MURRAY'S VISIT -- CONCLUSION

The Farm at Gilbert -- a view to the north

Let’s see – this was last week, so I’m not sure I can remember the details. Perhaps that’s a good thing. I do remember that on Monday (July 23), we let the kid (Murray) borrow the car. He picked up a few things he wanted at Walmart and met a classmate for lunch. Ken gave us five beautiful largish trout, and I burned them in the frying pan, which triggered one of my occasional meltdown temper-tantrums. Murray and Mike placated me by saying that they were just “blackened.” The meal was not one of my best efforts. (The trout were large enough that they should have been baked rather than fried.)

The kitchen

From dining room to kitchen

Tuesday, I packed a picnic lunch, and we all went to the farm. I unlocked the house and peeked in. Progress has been slow after the April water debacle, but the big industrial fans were gone – blessed silence! The sub-floor has been installed, so I went in and took a few pictures. But – we soon discovered we had no electricity, which mattered because the pump in the cistern is electric and we needed to water. (Of course, the main water system is off until repaired.)

The pond is hidden in the greenery

We made calls and learned that the substation at Ahsahka was out, leaving 1500 without electricity. I had no doubt it would be on again soon, but Murray, having nothing else to do, watered the poor wilted zucchini with pond water (which wasn’t easy to access, by the way) while Mike mowed. Electricity was restored within the hour, and then Murray helped me carry cistern water to various struggling plants. I also refilled the “plant nanny” bottles and pinned a dog food sack on the zucchini fencing to help shade it. I found one zucchini and Murray discovered another. (You know how zucchini loves to hide.)

Laurel #1

It’s hot and dry now. Mike figures one more summer mowing will be adequate. I’m don’t know if the gooseberry bush and rhubarb will survive the summer. But my little drought-tolerant garden, an experiment in lavender and yarrow, appears healthy, and Hallie’s laurel trees are fine. There were no strawberries to pick.

We’ve been wanting a few things from the house, so we decided to look for them. We opened the south-side bedrooms and looked in to find our belongings precariously stacked. Honestly, I hope we don’t experience any earth-shaking tremors until I can put things away.

A shady place for lunch

We ate lunch in the shade of the spreading maple tree, and having done our work, decided we should go back to town. Mike said he didn’t want to – that he really misses our summertime home. Our tradition is to have Warnock burgers whenever an offspring visits, so Mike grilled burgers for our supper.

Wednesday, Murray’s plane wouldn’t depart the Lewiston Airport until late afternoon, and it seemed anti-climactic to have to wait through the day. On the way to the airport, he had Mike stop him by Taco Time, his favorite Mexican fast food place, so that he could buy food for the trip. I have to wonder about that. Do I want to ride on an airplane with the smell of Mexican food? But maybe it’s not so bad. Murray says people carry on food now since the airline doesn’t serve meals. (His route was Lewiston to Seattle, where he had a three-hour lay-over, and then non-stop to Philadelphia on the “red-eye special.”)

And that’s the rest of Murray’s visit. The plane hadn’t yet left Lewiston as I was returning the guest room to sewing-room status in preparation for a sew-along. KW

Murray's Visit

For a few months we’ve been planning a visit from my oldest son, Murray, who lives in Philadelphia.  Normally we live on the farm in the summer and our plan was to host Murray there where we have much better accommodations as well as places to roam.  And the temperature is about 10 degrees cooler.  Due to the unforeseen circumstances of water damage at the farm house it is unusable until the repairs are finished which undoubtedly will be after the summer has ended.  So we converted Kathy’s sewing room to a small bedroom and made do.  As most of our activities were planned elsewhere it was no problem.

Murray arrived Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning after attending the yoga session with us we went over to the old neighborhood in Lewiston where he was raised. We walked all around the neighborhood including the Lewis-Clark State College campus nearby where we often played.  A real bonus was meeting the owner of our old house, touring the yard and visiting with him.  With Bess’s insistence we went to the river for a swim in the afternoon to cool off a bit.  It was over 100 degrees every day in the valley.

We were up early Thursday morning and hiked up to the golf course for Bess’s retrieving exercise including a few retrieves in the course pond.  The rest of the day was spent sorting and loading camping gear with another visit to the river in the afternoon.  The previous weekend son Clint and I had ridden our motorcycles up to the Laird Park Campground about 75 miles to the north to scout it out.  It looked like a great place complete with a swimming hole on the Palouse River.  They even had a “Dog Swim” area.

