Geocaching Tour of Yamhill County, October 24, 2009

On Saturday, October 24th, my #1 daughter, Kimberly, and I toured Yamhill County finding about fifteen geocaches and benchmarks. We drove west on Hwy 99 W to the Glacial Erratic just west of McMinnville, then south past Dallas to Guthrie Park, back to Dallas and east to Salem and then I-5 home to Vancouver. We stopped for a late lunch at Quiznos in McMinnville. We enjoyed “The Sunset Pioneers,” “Hoover History,” “Y.V.V. Cache,” and “Guthrie Park on the Applegate Trail” geocaches.

Pumpkin Tea, Wednesday, October 21, 2009

My eldest daughter, Kimberly, and I went to the Pumpkin Tea at the Pomeroy Living History Farm on Wednesday, October 21st. We had a nice table for two. We were served Cucumber and Garlic Butter Sandwiches, Ham with Apricot Cream Cheese Sandwiches and Walnut and Swiss Cheese Sandwiches. We also had warm Scones with Strawberry Jam and Devonshire Style Cream. We had Pumpkin Cake, Chocolate Orange Tarts and Maple Butterscotch Brownies for dessert. There were two chocolates also. Kimberly and I drove east past Moulton Falls and stopped at the Cedar Creek Grist Mill near Woodland, Washington. The leaves were changing to reds and golds. It was a lovely afternoon.

GSA & IAFI, Tuesday, October 20, 2009

On Tuesday, October 20, 2009 I manned the Lower Columbia Chapter of the Ice Age Floods Institute (IAFI) booth at The Geological Society of America (GSA) Annual Meeting & Exposition in the Convention Center in Portland, Oregon from 9:00am to 1:30pm. I met a lot of interesting people. After my stint I wandered around the auditorium looking at the various exhibits. There was a book for sale that intrigued me – “Stories in Stone” by David B. Williams.

That evening I attended a lecture at the Museum of the Oregon Territory, 211 Tumwater Drive in Oregon City. The Lower Columbia Chapter of the Ice Age Floods Institute (IAFI), in conjunction with the Geological Society of America (GSA) Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon, presented noted geologists and authors Bruce Bjornstad "On the Trail of the Ice Age Floods" and Bob Carson "Where the Great River Bends." Bjornstad has created several challenging Geocaches and an Earthcache (pp. 135-137). The view from the large museum windows of Willamette Falls is spectacular. I was so exhausted I kept dozing off!!

Geocaching Tour of Washington County, October 10, 2009

My #1 daughter, Kimberly, and I toured Washington County finding about a dozen geocaches and benchmarks. Our first stop was The Old Scotch Church which was organized in 1873 by Scottish settlers from Aberdeenshire, west of Aberdeen, Scotland. This is one of the oldest continuously used churches in the state. We drove west on Hwy 26 to Hwy 6 and then southeast to Forest Grove. We stopped for a late lunch--the $5.00 special--at Subway.

We followed Hwy 47 to Hwy 210 where we traveled east (more or less). We ended our tour at Petrich General Store (AKA the North Shore). A general store has operated in the community since the 1890s, and was purchased by the Petrich family in 1964. The original Petrich General Store burned down in 1994 and was rebuilt by the community. We followed Hwy 210 back to Hwy 217 and then I-5 home to Vancouver. We enjoyed "ODD's are 1 in 44," "Banks Tour" (except for the cache location) and "The General Still Stands" geocaches.

Geocaching in Columbia County, Wednesday, October 7th

My daughter, Kimberly, and I found 17 geocaches and three NGS benchmarks in a tour of Columbia County. We left Vancouver at 8:00am, drove south on I-5 and 405 to Hwy 26, and traveled west to Hwy 47. We found two benchmarks at or near the intersection of Hwy 26 and Hwy 47. The park at Buxton was quite interesting as was the Clatskanie Park. The leaves had turned gold and red. Two trees on a farm had plastic pumpkins hanging from the branches. We stopped at Subway for lunch and later Dairy Queen for ice cream. We got back to Vancouver about 8:00pm. Tired but pleased that we did so well. Only two DNFs.