GC12 and GC17

Saturday was a hike up to GC12 and GC17. GC17 was the favorite. It was in the Salmon Huckleberry Wilderness. It was uphill all the way. For the route we took, the GPSr said 1.3 miles, but since some of it was winding around, it was likely a little bit more than that.  As we got deeper into the hike, the trail changed to single track. There were ripe mountain huckleberries and a breathtaking view of Mt. Hood. Two thumbs up for the great cache.

The Big Smiley

Oregon's Biggest Smiley

We camped at LaPine State Park. What a great weekend with great people! This weekend's favorite cache was a series of caches. This was actually more fun than the Peace Sign Series in Seattle, Washington. The Peace Sign Series was all urban and stressful. The Smiley (GC1PB2F: Oregon's Biggest Smiley) actually left us with a smile. We didn't see or hear people the entire day...until we got near the final cache at the end of the day and it sounded like we were in a war zone -- people target shooting close by. Other than the end, it was a wonderful day with rtmyss and sprite4. We spent about 8 hours bushwhacking through the desert -- no trails -- only sage, lava and occasional trees where we took "shade breaks." I drank more than 10 bottles of water during the course of the day.

We did other caches this weekend also, and some of the photos are below...

Only one cache today

We only went for one cache today, but it's one we've been meaning to get to for some time now. LiefPhoto's Puzzling Double Century Cache.It was a long uphill walk. We interrupted a bull snake about to eat a lizard. We saved the lizard's life when we came around the corner and distracted the snake.

Gold Ray Dam and the Wild and Scenic Rogue

Weekend of July 31, 2010...We didn't really have an overall favorite cache of this weekend. Nothing stood out as "WOW." The most interesting was an earthcache, Gold Ray Dam and the Wild and Scenic Rogue. The reason this one stood out was that they are in the process of removing the dam and the river is going to reclaim the area. We also saw some beautiful ospreys. Along with the dam, we did see some other interesting things during our travels around the Rogue River area.

HUGE Madrone tree