Bright and early Friday morning we were on the road heading north.  Even with our relative early arrival there were only 2 or 3 out of 31 campsites open.  Even so, I was pleased with our choice.  It was shady and as private as you could get in that situation with water just across the road and the rest room nearby.  Nearby rest rooms can be a negative but they were kept very clean and only once can I recall getting a little odor.  We leisurely set up camp had a dip in the river and then lunch.

1st cache on trail hike

2nd cache on trail hike

After lunch we drove north a few miles to the Great White Pine Campground and took a hiking trail about a mile and three quarters east with many twists turn and ups and downs (mostly ups).  We found two geocaches, one that had not been found in a year and the other in two years.  After returning to camp and a refreshing swim we feasted on some backpacking dinners that I wanted to use as they were getting old.  I can report they keep well because they were delicious.  We were comfortably tucked in our sleeping bags by 9 o’clock.

Murray & Clint at camp

Shortly after breakfast Clint arrived with his ATV (I had trailered mine up).  We set off on a 4 wheeler trail to the Bald Mountain Lookout with Murray riding behind Clint who has a seat and storage on the back of his ATV and Bess in a dog carrier bolted to the back of mine.  It was a steep, twisting, rough trail with myriad Kelly humps and plenty of dust.  The back of Murray’s shirt was covered in dust as was Bess.  I let Bess out to run the last mile or so. Of course, there was a geocache at the lookout site.  The lookout is not active but it can be rented.  Not knowing it was occupied I climbed up to the lookout room to find a couple in bed.  Ooops.

Clint & Murray at Camp Grizzly

We took a road back so it was a much smoother and less dusty ride.  I gave Bess a good swim at camp to get her cleaned up.  Clint needed to get back to town so he didn’t stay for supper.  However, before he left we went a mile down the road and toured Boy Scout Camp Grizzly that both boys had attended while in the Scouts.  There is a trail that connects the Scout camp to the campground and I placed a geocache on it that afternoon.

Old Sampson Trail cache

After a good night’s rest and breakfast with a campfire we took a ride back up to the Great White Pine Campground to try another trail. This one was a connector trail to the “Old Sampson Trail”.  Sampson had a music store in Boise around 1913 to 1933.  During that time he and friends opened and maintained 6,600 miles of trails in Idaho.  One goes from the Canadian border to southern Idaho.  We were seeking a geocache about 1 ½ miles out with 500’ elevation gain.  We found the cache which had been found by a friend of mine in the fall of 2016 and only once in the 2 ½ years before that.

Boys at top of Lewiston Hill

Clint's back yard

After hiking back down we drove up Meadow Creek Road and found a few more caches that hadn’t been found in a long time.  There was only one that we didn’t find on this whole trip.  We drove back to camp, had a leisurely lunch, refreshing swim and broke camp.

After arriving in town we had a delicious grilled chicken and yummy side dishes at Clint’s topped off by Kathy’s rhubarb strawberry pie.  What a great weekend!  M/W

Motocaching the Counties Finale (Really)

Yankee Fork

Yankee Fork

I was at the motel breakfast at 6:00 am and soon afterward on the road heading northwest toward Arco.  I made a brief stop at Mackay for a cache and then continued up US 93.  It was a beautiful day and I didn't stop again until the intersection of Hwy 75 just south of Challis.  There is a cache here at the Yankee Fork Interpretive Center that features old mechanized mining equipment.

Yankee Fork

Sawtooth Mountains

Highway 75 is a beautiful ride and I encountered about as many motorcyclists this day as all the other days combined.  At Stanley I took Hwy 21 which loops north before turning back south.  The beautiful ride continues and I stopped for a cache with a very scenic view (see picture) along the Wild and Scenic designated South Fork of the Payette River.  At Lowman I turned west on the Lowman-Banks highway which continues to follow the South Fork and stopped for a cache but didn't find it.  At Banks I turned north on Hwy 55 which was familiar territory.  I made a fuel and lunch stop in Cascade and had an enjoyable conversation with a couple from Indiana who had trailered their Harley out west to tour.  I took a little side road at Donnelly for a cache at an interesting museum like place where there was a history sign and several old restored buildings.  I stopped again for gas and some pop in Grangeville and encountered the same couple I had seen in Cascade.  They were heading for Canada but they weren't likely to make it this day.  This was probably the second best riding day of my trip.  Idaho has some great motorcycling roads.

