2011 Canby Geocoin Challenge

My eldest daughter, Kimberly, and I did the 2011 Canby (Oregon) Geocoin Challenge. We found eight required caches and two additional caches rather quickly. There were fields and fields of dahlias. We agreed that we liked the red dahlias the best. There were lots of delicious, sun-warmed blackberries along the path to a cache. My hand was stained red and sticky by the time that I got back to the car. We had a picnic lunch at a park and stopped at Dairy Queen later for Dilly Bars. Dilly Bars remind me of Eskimo Pies of my childhood. It was perfect weather - cloudy but warm.

BIC Fluorescent Highlighters

Pat Sharp and I drove around the evening on the first day of the Road Scholar IAF program trying to find highlighters. The first store was downtown and it was closed. We drove a few miles north to Walgreens where Pat purchased a set of fluorescent highlighters for her and a set for me. It was very useful for keeping track of each day's travels.

Who is Rose Red?

Rose Red is my Geocaching name. Rose Red was not taken from "The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer - My Life at Rose Red" ghost written by Ridley Pearson nor from Stephen King's televison drama, "Rose Red." Rose Red was taken from the Brother Grimm story of "Snow-white and Rose-red."

Travels with Nuvi

I would not be able to travel solo without the Garmin Nuvi 1450 with a detachable window mount as my navigator. One evening around 9:30PM I wanted to find the nearest Albertson to the motel to purchase a late dinner. The Nuvi lead me a couple miles across a housing development and then back again. Of course there were times that the Nuvi led me astray when either the Touchet River or the Clark Fork River were between where I was and where I wanted to be. And it goes into a panic if I turn off the main road to get gas (I don't let the tank get below a half) or for a bite to eat.

Homeward Bound - Monday, August 15, 2011

I knew that I had to drive back to Dayton and Starbuck to get the caches for the DeLorme Challenge. It was going to make for a very long day. I made the loop and ended up back at Walla Walla about 1:30PM. Altogether I found three Benchmarks and seven Geocaches before the WA/OR border. The most interesting was "Doing Time in Starbuck".

I did not do any Geocaching/Benchmarking after crossing the border into Oregon. I stopped at Hat Rock State Park to take some photographs. I traveled westbound tired and facing the setting sun. I arrived in Vancouver about 9:30PM. It was good to get home and be able to sleep in my own bed. It took me several days to recover from the 11 day trip.

Homeward Bound - Sunday, August 14, 2011

I had a good nights sleep at the Howard Johnson Express in Post Falls, Idaho. I attended the Bore Da Idaho! Croeso i Frecwast Geocaching Event at 9:00AM. It was an enjoyable event. Tasty poppyseed muffin. Great choice of location! Very colorful!

I traveled west, then south to Clarkson/Lewiston and then west. Besides attending one Event, I found six Virtuals, four Benchmarks and four Geocaches. The Virtuals were by far the most interesting of the day! I was stung on my thumb by hornets/yellow jackets at one of the caches.

I called ahead to make reservations at the Best Western in Walla Walla. I should have stayed the night in Clarkston. It left me traveling through the countryside for an hour in near darkness. And I missed a number of important caches for the DeLorme Challenge. I had a really good nights sleep.

Homeward Bound - Saturday, August 13, 2011

I could see the Missoula Ice Age Standlines on the hillside from the motel balcony. I got a poppyseed muffin and hot chocolate for breakfast at 6:00AM from the motel lobby. I went back to bed for a couple hours.

I was thrilled to see the standlines on Mt. Jumbo and Mt. Sentinel! After 15,000 years they are clearly visible. I visited the Natural History Museum at noon where I saw an exhibit on the Ice Age Floods and purchased the recently published book "Bretz's Flood: The Remarkable Story of a Rebel Geologist and the World's Greatest Flood" by John Soennichsen. I had lunch at Burger King. I visited Sky King's gravesite at the Missoula Cemetery. My car was filthy so I took it to Dazzlers Car Wash. I stopped by Cracker Barrel Restaurant to get photos and coords for a Waymark.

