The Original Stash & No. 100!

Geocaching started back in 2000 when President Clinton declassified the use of GPS technology. Geocaching.com on the page for The Original Stash says,

On May 3, 2000, a five-gallon bucket was placed right at this very spot by Dave Ulmer, containing Delorme Topo USA and 2 CD Roms, a cassette recorder, a "George of the Jungle" VHS tape, a Ross Perot book, 4 $1 bills, a slingshot handle, and a very famous can of beans (now the O.C.B. T.B.!) The coordinates were then listed on the Internet and modern-day Geocaching was born.

We have been wanting to go find this cache ever since, especially since it's right in our backyard, relatively speaking. We decided this would be a great cache to mak our 100th find! It was a bit anticlimactic since it is right next to the road with no hunting involved. There was an ammo can hidden nearby for trading items, but it was gone when we were there. We were bummed to find out they replaced the log and the ammo can the day we were there, so we must have just missed it! Oh well, we will want to take the kids there one day anyway, so I'm sure we'll make our way back over there again. This is definitely one every geocacher should make a point to find!

Not Really Hidden

This wasn't my favorite cache. Not only were there No Trespassing signs, but the cache wasn't even hidden really. It was in a shiny box with two sticks on top sitting under a bush but in plain sight. Still, mom and Abby had fun finding it.

Really Easy

Before I even turned off the van, Ryan yelled, "I see it!" He was right. This was one of those uncomfortable ones in someone's yard, but it was easy to spot if you've done more than one or two caches. Didn't get a photo as we were eager to get on to another cache which might be more challenging...and I wanted to get out of their yard.

Cool Stump

I don't know how people run across all the unusual stuff we see when we're caching, but this was a cool stump (which the picture does not do justice to). The tree is actually growing out of an old stump of another tree long since dead and cut down. Interesting. The container was a full-blown ammo can, but sadly, there was nothing in it really. We added a few extra goodies, just for good measure!

Just a Walk in the Weeds

We saw someone parked at this spot earlier in the day, and now we know they were probably geocaching. This was a quick walk in the weeds with nothing special to find, unfortunately. I fell down on the job of taking pictures again today, though there was nothing noteworthy about this cache to take a picture of anyway.

Quick and Easy

There was no room to walk on the road where this cache was hidden, so hubby went and made the find and brought the cache back to us waiting in the van. His comment was, "I can see how this will get boring after a while." After you've done a few dozen caches, you start to just know where they are likely to be hidden.

First Virtual

There are many different types of caches, and though we usually do the traditional caches where there is a container of some type and an actual log book, we recently did our first virtual cache. On this one you had to follow the coordinates to a park and from there answer some questions to get the coordinates to the actual cache location.


We actually cheated a bit though since we already knew where the cache was located. It's the world's smallest park, and it's smack in the middle of the street that runs along the Willamette River downtown. I've been wanting to see this park for years, and geocaching finally brought me here! We had a travel bug with an Irish theme, so we took it along with us on this hunt.


We didn't want to miss the pleasure of seeing the homeless sleeping in the first park though, so we did visit the first place where the coordinates took us to, even though we didn't need to get the information from there!

Easter Theme...in August?

Some caches have themes, and this particular one is supposed to have an Easter theme. It's pretty hard to find Easter things in August, so we traded other items, as did most everyone else since there were very few Easter items left in the cache. It was located along a gorgeous trail that winds all the way around Dorena Lake. It was our last cache of the day, and we enjoyed the scenery very much.

Another Cemetary Cache

This is the third cache we've looked for in a cemetary, though we gave up on the first one because we didn't want to disturb the people who had come to visit some graves. Today the cemetary was empty, and we not only found the cache but looked around a bit. It's always intriguing to me to read old tombstones, and there were lots here including a disturbing one encased in plexiglass that had a model of a boat and a person who were all burned up. Wish I knew the story behind that.