Cache near Donnelly

I arrived home a little after 5:00 pm although I had gained an hour due to the time zone change.  This was the longest day of the trip having traveled 518 miles and stopping for 5 caches and finding 4.  Considering the distance I wasn't all that tired.  I'm sure beautiful weather and fun roads make a big difference.  Total mileage for the trip was 3,975 miles with 60 geocache finds and 11 DNF's. 

My counties of the west quest is now officially complete.  I have logged at least one geocache in each county of the 11 western states (in the lower 48) plus the 11 westernmost counties in Texas which comprises an area of contiguous counties of 1,217,623 miles all by motorcycle.  I belong to a Facebook group called "County Cachers" and I know there are some who have logged a lot more counties and covered

My county map

a bigger area but as far as I know I am the only one to amass anywhere near that area on a motorcycle.  I will continue to motocache but the route will dictate my journeys rather than having to go to a particular county.  I look forward to a lot more motorcycling with sons Yancey and Clint as well as friends like Sam Charles.  And I'm sure there will be some solo trips as well.  A big thanks to Yancey and Sam for their most valuable help in my adventures.
That's all folks.  M/W   

Motocaching the Counties Finale - Part 7

Semi wreck

We departed the motel in Frutia bright and early going in opposite directions.  I got a text message later in the day from Yancey advising me that he had made it home a little after midday in good shape.  After a short distance heading west on I-70 I turned north on Hwy 139.  I had gone just a short distance when I encountered a semi facing me diagonally blacking the road.  On the left side of the road at a cross road was a car with the front end totally demolished.  An older man was on his cell phone with his arm on the shoulder of a very distraught young lady.  I'm guessing the man was the truck driver and the girl was the driver of the car.  Miraculously, no one was injured.  I was just the second one on the scene and when I determined there was nothing I could do I squeezed by the truck on the right shoulder of the road and went on my way.

Cache S of Rangely

Highway 139 was a fun road with little traffic and some curves and hills.  Shortly before reaching Rangely, CO, I stopped for a cache down off the road next to a fence.  At Rangely I took Hwy 64 northwest up to US 40 at Dinosaur, CO.  I proceeded over to Vernal, UT, and then turned north on US 191 up to Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area.  When you reach Flaming Gorge you can either stay on Hwy 191 and go around the east side or take Hwy 44 around the west side which is what I did.  Either one of those routes is a great motorcycle ride.  At Manila, UT, Hwy 44 intersects Hwy 43 which changes to Hwy 414 shortly when you cross into Wyoming.  I continued north on these rural highways and when I needed a beak I stopped at the Cokeville Meadows National Wildlife Refuge for a cache located alongside a paved trail out in the meadow.  I had a lot of miles to cover so I was only stopping for caches to take a break unless it seemed particularly compelling.

Hotel is open

Do Drop In TB Hotel

After crossing the line into Idaho going north past Montpellier I did stop at another that did seem compelling as it had garnered an incredible 62 favorite points.  It was a Travel Bug Hotel designed like a real hotel.  The hint consisted of numbers which turned out to be the combination that unlocked the front of the hotel. When opened, the front swung down uncovering little numbered "rooms" where the travel bugs resided - really clever.

I didn't stop again until I reached my destination at the Super 8 Motel in Blackfoot.  Finding the motel was a feat itself.  Although the motel sign was very visible from the interstate, getting there was another matter.  It was located in the back corner of a shopping center and you had to actually follow signs in the center parking lot to get to the motel.  It's a nice motel once you find it.

In spite of the distance traveled, 459 miles, I was not late getting in due to the few stops I made.  After unloading my gear I roamed around the shopping center as well as an adjacent one and picked up a few more caches making 8 for the day.  When I lived in Idaho Falls in 1968 I remember Blackfoot as just a small town.  It certainly doesn't seem that way now.  After a dinner at Arby's I went back to the motel and used their lobby computer to enter my caches as it was faster and easier than my little laptop.  [To be continued]  M/W

