Monday, July 21, 2008

Baker City, OR - June 23, 2008

My Dad and I decided on this day to do mostly in-town caching. My brother had brought his boat to a mechanic in Baker City a few days before so we thought we'd check in it while we were there as well.

We left the town of Cove at just after 7am after first gassing up and getting something to drink. We hunted two caches around North Powder and one near Haines before getting to Baker City.

One cache we went a little out of the way to find after arriving in town was Forgotten Resting Place by lovin-mustang (GC1BD4T). This was located at Wingville Cemetery (1878-1962). The community of Wingville was settled in 1862. Many of the first settlers here were soldiers from Major General Sterling Price's (CSA) campaigns in Missouri and Arkansas and the Republicans called them "The left wing of Price's army." While the cache container was quite unique, I was more fascinated by the view of the snow-capped mountains to the west and some of the old tombstones. Before we left, we went over and read the entrance sign.


I thought about my old pal Titansfan, who is a Civil War/Confederate army buff who is also into waymarking and made a note of the coordinates of the sign.

Once back in Baker City, we hunted several more mostly easy caches. One cache that stood out was Archimedes' Constant by cache-n-dash (GC10T6W). This was a cache that required some research. It was also the only cache that stopped me from clearing out Baker City the last time I was here (a year ago). I was prepared on this day, however, and joyously found the cache after struggling to find an entry point.


After leaving Baker City to return home, we hunted a few more caches, the first of which was Panorama Point by cache-n-dash (GC12Y01). This cache was located near an observation platform located to the west of the Oregon Trail Interpretative Center. It was only a 1/2 mile hike to the cache as the crow flies, but the paved walking trail had numerous switchbacks to make the descents/ascents easier for hikers. I loved the hike and the views, but my favorite thing about this cache was getting my Dad to make the hike with me. He doesn't like long hikes, and I gave him the option of checking out the Interpretative Center (I have visited it before) while I hunted the cache.


The next cache we stopped at was Not Your Typical ? Cache by cache-n-dash (GC127R2). This was near a fishing lake not far from the Baker City airport. The cache was an easy find, but had an unexpected twist that took me some time to figure out. We found two more caches that day, that were easy finds with great views.

We found a total of 14 caches on this trip. Because my PQ was from June 10 and my printed map was from June 22, there were a few caches on my map that I didn't have the coordinates to. We saved these for another visit.

3 comments:

Titansfan said...

The forgotten cemetery sounds interesting. If you have two pictures, one of the sign, another a wide view of the cemetery go ahead and post the waymark.

Mackheath said...

It was interesting to find graves of Civil War veterans in this out of the way place.

I do have additional pictures of the cemetery, although I'm not sure if I will get around to posting a waymark.

Titansfan said...

"It was interesting to find graves of Civil War veterans in this out of the way place."

The war was over, battlefield survivors went on about their lives, rebuilding their homes, farms and some moving out West to begin a new life.