Leaving Missoula I drove to Ninemile Remount Depot & Ranger Station in the Lolo National Forest. I took a photograph of Bill Jones, Volunteer with a Rocky Mountain Canary (also known as a mule) in the museum. I believe Bill said that his name was "Chipper" as the mule was made of wood. I saw a Time Capsule in Wallace but did not find the nearby cache as a car with a trailer was parked right next to it! It was late and once again a frantic search for a motel for the night. I purchased some snacks at Flying J Store in Post Falls for dinner. I found one Benchmark, two Virtuals and one Cache.

Missoula Ice Age Floods Strandlines - Friday, August 12, 2011

I had the buffet breakfast at the hotel. I drove along the Centennial Trail. I photographed the Treaty Tree and explored the grounds of Arbor Crest Winery. I visited Post Falls Park. I stopped at the Mullan Tree Site. I saw the monument but it was too hot to walk down the trail to read the signboards and see the historic tree. I saw the Old Mission of the Sacred Heart from the road. I stopped at the Train Depot and Courthouse in Wallace, Idaho.

I had a lovely Afternoon Tea at the Silver Tea Room however I did not care for the Pita Bread instead of White Bread Sandwiches. I saw the signboard about the Ice Age Floods at the Clark Fork River. The motels in Missoula, Mt were completely filled up. I drove about five miles to the Brook St. Motor Inn on the outskirts of Missoula. Nice room. Clean and reasonably priced. I shopped at Albertons for a deli sandwich, diet coke and Hershey Almond bar for dinner which I ate in my room watching television. I found three Virtuals, one EarthCache, one Benchmark and two Caches.

The Great Ice Age Floods - Thursday, August 11, 2011

Following breakfast at the Best Western in Walla Walla, we traveled southwest to Frenchtown Historic Site and the Two Sisters at Wallula Gap. Several of us hiked the less difficulty trail to the first viewpoint while others hiked the more difficult trails to the Two Sisters. We traveled east stopping at the Lewis and Clark Expedition Campsite of April 30, 1806 at Bold Creek (now Touchet River).

We had a delicious lunch at Weinhard Cafe in Dayton. The leaders were anxious to get underway so I took my brownie a la mode in a container onto the bus. We traveled north to Paloose Falls and then northeast to the Red Lion River Inn in Spokane. I lost my Parlor Suite for a lesser but still nice room. We had our last dinner as a group. I forgot to bring my Elderhostel Passport so I took a sticker to put in it when I returned home.

The Great Ice Age Floods - Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Following breakfast at the Shilo Inn, we boarded the bus for a trip west. We saw the Potholes Reservoir, Sentinel Gap from the Vantage Bridge, Frenchman Springs Coulee and Feathers. A few of us even hiked the road from the Frenchman Springs Coulee viewpoint to Feathers. I found a benchmark on the way there. We traveled to the end of the old Vantage Road. You can still see the yellow stripe down the center of the road as it disappeared into the Columbia River. We had a picnic lunch at a local park in Odessa.

We saw Crescent Bar and West Bar. It would have been better to view the ripples in the early morning. We traveled southeast to Quincy Basin and Walla Walla. We checked into the Best Western in Walla Walla. We were on our own for dinner. I found one Puzzle Cache, one Cache and two Benchmarks today. The house at the Butler House Cache was interesting. I bought a sandwich, barbecue chips, and a Hershey bar at the Gas Mart across the street from the motel which I ate in my room watching television. I had a miserable night with someone making loud noises above my room most of the night!

The Great Ice Age Floods - Tuesday, August 9, 2011

After the Breakfast Buffet, we gathered in the lobby to board the bus. We traveled west to an overlook above the Grand Coulee Dam. When completed in 1941, Grand Coulee Dam was the world's largest concrete structure. We stopped to view Steamboat Rock. We had a picnic lunch at Dry Falls. Afterwards we traveled by bus down a narrow dirt road to the bottom of Dry Falls. We had a great view of Umatilla Rock that was once a Goat Island in the center of the Dry Falls cataract.

We traveled to Yeager Rock, a huge glacial erratic, on the Waterville Plateau east of Mansfield, WA, that was carried to this spot by a Pleistocene glacier. We stopped at B & B Fruit Stand, 13041 SR 2, East Wenatchee. This is a family owned and operated fruit stand celebrating 43 years in business. They grow their own cherries, apricots, peaches and nectarines. Several people bought fruit. I got a Good Humor Ice Cream bar. We traveled to Moses Lake via Quincy and George to our lodging for the night at the Shilo Inn. I found two EarthCaches, DNF one cache and found a benchmark.