Motocaching the Counties Finale - Part 6

Pueblos

Mesa Verde

The next morning broke bright and clear.  We rode into Cortez and had breakfast at a McDonalds.  This was to be the best riding day of the trip, maybe the best I’ve ever had.  The entrance to Mesa Verde National Park was nearby and we entered it about 7:00 am.  I have a Golden Passport card which allows me free entrance to National Parks but to my surprise the attendant allowed Yancey to ride in free as well.  She was an old lady and probably felt some empathy for me.  It was about 20 miles on US Hwy 10 up to the Visitors Center on some of the most beautiful and fun motorcycle road you could ever want.  As an added bonus there was virtually no traffic.  We had not realized we would be traveling this far so we were getting low on fuel and we still had quite a few miles to go before reaching the pueblos.  We inquired at the Center about fuel and were told there was one station in the park at a turnoff we had passed just before entering a tunnel about 10 miles back.  So we backtracked, got some gas, and rode back past the Center and on out to the pueblos.  It was quite a sight that pictures just can’t do justice.  As with most National Parks you need at least a day to see most of the interesting sights.  Although the traffic had picked up considerably we had a fun ride back out of the park.

Rocky mountain high

We took Hwy 145 out of Cortez in a generally northeast direction up to Telluride where it turns northwest and just before Naturita merges into Hwy 141.  Hwy 141 continues northwest to Gateway where it turns northeast terminating with a junction with US 50 a little southeast of Grand Junction.  I detail this route because it is about the most fantastic motorcycle riding I’ve ever done, both in terms of the beautiful twisting road and the fantastic mountain scenery and later, out of this world red cliffs.  To top it off, we had perfect sunny mild weather.  If you are a motorcycle rider put this route on your bucket list as well as the Mesa Verde ride.

Fantastic ride

There are a series of caches in this part of the state called “Cowboy’s (and then names a subject)”.  Each one tells a story about Cowboy and maybe his friend Bronco or his horse Rocky.  I did some on previous trips in the area so I put a couple on my list this time.  The first one was called “Cowboy’s Top of the Mountain” and read as follows:
 Cowboy had a hard ride up the canyon along the Dolores River.  When Cowboy reached the outskirts of Rico, his horse, Rocky, was ready for a rest.  Cowboy put some hobbles on the horse and let him graze.  Cowboy dusted off his hat and headed for a local saloon to get some food and a cool sarsparilla to quench his thirst. 

Near a "Cowboy" cache

We stopped and found this cache along

Cowboy's Iron Contraption

with another called “Cowboy’s Iron Contraption” which read as follows:
Cowboy and Bronco were riding down the main street of Dolores when Bronco spotted an iron contraption sitting off to the side. Bronco said, "Cowboy, what in  tarnation is that thing?"  Cowboy smiled and replied, "Oh that, it is a whatchamacallit." "Okay, then what is a whatchamacallit?" asked Bronco  "Oh you know, Bronco, it is a thingamabob" Cowboy said with a big smile."Oh, I get it, Cowboy, in my part of the woods we call it a whotamawhatter.""Yea, you got it Bronco.  I will race you to the saloon and the last one to get there buys the sarsparilla". 
Well, this really was an “iron contraption”.  It must have been some kind of mining machine.

Gateway to Red Canyons

We continued on this beautiful ride up to Telluride where there was some sort of big music festival in progress.  Nevertheless, we were able to find a secluded shady spot to have our lunch.  After lunch, more of the same except we were now heading northwest.  Along this route we picked up a cache at the beautiful old Norwood Cemtery.  After getting on Hwy 141 the scenery began to change to more desert type with fantastic canyons and sheer red cliffs.  We got the “Old Bridge” cache on the San Miquel River and from there on the road map looked like a can of worms – perfect.  We stopped at Gateway for a break and I left a little before Yancey telling him I would meet him at the next cache just a little ways down the road.  It was called “The Flies Have It” and was located near an outhouse in a picnic area.  I looked for a while before giving up.  Yancey arrived and found it in a tree hollow where I had already looked but hadn’t seen it.  We stopped for one more called “A ROCKY Retreat from Hwy 141”.  It was a “large” size container which is rare.  It was back off the highway among some boulders and took quite a search before I located it in a well hidden pocket in the rocks.
 
