It
was my son Yancey’s Birthday and although I couldn’t celebrate it with him I
thought of him often on my adventure and how he would have enjoyed it. A couple of months ago a Geocache was
published called “Wapshilla Sherpa” (GC3JY35).
It was located in the Craig Mountain area south of Lewiston
on the breaks of Hells Canyon. No one had logged this cache and although I
normally don’t put forth an extra effort to be the first to find (FTF) a cache,
if it happens to be one that requires a special challenge I will do so. This one definitely qualified. There were actually two new caches in this
area and a fellow player who takes great pride in being the first to find a
cache (his license plate reads “FTF”) had gone out and logged the easier one
but had given up on the “Wapshilla Sherpa” even posting a log on the cache that
he was leaving it to me. So the game was
on.
When
we returned to town from the farm last Wednesday I had hauled the 4-wheeler
back with me because I knew I would need it to go after this cache. So yesterday morning I headed out to the Craig Mountain
area with the 4-wheeler on the trailer and a mountain bike lashed onto the
4-wheeler. I was a little concerned
about the weather because it had been exceptionally hot and scattered thunderstorms
were predicted here and in Craigmont.
Because there are no towns near where I was going I couldn’t get an
accurate forecast so I decided to go for it anyway.
I
arrived in the Waha area about 7:15 a.m. and unloaded the trailer. To get to the cache I first had about 15
miles of gravel road to travel. The last
6 miles of this road (?) had not been maintained and was so bad I wouldn’t want
to take my truck over it which was why I was on the 4-wheeler. At the end of the road or at least as far as you
can go, there is a gate stating that no motorized vehicles are allowed beyond
that point. The cache is still 5 miles
beyond and the options are to hike, horseback or mountain bike.
By
this time it was a little after 9:00 a.m. and getting warm even though the
elevation was about 5,000 feet. I parked
the 4-wheeler, put on a pack containing food and water and zipped off the legs
of my pants. You can see from the
picture what this road was like - steep and rocky. The road was actually worse than I had
anticipated with more ups and downs. The
first of the new caches that my friend had already found was called “Lightening
Rod” and was less than a mile up the road.
It was at an old lightening struck tree about 100 yards off the road
with a level hike to it so I stopped and got it thinking I might not be feeling
so well on the way back out. How right I
was!
For
the next 5 miles it was up and down the steep, rocky, rough road. Most aggravating were these dead tumbleweed
like plants that kept getting caught in my chain and derailleur invariably when
I was going up a hill causing me to have to stop and then get started again
going up the hill. Finally I made it to
the cache area a little after 10:00. I
could see where the cache was located in a rock outcropping at the top of the
mountain. I looked over the terrain and
found a way up that didn’t look too bad.
It actually wasn’t too bad especially compared to the bike ride. As advertised there were fantastic views from
the cache site and I saw a variety of beautiful wild flowers on the hike up.
After
logging the cache and taking some pictures I descended to my bike and began the
ride back. It was approaching 11:00 and
had gotten really hot. The trip back out
was much tougher than going in. I don’t
know if it was because of the heat and my fatigue or if the hills were tougher
in that direction. At any rate, I got back to the 4-wheeler a
little before noon absolutely beat. I
loaded up and went down the road a ways to where I knew there was some shade
and stopped and had lunch. So far no
thunderstorm but I could see from the sky that the Lewiston area was really getting it. Turns out they had a 1/2 inch of rain in about a half
hour period.
Next
on my list was a cache similar to this one in that it would require a 9+ mile
hike, bike or horseback ride (I wish).
This cache called “Heavenly View” had been found only once and it had
been a year earlier. There must be
something about these caches that discourage folks. I
had about a 7 or 8 mile 4-wheeler trip before I got to the road with the
gate. There had been some logging in the
area and the road was much better and with fewer elevation changes than the
other one. Although I hadn’t completely
recovered from the previous ride I was doing pretty well until a very short
distance before the cache site. At that
time a terrific wind storm hit which I guess was better than a downpour. It was so bad I had to stop and seek shelter
on the lee side of a big pine tree.
After a while the wind subsided enough that I was able to hike down to
the cache site. The cache was hidden in
a sort of rock wall situated on a point offering a beautiful view. I had trouble getting the container out of
the wall and in the process hit my head on a pine limb overhanging the
wall. It did smart a bit!
This
ride out seemed shorter and easier than the ride in. It must have been more downhill going
out. I was back at the 4-wheeler at 2:45
pm and headed back toward the truck. I
stopped to try to find a micro sized cache on the way out but was
unsuccessful. One of my pet peeves is a
micro sized cache hidden where you could place a bigger one, especially one
such as this that didn’t even give a hint.
There were two more caches that I wanted to get but because of the
distance to them and being unsure of how to get there I knew I wouldn’t have
time. I got back to the truck at 5:00
and called it a great day. M/W
8 comments:
Where were you when the great storm hit? I was lunching with friends at a home in Lewiston's Normal Hill district. Arriving back home about 4:00, I found Nellie hiding in the master bathroom. Washes occurred on the soft gravel roads in our area of Clarkston. We're going to the farm this afternoon to check for storm damage, look after the gardens and pick raspberries.
We didn't have anything like the storm you got. It did pour down for a short while and we had a lot of thunder and lightning, but none of it was bad.
I believe you said this is a trip I would have enjoyed... Apparently you should have left your biking helmet on until you retrieved the cache. I hope those were some really incredible views!
Wow. Great views. Hopefully you carry a first aid kit (on you, not in the truck). Another reason to wear a helmet, your head is getting sunburned!
Does every guy do his Geocacheing alone? Seems like the buddy system would be wise. When someone's in trouble, there's another to help.
Leah, from the safety standpoint it's nice to have a buddy along but it's not so easy to persuade someone else to embark an adventure such as this. I did ask a friend who also likes these kinds of challenges but he had to work. I gave Kathy explicit instructions and maps as to where I was going and I had some emergency provisions with me.
These trips are rigorous. I am not the right companion for wilderness adventures. It is better if two go, and there are very few people of any age who are up to an adventure that includes 4-wheeling and bicycling. In reality Mike was not all that far away and I had maps. The question is the appropriate time to involve the authorities. Fortunately I didn't have to worry. Mike was home before supper.
I like the photo of the wild flowers. It's comforting to know that on these strenuous adventures you're still stopping to smell the flowers.
I think we'd rather have guys that are busy and active than those who are perched (safely) in a chair. Dan also leaves me with instructions and destinations when he goes to the woods, almost always alone. And his head often looks remarkably like Mike's. (Once when he was driving over a huge water bar wearing a baseball cap, he hit his head on the ceiling of the truck. Later when he tried to take his cap off, the rivets on the button at the top had dug into his head and he had to pull the cap off. Owwwww...)
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