Nothing Special

There was nothing special about this cache, but we did find it nonetheless. In fact, we could see the cache as we were driving up to the spot.

Another History Cache

This was the second cache we did in a series based on the Native American history of the area. This tree is called the Wedding Tree, and when they would get married they would split the tree. If it survived, they believed their marriage would survive as well. Clearly it did survive and looks pretty peculiar now.


In addition to the tree, there was an old train bridge we had to cross to get to the cache site, and while crossing the bridge we got a look at yet another covered bridge a little way down the river. As an added bonus we got to play with a teeny little lizard that my hubby caught climbing over the cache site.


The kids get a little impatient with caches where there is only a log and nothing to trade, but even they enjoyed this one with the walk over the train bridge and river and the little lizard.

Abby's First Find On Her Own!

I had hardly even arrived at the cache area before Abby said, "Here it is!" This was her first find completely on her own, and she was pretty proud of herself. This was the first one of 12 we searched for on this day during our camping trip. Abby is a true adventurer who is always ready to look for another cache!

Third of the Day

You know one of the best things about geocaching with the kids is? They will stick their hands into the holes you don't want to! This was a very easy find, and Ryan had fun trying to do a better job of disguising the hide than the previous person did. This was our third successful cache of the day. We got stumped on the first one months ago and tried again today. We came up empty again, and we're ready to ask for some hints!

Travel Bug Hotel and Embassy

This is a really neat idea for a cache, a place for people to drop off travel bugs near the airport so others can easily grab them on their way out of town. We found this easily and were a little disappointed to find almost all the travel bugs cleaned out. We dropped off a couple bugs, used the hotel bathroom, and headed home for the day.


Tuckered out little geocacher.

Waited Awhile

When we got here there was a couple right near the cache area, so we had to wait while they tied down their boats. It took about 15 minutes, but they finally moved on so we could get the cache. It was easy to find and we also found a letterbox while hunting!

Fun Family Cache

We were caching along Highway 30 today, so we stopped at a local restaurant we often visit when we're out this way and then went to find the cache. It is located in a park that we have let the kids play at in the past, and they had fun playing again today. There is also a Veteran's Memorial in the park, so it was another good stop for our Memorial Day weekend.


This is the first cache we have found that wasn't actually hidden, kind of a unique attribute. It was clearly marked and easy to spot. After you locate it you have to answer a couple of questions in order to open the lock on the cache. It was full of travel bugs and other goodies for the kids. We are going to remember this one whenever we're traveling to the coast so we can hit it again sometime.

Ryan's First Find

This cache is located in one of our favorite nearby parks. We go here quite often, but not usually on this side, so it was nice to see a different part of the park. Ryan found this one on his own without any help, his first!


On our way back to the van to get another info sheet for another cache, we saw this beautiful heron (or is it a crane?) just hanging around the pond.

Quick and Easy

My hubby found this almost before I got out of the van! Nice, easy find and good for a quick stop if you're driving along Highway 30.

Number 10!

This is my 10th find! Hubby found one on our last outing that I had missed, so he beat me to number 10. I hope to go back to that one soon and see if I can locate it myself.


We had been doing lots of heavy yard work and I was not feeling well the day we went looking for this cache. The notes said it was a quarter mile from the parkiing spot, but it turned out to be a half a mile.


Preschooler rumble ensuing.
We took it slow and easy, and it's a nice little trail, lots of blackberry bushes. This would be a wonderful trail to ride bikes on. I even saw a coyote come onto the trail briefly.


Mt. St. Helens in the clouds was visible along the trail.
We found the cache quickly and easily and traded some stickers and travel bugs.

Number One!

We finally did it...we went geocaching this weekend! I didn't think I was a "thrill of the hunt" kind of person, but I guess I am. It was fun searching, but finding each cache was exciting!


We started close to home on an easy hunt that is very close to our home (in fact we have walked to this park before) and found the cache almost immediately. We signed the log, took some pictures, and then headed off to find the next one!