Our motel was in Fruita and was a real disappointment. It was cramped and not very appealing. We had dinner at a nearby pizza place. We had traveled 329 miles of the most fantastic journey of our trip and picked up 6 caches along the way. [To be continued]  M/W

Motocaching the Counties Finale - Part 5

"No Trespassing" cache

After breakfast at the motel we began our final day in New Mexico with only three counties left to complete my mission. As we headed north on I-25 our first stop in Valencia County was near the little town of Belen but we were unsuccessful.  We proceeded north to Las Lunas where Yancey found one called “No Trespassing”.  There was another one nearby with a 5 difficulty rating so we thought we’d try it.  As it turns out it was a fairly easy find and probably should have been rated a 2 at most.

Now on to Bernalillo County in the Albuquerque area.  I had chosen caches on the west side of town to avoid the heart of the city.  Our first stop was a DNF but there was another one nearby.  We found it and it had a clever container so I thought I’d take a picture of it.  I always carry my iPhone in a zipped inside pocket of my jacket.  I walked back to my bike where I had left my jacket only to find the pocked unzipped and no camera.

Near iPhone search location

Now Yancey is a former Apple employee and like all my kids, a lot savvier than I am.  He asked if I had the “Find Your Phone” app and I said I did.  “What’s your user name and password?”  “Uhh – I have it at home”.  Not only that, but my phone was on “Airplane Mode” to keep from running down the battery while I was traveling.  So I thought I must have taken my phone out to take a picture of that 5 rated cache and dropped the phone back there.  Yancey is usually a little slower taking off so I took off like a bat out of hell backtracking to that cache 15 miles or so back with him to follow.  I walked out in the desert following our tracks but no phone.  Yancey still hadn’t shown up so I headed over to the other cache which wasn’t far away.  No luck there either.  I went back to the first one just as Yancey was showing up.  After telling him what I’d done we went to a nearby Starbucks to think things over and get out of the sun.  Then I called Kathy on Yancey’s phone to see if she could look up my password.  She said it really gave her a scare getting a call from him figuring he was going to report I’d been killed.  About that time I did finally remember my password after several unsuccessful tries.  Then as we were standing there Yancey said, “What’s that sticking out of your chaps pocket?”  Apparently when we had gone out to that 5 cache and didn’t think it was picture worthy I had just stuck the phone in my chaps pocket as my jacket was back on the bike.  Just another little Mickey Warnock adventure.

Since we had wasted about an hour in this little exercise we didn’t bother to try for any more caches in Bernalillo County.  So we headed up to the town of Bernalillo which is actually in Sandoval County.  We found that cache called “Work Horse” which was an antique tractor like machine.  This find officially completed my 9 year task and on my dad’s birthday.

Mission accomplished

Really small log book

We proceeded north and stopped at a Travel Bug Hotel cache in the desert but no Travel Bugs.  There was another one up the road called “Old Hwy 44 Rest Stop”.  It sounded like a good place to maybe get some shade and lunch.  As it turned out “old” meant it was no longer there.  It was a rough dirt road leading up to it so I left Yancey on the shoulder and rode up to eventually find it.  This was another hot day but not nearly as bad as the two previous ones.  In fact, the last couple of days it had been so hot that Yancey's phone which he uses to navigate to the caches wouldn't work. We stopped in Cuba for gas and found a nice shady place with a picnic table where we had a relaxed lunch.  I even stretched out on the picnic table bench for a little rest.

We continued northwest and back into Colorado picking up three more caches along the way just for the heck of it.  Our motel was just a few miles south of Cortez.  After lubing my chain and resting a bit we went back in to Cortez for dinner.  We swapped bikes so I could try Yancey’s new one.  It is a nice machine.  I had almost bought that model a few years back.  We had covered 386 miles this day with 9 finds and 2 DNF’s.  [To be continued] M/W

Motocaching the Counties Finale - Part 4

I should mention that when I hooked up with Yancey he had this terrible cold and it lasted the whole trip.  It was about this time that he began sharing it with me.  Mine too, lasted the whole trip and morphed into a sinus infection/flu when I returned home.  In fact, as I write this over a week after I got home I still have a raw throat although I am much better.  I mention this because even without the almost unbearable heat neither of us was feeling that great anyway.

Really hot - the weather

We had an early breakfast in the diner and hit the road trying to get a jump on the heat as much we could.  After leaving Vaughn we stopped at a cache called “S Curve” which was located in a slight S curve on an otherwise straight road.  It was a nano which is super small (about like the last joint of your pinky) and I had given up when Yancey found it.  That was the first of two for Torrance County that we found.  The second was “Enjoy the View” located in a tree with great mountain views in the distance.  The hint was “NM state tree” so I learned that their state tree is the pinon pine.

