OREGON TRIP 3 – DAY 3

After the long tiring previous day I slept in a bit on this Friday the 25^th of June. I was on the road about 7:30 and I stopped back by the cache on Deadly Street to drop off a Travel Bug since I had picked one up there the day before. The day dawned clear and sunny and I was gloating over what I was going to say to my cousin Den when I got to his place in Salem. When I had discussed my trip with him he had said, “If you’re going to do the Oregon you WILL get wet”.

My first stop was in Bandon where I picked up a cache I had skipped the day before. It was right on the highway in front of a church. As the Sea Crest didn’t serve any breakfast, I stopped at a convenience store where I gassed up and had a big banana muffin. It was just north of Bandon where I took Highway 42 east toward Roseburg. It had begun to cloud up a bit in Bandon and it was about here that I started getting into rain. Soon it was raining hard enough that I stopped and put on the rain gear. So much for gloating to Den. However, it lasted only about 10 miles or so and then it was sunny again.

My first cache was “Tim’s Timber” which was just off the highway and required a hike up a hill over an old clear cut. You can see in the picture the Poison Ivy. I came back with a little on my hand but it didn’t amount to much. This was Douglas County and I picked up another one in a little park just south of Roseburg.

Now on to Lane County and “Carrie’s Cobalt Cache” located just south of Eugene. This was one weird cache. A lady had placed the cache in memory of a departed friend who had introduced her to geocaching and whose favorite color was cobalt blue. You were supposed to trade something blue, preferably cobalt blue, of course. When I first saw the cache which was out in the woods a ways I thought someone had just thrown out some garbage. But I couldn’t find a cache. I reread the cache description and saw that it said it was wrapped in a plastic bag to protect the container so I opened the garbage bag and found this little plastic suit cache you see in the picture.

The next cache was in the same area and near a gas station where I gassed up and ate a snack. The cache was suspended from the cap of a chain link fence down inside the post. The hint was “Post” and I found it quickly.

I got off the Interstate and on to Highway 99w which paralleled the Interstate to the west and would put me in the eastern part of Benton County. This cache was in the residential section of Benton in someone’s front yard. The coordinates took me to a wood fence bordering the side of the yard where a birdhouse was attached. I opened the birdhouse and found a note that said, “Not here Dodo bird”. Next I looked under a wooden mailbox a few feet away and found another note that said, “Not here either”. On the inside of the fence was a garden bed but I couldn’t find a thing there either. There was some kind of box on the other side of the driveway so I went over to check it out but only found another “Not here either” note. About that time a girl with a Boston Terrier came out of the house and we struck up a conversation. She suggested I go back on the other side of the driveway where I had already been. Finally I found a rock (one of three) beneath the birdhouse that when you picked it up part of the ground came up with it which was attached to a sprinkler box top. I really got a kick out of this one. It was perfectly camouflaged.

The last Benton County cache was north near Bellfountain Junction. It was in the crotch of a huge double tree and easy to find.

I was soon in Eugene which is in Lane County. I ate lunch in some shade at a convenience store and then turned east to get back on the Interstate. Just before hitting the Interstate there was a cache called “Count de Monet”. You were supposed to exchange some type of play money. It was located at the edge of a parking lot and I got so close that I didn’t even take the GPS off my motorcycle.

What happened next may not be the very worst that could happen to a Geocacher on a long road trip but it ranks right up there. I got on the Interstate and very quickly hit 70 mph when I heard a kind of sickening little crash. My GPS had popped out of its cradle and hit the pavement. It took me a moment or two to decide what to do. I figured if I continued on to the next exit I would never be able to find the spot where I lost it so I pulled over. Of course, by that time I had gone close to a mile. I jogged back and found my totally destroyed Garmin GPS MAP 60CSx which had all my data consisting of caches found and those yet to be found. I don’t remember doing it, but I suspect that I popped the GPSr loose from the cradle at the last stop and then when I decided I wouldn’t need to take it off the bike I forgot that I had loosened it when I got back on the bike. I still had two counties to go plus I wanted to get one more in Linn County to have a backup. While I was stopped a fellow motorcyclist going in the opposite direction had seen me, crossed the median with his dual sport bike and came back to see I if needed help.

It was mid afternoon and my next stop was at my cousin Den’s place in Salem. I didn’t want to get another expensive GPSr without doing some research so Den took me downtown to a Best Buy where I bought a Garmin etrex H which is a base model for $80. Fortunately I had backup copies of the caches with me so I was able to enter manually the ones remaining to do. Slow, but better than nothing. I’m glad I made that decision because I eventually ordered a just released Garmin GPS MAP62st which will allow me to do paperless caching among other things. I can still use the etrex for hunting.

Cousin Den and wife Jan live on an acreage on the east side of Salem. One of his sons and my namesake lives on the adjoining acreage. I actually stayed at Mike and his wife Teresa’s place in their new camp trailer. It was kind of like old times as I have spent many nights in my Aunt and Uncle’s trailer in the same place where Mike and Teresa now live.

I introduced Mike and Teresa to geocaching and we initiated the new etrex with a couple of finds that afternoon to take care of Marion County. We had pizza that evening at Den and Jan’s and I had a nice visit with my Aunt Alice who lives with them and is 92. Den and Jan added a little apartment on to their house which is absolutely perfect for Aunt Alice.

Den is not much of a computer guy but he had a laptop in his shop that allowed me to catch up on posting my finds for the day. What a day! Plenty of fun and stress combined.

To be continued: M/W