound as if it was an easy cache just down by the river. However, after busting through the brush down to the river we found it was on the other side of the river. To make a long story short we drove a mile or so back to the Wilderness Gateway campground which was across the river and eventually found a trail we thought might lead to the cache. After a laborious hike of a half mile or so mostly uphill we still couldn’t get any closer than 1/3 mile from the cache. Of course, Jack is doing this with a very sore toe. We gave up on that one and I tried to temper my language. The only positive note was that we saw a moose near the trailhead.

Our last cache of the day was way down below Lowell called “Life’s a Beach”. As you would think, it was on a beautiful beach and a family was swimming there. This one took a bit of looking but we finally found it under a tree root obscured by a rock. The hint was “At the base of a fir tree”. Guess what? There are fir trees all over.

We didn’t get back to the farm until after 8:00 where Kathy had a delicious hot lasagna dinner waiting for us.

We pretty much took it easy the next day although we did go over to the Gilbert Cemetery where I gave Jack some supervision in getting my “Gilbert Scale Pine” cache. It’s been there several years but it wasn’t until this year that I felt he was big enough to tackle it. The cache is a jar that hangs about 40’ up in a big Ponderosa pine. As you can see from the pictures, he made it just fine.

We did a little rifle shooting in the afternoon and generally took it easy although I did take a 16 mile mountain bike ride in the late afternoon. I told Jack it was necessary for me to do those things so I can continue to keep up with him for a while. And it’s true.

The next morning we headed into town. I had several caches lined up for Jack so he could reach the century mark. He lacked about 7 or 8 and I had already done all but two of them. The most eventful one was near the river a few miles out of Lewiston. Jack got over anxious and slid down into a steep little ravine. However, the cache wasn’t down there and he didn’t have his hiking boots on so he took forever to get out. What was down there was the mother lode of biting insects. He counted 55 bites and was itching like a man on a fuzzy tree.

Before we took a nice swim in the Snake that afternoon Jack had accumulated 101 caches so, mission accomplished.

We had Jackson at the airport in Spokane for his 6:15 a.m. flight the next morning. If he had nearly as much fun as I did it was a successful visit. M/W