Double cute

We continued down US 24 toward Las Cruses stopping for a cache called “Half Way to Annie’s” that I had chosen in honor of my granddaughter, Annie, Yancey’s first born.  That took care of Lincoln County for us.  We stopped again before Las Cruses to take care of Otero County.  It was getting really hot.  For the rest of the day my bike thermometer read between 107’ and 109’.  We stopped in a cool restaurant in Las Cruses for lunch.  I had to get a picture of about the cutest little twin girls I’ve ever seen (after getting their parents’ permission).  After lunch we headed north on I-25.  We stopped for a cache in Dona Ana County just to take a break as I had logged one in that county last summer.  At the little town of Garfield we picked up a cache simply called “Garfield” and that took care of Sierra County.

Typical roadside stop

We picked up another cache for this county and Yancey noticed a little convenience store nearby which was in the middle of nowhere that was advertising slushies.  We quickly stripped off our outer gear and hightailed it over there.  The lady running the place was probably in her early 70’s and was a real teaser.  She was a ex Marine and told us a good part of her life’s story.  Those slushies really hit the spot.

We stopped for one more Sierra County cache and then headed into Socorro County.  We picked up two in this county.  One was at a little park just off the Interstate but we didn’t take time to take advantage shade.  It was near another old drive in theatre.  The other one was a cemetery cache near the little town of San Antonio also just off the interstate.  For some reason the graves were really decorated.

We were staying at the Econolodge in Socorro and by this time I was hot, tired and half out of it.  I mistakenly turned into a vacant parking lot just shy of the motel.  I always check to make sure my kick stand is down before dismounting my bike but obviously I didn’t this time so my bike tipped over as I was getting off.  I have crash guards on my bike (essential for me) but I still busted a front blinker lens and broke the end off my clutch lever.  Last year I had broken the

New fancy levers

end off my brake lever when a huge gust of wind blew my parked bike over.  So now they matched.  However, while the shorter brake lever didn’t bother me the shorter clutch lever did.  After getting home I replaced them with some fancy new ones.

 After we picked my bike up we went next door to the motel.  This Econolodge was the nicest motel of the trip.  It had the most complete workout room I’ve ever seen in a motel complete with a shower and sauna.  I got a workout and then swam a few laps in the pool right next to it.  They also served a great breakfast the next morning.  We traveled 366 miles this hottest day of the journey logging 10 caches with 3 DNF’s, the same as the day before.  [To be continued]  M/W

Motocaching the Counties Finale - Part 3

First one of the day

Santa Fe County

Guess where we are

The next day business begins.  New Mexico has 33 counties and last year Sam and I toured the perimeter of the state and picked up 20 of those counties.  Now I lack just a swath down the middle of the state.  Thus far in all the counties traveled I had previously logged caches.  We left Chama before breakfast because there was no place to eat there at our pre 6:30 am departure.  Our route would take us through a northern slice of Santa Fe County on our way to Los Alamos.  Before getting to Santa Fe County we stopped for a neat cache in some trees in Rio Arriba County.  To my surprise we were the first ones to log it this year.  After getting some breakfast in Tierra Amarilla and shortly before reaching Los Alamos County we stopped to pick up a couple for Santa Fe County.  One was at an overlook and the other was a Travel Bug hotel that didn’t have any Travel Bugs.  The road up to Los Alamos was winding with lots of traffic and a 45 mph speed limit.  We made two stops to pick up caches where on one Yancey almost knocked himself unconscious by banging his head on a steel girder under a bridge where we were searching for the cache.  As far as I can recall that was the only injury of the trip.

A couple of rough riders

After taking care of these two counties we had to backtrack and head northeast for Mora County.  I was particularly concerned with this county because of the three caches I was able to locate two were a ways off the beaten track.  We did have some nice riding on the way once we were able to pass some very slow traffic along Highway 21 up to Hwy 75.  We were on Hwy 75 just a short distance before it merged with Hwy 518.  My GPS headed me on a different route than what I had figured from the map.  When we came to the little town of Moro I overshot the road my GPS indicated I was to take.  So I stopped and turned around knowing Yancey would follow.  Apparently he hadn’t seen me turn off just a half block from where we had stopped.  After I saw he hadn’t turned I stopped to wait and after a few minutes backtracked to the main road.  I was going to tell him not to follow me anyway because it was an unpaved road and didn’t look real great.  However, he was nowhere to be seen.  So I proceeded in the direction we had been going before I turned around and had just gone a short distance when I noticed on my GPS that one of the other caches was right there.  So I stopped and about that time Yancey appeared coming from the opposite direction.  He said he had gotten within about a half mile of the cache we were originally after but encountered a dirt road.  I guess all’s well that ends well because I just had to hike about 100’ to find the nearby cache at a cemetery.  That took care of Moro County.

