WINDING UP OREGON

As you may know I’ve been making motorcycle trips all over Oregon in a quest to log a geocache in each of the 36 counties. I recently completed the task but to get credit for the cache “Counting the Counties in Oregon” you first must submit your list of caches, get it approved and then make yet another trip over to Bend to log the final cache. You can’t cheat because you aren’t given the coordinates until your list is approved. I decided to get this done Monday and Tuesday of this week.

The problem with motorcycle travel this time of year is figuring out how to stay warm enough in the mornings and yet cool enough the rest of the day without taking your whole wardrobe. I haven’t mastered that feat but I’m learning. I have a mesh jacket that is very cool to wear so long as you are moving. However, it gives absolutely no protection from the cold so I took my regular jacket that has vents that can be opened as well as a zip-out liner. Unfortunately, that didn’t work except for about an hour or two the first thing in the morning. You are close to that black asphalt on a motorcycle and it increases the heat five to ten degrees. The jacket was unbearable so I had to take it off and attach it with a bungee cord to my tail pack. I did have a long sleeve shirt for some protection but the wind just whips your shirt something fierce. I got by alright the first day but the second day I was on Highway 97 (the highway from hell) and every time I would meet the big semis, which was constantly, I would get a stiff punch from a wall of air. In order to somewhat mitigate this blast I would duck under the wind screen just as I would meet a truck. That shielded my body from the blast but not my tail pack with the jacket on top. Consequently, when I stopped after an hour or so on Highway 97, no jacket. Did I mention that my cell phone was in the jacket as well? I didn’t see any point of going back because with all the traffic I felt sure I would not find it. I’ve been dialing my cell phone but it wasn’t turned on so if someone did take the jacket they haven’t found the phone or didn’t bother to turn it on. Next time I will try taking the mesh jacket with a lined windbreaker to wear under it in the mornings.

This trip was the maiden voyage for my new GPSr, the Garmin MAP62st. It is one of the latest generation gadgets that is actually a storage device in addition to a GPSr. Garmin manuals are very rudimentary and this unit is very complex. Consequently I’ve utilized their email support frequently. I haven’t yet reached the point to approach its potential but I’m still learning. I’ve accidentally erased some waypoints more than once but most I’ve had backed up with some new software that I’m also having to learn.

My first stop on the trip was in Dayton, WA. I did not find the first cache and had trouble with the second one because of not understanding my new gadget. After the second cache I discovered my problem and things went better.

I eventually made my way south down through Walla Walla and Pendleton and stopped for lunch at Battle Mountain State Park where I found three caches. One interesting cache I did was called “Them Old Days” which was in a false front of an old town. Then there was “Nu Shoozs” which was a cottonwood tree out in the middle of nowhere full of shoes. It had to be fun placing all those shoes up there. I also got a kick out of “Holy Crap” which was a hunk of Styrofoam made to look like you know what molded around a jar.

I stayed in Redmond instead of Bend as the final for “Counting the Counties in Oregon” was located half way between. After checking into the mo

tel I set out to

get that cache. It was about 7:30 p.m. before I got there. It was kind of a forbidding looking place in a rural area with a stone entrance,

big steel gate and fence and “No Trespassing “signs just beyond the gate. I wanted to meet the cache owner but I was a little intimidated by the place so I didn’t open the big iron gate and venture in.

The next morning I logged several caches in Redmond before heading north on Highway 97. I stopped at a very nice Rest Area and picked up a couple of caches. Further down the road (when I discovered my jacket missing) I almost stepped on a nest of quail eggs while searching for a cache. I had lunch just north of Sherman at Moro which I thought was a neat and very impressive little town.

I continued north crossing the Columbia into Washington still picking up caches. I got one at a wind farm and I was really impressed at how big those things are. I got one at a gazebo at the Goldendale Chamber of Commerce. They have a very attractive little building and grounds. At Zilla I found one called “The Fountain of Zouth” which was at another gazebo near a fountain that was out in a lake. Finally, I stopped again in Dayton and picked up the cache I had not found on the way over.

I arrived home a little before 8:00 p.m. and had a pleasant surprise in finding that Kathy had just returned from the farm. I wasn’t expecting her and I was already planning that I would have to ruin a screen to get into the garage to get a key for the house which I had forgotten to take with me. I traveled 812 miles these two days and logged 25 caches. It was a lot of fun but I’m pleased to be finished. M/W