Bass Master (GCZFY9)

We went to visit Mark & Karli (Julie's sister) at Mark's Uncle house on Palmer Lake. While there I wanted to place Travel Bug "Wandering Scuba Fin" so I took my niece Haylee and her cousin out with me.

The bad news is I didn't realize I wouldn't have cell phone service and I forgot to download the cache information. We ended up driving 45 minutes into town and back just to get cell service so I could download the cache location.

Once we got back to the lake and started looking it took a while it was raining and starting to get dark which didn't help. We were able to find the cache and I dropped off the travel bug. I also picked up this cool poker chip coin. All and all it was a lot of fun and a beautiful lake.

--Tom

Sumner Heritage Park (GCZRZQ)

Oli and I tried for six geocaches today but we didn't find this last one. This was my first attempt at a multi-cache. For those of you who don't know. A multi-cache is when you place a cache with directions to the actual cache. there can be lots of caches strung together before you get to the last actual cache. Sometimes it's mixed with a virtual cache like with this cache.

The corrdinates (N 47° 12.181 W 122° 14.516) on the cache lead me to this artwork with a waterfall behind it. They then give you some instructions (usually a math problem) to find the location of the final cache. Here is what I was asked to do:

Using the North reading N47° 12.181, count the number of plaques, divide by five (5), substract the entire number from the reading to get the reading of the cache. Ignore any decimal points when doing your figuring.

So I came up with (N 47° 12.95 W 122° 14.516) but I didn't count the larger plaques so maybe I was wrong. Either way by this point Oli was done and ready for lunch and nap. So we called it a day.

--Tom

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UPDATE: August 27, 2009

So I have been driving by this cache almost daily after work to see if I could try to find the cache but there were just too many muggles so I never even got out of the car. Finally today I just got up early (4:45am) and when down before the train. I was able to quickly make the find. Needless to say my first attempt at the cords were way off.

--Tom

Sumners Canneries (GC100BM)

For the last "find" of the day we head to the Old Cannery in Sumner. This cache has great cammo. It was hanging on the underside of a tree. Looking at the first picture, "Do you see the cache?" I thought it was the best hidden of all the cache we found today. It took me a little while but I think I am getting better at finding them because this didn't take me nearly as long as my first cache and this one is way better hidden.

By this point Oli was getting a little tired but still asking for more caches so I thought we would give one more a try.

--Tom

Sumner WA - Welcomes You...! (GC10V7F)

For number four of the day Oli and I head to the "Welcome to Sumner" sign. This is a pretty cool sign plus I drive right by it everyday on the way to the train station. We found the cache pretty quick and we were back on the road for another. by now every time we would get back to the car Oli would say, "More?!" so we continued.

--Tom

Sumner's Ryan House (GCZTN8)

For the next Cache Oli and I when to Ryan's house in Sumner. Oli and I found The Duhawks wooden nickle. We thought about going to Ryan's House Musem but it didn't open until 1pm.

--Tom







Here is a little history on the house and it's original owner George Ryan.

George Ryan was an early resident of Sumner who was unusually entrepreneurial and inventive. He was responsible for a number of Sumner firsts.

He build Sumner’s first train depot in 1873. The Northern Pacific Railroad was ending its line in Tacoma and had no plans to stop in the valley. Ryan found this unacceptable, and took steps to remedy the company's error. He erected a depot across the street from what is now Sumner Animal Grub, covering the costs of construction and a year's worth of salary for the stationmaster out of his own pocket. Northern Pacific later reimbursed him for his expense, and the depot became a significant spur to Sumner's economic growth.

He established the Sumner Lumber Company in 1883, which logged 5,000 acres of land in an area east of Sumner.He filed the first plat of the city. He owned Sumner’s first telephone, installed in 1887, which connected his mill to his home.

He built its first brick building in 1890. The Ryan Building housed the offices of Sumner Lumber, Light and Water Company, the State Bank of Sumner, a doctor, and a dentist, plus the post office, a barber shop, and a store. The city council had free use of a meeting room. In the business district fire of 1895 the structure became a sort of wall that prevented the blaze from spreading to Sumner's east side.

He was elected Sumner’s first mayor when the town incorporated in 1891. His home, Ryan House, became Sumner's first Library in 1926 and later its first (and only) museum. George and his wife, Lucy, had only five children: Harry Roger, Lewis David, Edith E., Charles Alexander, and Warren Wood. Many Ryan descendants continue to live and raise families in the Sumner area.

Sumner's City Hall (GC11QWK)

This was our second of five caches for the day. Oli and I left the park and head about 2 block away to the city hall. We quickly found the cache on under the mailbox. Good thing too just as we were wrapping up a lady pulled up to drop some mail in the mailbox, close call. We found a cool Presidential Active Lifestyle Award pin inside. I am not sure but I think these are the pins you get in school for completing all the president phyiscal challenge.

--Tom

Sumner's Loyalty Park (GC102T9)

Julie works on Saturdays so it usually just the boys and I however, Ethan was going to a parade with his friends so it was Just Oli and I out for the day. We started off at Loyalty Park, I wasn't really planning on Geocaching here but then Oli asked if we could find a treasure "Geocache" so I took a look an there was on in the park.