Cemetery cache

The diner

We followed Hwy 518 as it turned south toward Las Vegas in San Miguel County.  The first cache in Las Vegas was a caboose in a little park.  I’m quite sure it was gone because with the hint it should have been an easy find and the person before us hadn’t found it either.  By the way, it was really hot – like 107’.  So we proceeded down Hwy 518 for about 10 miles to an old cemetery where there had once been a town.  We were in luck this time so that took care of San Miguel County although we did pick up one more down the road a ways that I thought was gone but Yancey found it.

Great menu too

We were on the home stretch for the day heading toward our motel in Vaughn.  Before getting there we stopped in the little town of Pastura and bagged a couple of caches for Guadalupe County.  After unloading at the motel I got another one near the motel for that county.  In front of the motel was a diner fixed up just like the ones of old.  It also served as the office for the motel.  We had dinner there that night and it was very good.  This day we traveled 302 miles, finding 10 caches with 3 DNF’s.

Motocaching the Counties Finale - Part 2

We had a good motel breakfast to start the next day and were on the road again around 6:30 am although we made a stop at Walmart for Sam to pick up some lunch fixings.  Thankfully, this was a gorgeous day unlike the two previous ones. We headed east on I-80 and then turned south toward Baggs, WY, on highway 789.  This was a nice two lane highway with very little traffic and a 70 mph speed limit.  We stopped for an Oregon Trail cache about 15 miles after we turned off the interstate and another one about halfway between Baggs and Craig, CO.  We didn’t stop again until lunch at a cache in the Hot Sulfur Springs Wildlife Area which is on US 40 east of Kremmling.  US 40 past Winter Park has some really twisty downhill road which was a lot of fun.  We stayed on it until it intersected I-70 and then on to Denver.  As you may imagine the traffic was bad, especially as we got into Denver.  With all the traffic Sam and I got separated and I arrived at Yancey’s 10 or 15 minutes ahead of Sam.  We finished the day with just 3 caches and 400 miles.  Yancey grilled some hamburgers for us and we had a good visit with the family.


The next morning we were up about 5:30 for breakfast.  We soon departed with Sam going north and Yancey and I going south.  Yancey had a beautiful new white Honda Interceptor 800.  I named it “Mr. White” but Yancey said I could just call him “Walter”.  Yancey led me through the maze of traffic in the Denver metropolitan area which took quite a while.  Eventually we somewhat broke free and were heading southwest on US 285.  This was a beautiful ride, scenic and twisty.  Our first stop was at a cache featuring a huge statue on the mountainside out in the distance.  Unfortunately we didn’t find the actual cache.  Someone had changed oil there and left a container of used oil and the filter.

Marring a beautiful ride were two construction stops with a combined wait of at least an hour.  To make it worse we could see no evidence of any work actually being done.  Ironically we later passed through yet another construction project where they were actually working but we didn’t have to stop.  We weren’t concerned so much with caches this day other than to take breaks.  We did stop at a couple of cemetery caches that were close together. The last cache we found this day was one called “Alien Cache” located on a long stretch of rather desolate road at the entrance of some kind of alien attraction.  I had thought about taking a little side trip east to take in The Great Sand Dunes National Park but Yancey had been there years before and said the roads were sand which could be a real problem for our bikes.  

This one was on the fence

The Alien Cache

Instead we headed on down to Chama, NM, where we had motel reservations.  It was not the best motel experience although it could have been worse.  The motel had a prominent “For Sale” sign displayed which was not a good omen.  It was located on a creek with an adjacent park or campground also owned by the motel.  Chama is a small town that seems to close early but we did find a decent Mexican restaurant.  After our dinner we took a stroll down to the creek to give the mosquitoes theirs.  This was a short travel day since we passed on The Great Sand Dunes with just 312 miles and 3 caches along with a couple of DNF’s.
[To be continued] M/W