The Great Ice Age Floods - Monday, August 8, 2011

After the Breakfast Buffet, we gathered in the lobby to board the bus about 8:30AM. I got the seat that I wanted in the back of the bus and posted my "Nester" sign below the window. I gave Pat Sharp, who was sitting behind my seat, a paper so she could make her "Nester" sign. We traveled though the channeled scablands. We saw the lakes around Sprague, ring dike craters, loess islands, pillow and columnar basalt and discussed the numerous lava flows.

We had dinner at the hotel and some of us went with Don Popejoy and Molly Smith on a walking tour along the Spokane River. We passed the clock tower. It is all that remains of the Great Northern Train Station that was unfortunately demolished in the early 1970s. We saw the "Centennial Sculpture" which floats in the Spokane River. A few people slid down the slide of Spokane's "Red Wagon" sculpture. I and a few others braved walking through the Riverfront "big sprinkler" Fountain. We saw the carrousel, a handsome antique built in 1909 by Charles Looff, but no one wanted to ride. Several people rode the Gondola River over the Spokane River and Falls and under the Monroe Street Bridge as the sun was setting. It was dark by the time that we returned to the hotel.

Trip to Spokane - Sunday, August 7, 2011

I threw away two caches printouts for Sprague yesterday only to discover this morning that they covered DeLorme page 68. So I headed back to Four Lakes and Hwy 904. I thought the Virtual at the Four Lakes Monument was the most interesting cache of the day. I headed south to South Cheney. After I found the caches I drove the Auto Tour Route through the Turnbill National Wildlife Refuge located in an area of eastern Washington on the edge of the Columbia River Basin, known as the Channeled Scablands. I saw one chipmunk and one squirrel and ended up with a very dirty car. I found one Benchmark, one Virtual and three Caches this morning. The most interesting was the "Battle of Four Lakes" Virtual cache.

I checked into the Red Lion River Inn where I was given the Parlor Suite with a view of the Spokane River. I ate lunch at the hotel patio. I met the Elderhostel/Road Scholar trip leaders: Don Popejoy and Molly Smith. I knew Don Popejoy from two previous Elderhostel Ice Age Floods trips in 2007 and 2009. Molly Smith was the co-leader on the Elderhostel Oregon Trail 2007 trip. We had dinner and orientation at the hotel for The Great Ice Age Floods trip, August 7 - 12. I had a lovely view of the Spokane River out of the large glass windows. Afterwards Pat Sharp from Michigan and I drove to Walgreens to purchase BIC bright liners to mark the route on our Washington State maps - each day a different color.

Trip to Spokane - Saturday, August 6, 2011

I headed north and then west on Hwy 26. After finding a geocache, I visited the nearby old hotel in Othello which was built during the winter of 1911 as a hotel-boarding house for the growing railroad community. The building is now Othello’s last remaining original railroad-associated structure. In 2000, the Old Hotel was placed on the Washington State Register of Historic Places. This was the most interesting cache of the day because I visited the Old Hotel.

I crossed the bridge over the Columbia River to Vantage. I purchased a one year Washington State Discover Pass. I saw the film: "Ginkgo: Trees of Stone" at the Ginkgo Petrified Forest Museum and looked briefly at the exhibits. Large bust of George in George. I turned east just past George onto I-90. I reached Moses Lake in mid afternoon and decided to press on as there was several hours of daylight still. It was a frantic search about 9:00PM for a motel. I found a room at Motel 6 near the Spokane Airport and had a Dominos Pizza delivered. I found 13 geocaches and DNF one cache as it was now a construction site.

Trip to Spokane - Friday, August 5, 2011

I left Vancouver, WA at noon crossing the I-205 bridge to travel east on I-84. I stopped at the Chamber of Commerce in The Dalles to inquire about a future Geocoin Challenge. I reached the Tri-Cities in mid afternoon and decided to press on as there was several hours of daylight still. Sunset found me pulling into the M&M Motel in Connell. Clean and reasonably priced. I found four geocaches and did not find one. The most interesting geocache was the "Stage Coach Express" in Oregon.