There was only one other family in the park so we played until they left and then we walked over and found the cache. This was my first mini-cache. They are very small and I can see why they could be hard to find, this one is about an inch long. I thought Oli wouldn't like finding mini-caches because there is no treasure it's typically just a log. He didn't seem to mind at all he just had fun finding it.

Once we found this cache it started us on the adventure for the day we found a total of five caches today.

--Tom

Beer Lake (GC13RP3)

Ethan found out that Oli and I when caching the other day, he was mad because we went without him. The boys and I recently made some homemade geocoins from shrinky dinks so we wanted to put them in a cache. I also had the Travel Bug "Emma the Duck" Oli and I found. So we set off for this cache. We found a good parking place and started walking the gravel path. It's a few hundred feet from the road so it was a nice little walk. We quickly found the cache.

Inside we found another Travel Bug "Wandering Scuba Fin" it's mission is the same as Emma the Duck visit caches near water.

The boys and I each placed our coins in the cache and then we headed back. Since it was hot and the boys were being good I decided to take them out for ice cream.

--Tom

Bonney Lake Park and Ride"TB" (GCRVW1)

Julie works late on Tuesday so I have both the boys at home with me. Linda, my mother in law, wanted to pick Ethan up and take him out for a little while. Well Oliver REALLY wanted to go with bother and nanna so I suggested we go geocaching instead. Of course he liked that idea. We ran up to grab a quick bite at Wendy's and I while eating I found this cache which is in the just behind Wendy's. So we decided to stop for a quick find on our way home.

Oli got a childern's CD in his kids meal so it made a perfect item to put in the cache. We found a cool Travel Bug "Emma the Duck" her mission is to tavel to as many bodies of water as she can. I will have to see what I can do to help.

--Tom

GeoSaints' Secret Stash (GC16EZE)

We made it about halfway home when the boys started crying saying they wanted to find another geocache. So since it was still early we turned around and headed back out for our second cache of the night. I found this one which is near the Book Buddies cache but in the complete wrong direction from the way I went home. This is a great little cache. There is a wonderful trail in the middle of the neighborhood with a little play area for the kids. We walked down to fine the cache and stop at the play area on the way out.

--Tom

Book Buddies (GC16A5Y)

So Ethan and Oli really wanted to go caching today. It has been a few days since we went so I told them we could go out for one cache. I found this one right next to our library. We usually go to the library for story time where the kids get to were their pajamas. Needless to say as soon as we pulled up Oli started saying story? story? story? He was very disappointed when I told him there wasn't a story tonight.

Once we got out of the car I had Ethan and Oli look for the cache. They had fun looking high and low. I would say is it over here and point somewhere they would look and say nooo then I would point somewhere else and they would look and look. Eventually we found it.




Inside we found this cool GeoKid pin. The pin has a girl on it but it's still cool.

After we found the cache and signed the log we started home or so I thought...

--Tom

T For Two (GCQD6T)

On Sunday, we went to Mom and Dad's to let the boys play on the gator and just enjoy the beautiful weather. We played at their house for a while and then we went with them to visit my Grandparents. They had some apple trees for the boys at there house and Dad had to go pick them up.

We met up at a little shop, The Olympic Bakery and Deli, for lunch. They have great sandwiches and ice cream. While there we were talking with the owner and somehow we got on the topic of Geocaching, surprisingly he knew exactly what it was. In fact, he told us there was one right outside on his property. CloquallumGuy had asked to put the cache at his bakery a few years ago.

So of course we had to find it. I must say I love my iPhone for just this reason. Dad's and Grandpa's GPSr might be more accurate but for on the spot geocaching does anything beat the iPhone App?

After lunch we went looking for the cache. The name of the cache, T for Two, is referring to the two seater model T car in front of the bakery. We looked high and low with no luck, we found some remnant that could have been related to a cache so we thought it might have been muggled. We decided to call it muggled and go get some ice cream. While getting our ice cream the own came out and asked us if we found it. We told him where we thought is was suppose to be and that we thought it might have been taken. He assured us it was there and gave us a little hint on the size. If it was there we were going to find it, so back out we went.

He description of the size much smaller then what I thinking now I was thinking more a magnetic hide a key size / type cache. We looked again and within a few minutes we found it. It wasn't a hide a key but I was close. It was an Altoids can with a magnetic glued inside.

I am glad we found it but either way the best part was just having a good lunch with the family.

--Tom

In a Zone (GC12052)

On Friday night I told Ethan we could go find a cache. I still had the Travel Bug "Catnip Mouse" and I needed to find a new cache for it. The owner of the travel bug was trying to send the Catnip Mouse to his cats sister in Seattle. He emailed me and asked me to find a place in Auburn instead of Seattle because the family had recently moved from Seattle to Auburn.

So I found a perfect easy cache by the Super mall. We drove up to the mall and I tried to log in to the Geocaching app on my iPhone only to find out the website was down for maintenance. 4 year olds don't understand server maintenance. Needless to say he was disappointed but then he said well if we can't get a treasure maybe we should go to the coffee shop and get some chocolate milk and you can get a latte. He saw the Starbucks across the street so we went for Coffee and chocolate milk, he is getting so big.

On our way to my Uncles for a 4th of July party on Saturday Ethan and I decided to find the cache we couldn't find the night before. It was an easy find and we were able to drop off the Travel Bug "Catnip Mouse".

Below is a picture of Ethan showing me his muscles with the cache.

--Tom