Caching in the Strawberry Mountain Wilderness - 8/10/2012

[ Story not completed, yet.  Feel free to read about Strawberry Mountain at the below link. ]

I had been waiting to return to Strawberry Mountain since my previous trip just over one year before.  That year we were stopped from approaching the cache at the top of the mountain by snow cover.  This year, I would be starting a month later during a summer that was warmer than the previous one.

My Mom and I met up with my Aunt at a parking lot in Island City in order to carpool to our destination.  Even  though we left early, it was a long drive to Prairie City, so I hadn't planned to hunt caches along the drive.  Once in the area, however we decided to get a few caches that were placed a few weeks before, but had not been logged.

Our first stop was WHERE IS THE FISH  by BAD DOGS (GC3PD9C).  It was located on the far side of a roadside park with a fishing lake and picnic facilities (and mosquitoes).  The coords were good and the container was big enough for me to easily find.  We walked around the lake and tried out the restroom facilities before moving on.

The second find of the morning was crescent by BAD DOGS (GC3PD97) at another roadside area just a little ways up the road from the last.  It was near a neat little waterfall that somehow I was the only one of our party to notice.

Our last find before our long hike was WHERE'S THE SNOW by BAD DOGS (GC3PD9) located in a snowmobile park that doesn't get visitors during the summer.  Three quick finds that were also FTFs made for a great start to the day.  Shortly after this point, we turned onto a gravel road for the remainder of the drive.  This kept us at a low speed and allowed those of us who weren't driving an opportunity to look around at the beauty of the wilderness.

We arrived at the parking area around 10:30 am, joining two other vehicles that had parked there.  Roads End Trail had once upon a time allowed vehicles to drive further up the mountainside.  I'm not sure how much closing the road here added to our trip, but we sure felt it coming back.

 [ Parking area for our hike ] 

 

Caching in the Eagle Cap Mountains - 8/3/2012

I was excited to be geocaching with my youngest brother and my Dad while on vacation in Eastern Oregon.  On this particular day, I had plans for the evening, so I wanted to hunt a few geocaches relatively close to home.  I'm caching low-tech these days, because the Palm Pilot that I stored cache data on bit the dust not too long ago.  My brother had recently acquired a Garmin Montana, so I loaded our cache data on it.   It's a nice piece of equipment that has everything you need on it except a phone.

We started the morning with a nice breakfast in North Powder, OR.  We got the breakfast special, which was a 1 pound slab of ham, two eggs, hashbrowns, and toast.  It gave us p[lenty of energy for what was ahead.

First cache of the day was in Haines, OR and was called Coyote Peak Panorama by The Proebstels |(GC1RVMF).  It is high on a hill overlooking the town.

 [ Haines, OR - "The Biggest Little City in Oregon" ]

There used to be a silver mine up there, but we saw no traces of it.  There was also a large pit up there where they mined rocks, possibly granite.  My Dad and I tried to hunt this one before, but didn't take the right road.  This time I had better intel and a good 4-wheel drive truck to make the fairly steep climb.  Once at the top, the cache was a quick find and we paused to survey the valley before leaving.

We headed East along the Medical Springs Highway and along the Powder River to hunt our next cache - April Fools by littleredscout (GC2RD2).  I had looked at the area on Google Maps, but didn't realize the terrain changes.  I guess the terrain rating should have clued me in better.  It was a rough ride. 

We parked at what my GPSr told me was the closest parking and headed down a steep hill to find the cache.  Once at the cache, of course, we realized the "April Fool" part was another road nearby.  We took that one up, and I  was clobbered by exhaustion and an inability to catch my breath.  I took longer and longer breaks until my brother went up alone and came back for me in the truck.  I was only a few hundred feet away from where we had parked when they got to me.

[ Parking area - the cache is downhill. ]

Next, we drove up into the Eagle Cap Mountains.  There were five caches grouped pretty close together, but it still was a long drive on gravel roads.  By the time we got to the first cache - Taylor Green
by Pstip (GC1WFNH), I was rested and ready to go.  This cache is in an area for snowmobilers to hang out.  The cache was a tough find, but my brother has learned well!

 [ Glad to be on better roads. ]

The next cache was called On Top by Mr. Picks (GC1WFP4) and was rated a 1 / 5. Some cachers are more generous on rating terrains, because we drove straight to this one with no trouble.  The cache also qualified for the Forest Fire Lookout Tower series I'm trying to complete.

 [ Nice, peaceful view from where a lookout tower once stood. ]

Next up was summer, winter , view by justus2, Brad & Friends (GC312E) which was basically a roadside ammo can.  Finally, we hunted Eagle Meadows, Ore. by Justus2 & Friends (GCGK0Y) which involved a short hike down a trail.  The cache was an easy find and the view across the meadow was beautiful.  There was another cache across the meadow, but the ground was swampy and I had to be back home to get ready for a party I was going to that night.