Log by travisl for An Oak Grove RV Park II (Traditional Cache)

Log by travisl for An Oak Grove RV Park II (Traditional Cache):

travisl found An Oak Grove RV Park II (Traditional Cache)

Wow. I'd been downplaying this stop, because I figured this might be a couple of carrot sticks, maybe a cooler of water, and some dry bread.

Wow. PB&J sandwiches (my favorite, although I don't have it nearly enough), cookies, veggies, candy, napkins, and a CapriSun. I haven't had a CapriSun in ages, and made a fool of myself by jabbing the straw all the way through the bag, instead of down into the bag. Of course, the four kids sitting around me knew exactly how to extract the liquid refreshment.

One advantage to this mangling of the pouch -- the bag doesn't turn into a bellows.

Oh, and the cache was right there, too, so I tossed my sticker in the log book.

Thanks SO much, for this way-greater-than-expected lunch stop.

Log by travisl for Tiger Cache (Traditional Cache)

Log by travisl for Tiger Cache (Traditional Cache):

travisl found Tiger Cache (Traditional Cache)

I was tempted to drive all the way to the cache, but I'm not to confident in my backing-up skills, so I parked at the Y and walked in. Other cachers were already there, so I handed in my sticker and jogged back to the car. I tried to back into another cacher on the way out, but YeOldeImposter in his Insurance Cruiser stopped me in time.

How do you expect to sell insurance if you prevent accidents? And if I buy your insurance, do you accept million dollar bills?

Log by travisl for Return to Elk Rock Island (BONUS) (Traditional Cache)

Log by travisl for Return to Elk Rock Island (BONUS) (Traditional Cache):

travisl couldn't find Return to Elk Rock Island (BONUS) (Traditional Cache)

Muahh hah hahhh... the evil DNF curse of TravisL strikes again.

Searched and searched and searched. Thank goodness this wasn't hidden in the desert out there, or we'd be dealing with cases of heat stroke.

Log by travisl for Return to Elk Rock Island (Traditional Cache)

Log by travisl for Return to Elk Rock Island (Traditional Cache):

travisl found Return to Elk Rock Island (Traditional Cache)

''Welcome to Milwaukie's beautiful Spring Park. Hope you walked, or we'll tow your butt.''

Yeah, once we found the trailhead, parking was, well, non-existent, but that's never slowed down the great moving violation that is a cache machine before. I parked in a questionable spot, walked past a bunch of vehicles parked between ''no parking'' arrows, and followed the hordes down the trail. We found this one, then the Red Sea parted and we followed Moses across the desert to the first waypoint for the bonus cache.

When I got back to the car, two police cars were blocking both lanes of Sparrow Street. I hopped in my car, ready to make a quick getaway in case the tow truck showed up. It never did, and I followed one of the cops out of there to go the wrong way to the next cache.

Are U-turns at intersections legal in Portland?

Log by travisl for J.C. Pennies (Traditional Cache)

Log by travisl for J.C. Pennies (Traditional Cache):

travisl found J.C. Pennies (Traditional Cache)

Well, I picked the right side of the fence, after scaring the bejeebees out of some ducklings, and threatened to force the other dozen cachers to come around the fence as well, but in the end, we handed it back and forth.

Surprisingly, nobody fell into the creek. Too bad -- that would have been amusing.

Log by travisl for Ardy (Traditional Cache)

Log by travisl for Ardy (Traditional Cache):

travisl found Ardy (Traditional Cache)

Kids are good to have around. They scare away pigeons. They make entertaining faces when they try to eat lutefisk. And they're low to the ground, so they can find caches like this easily.

One of the PCM kids found this one. Thank.

Log by travisl for W.T. Stickers (Traditional Cache)

Log by travisl for W.T. Stickers (Traditional Cache):

travisl found W.T. Stickers (Traditional Cache)

That's one herking huge w.t. I'm surprised that it's not blocked off by a fence to prevent some Osama wannabe from duct taping a rabid cat to one of the legs.

Log by travisl for Whole Grain Cache (Traditional Cache)

Log by travisl for Whole Grain Cache (Traditional Cache):

travisl found Whole Grain Cache (Traditional Cache)

Whole Grain... hmmm... Right Wing Wacko and I, neither of whom have read the cache page, are debating what the cache will be like as we motor our way to the area. Shaped like a loaf of bread? In the middle of a wheat field?

Pretty close. I climbed down to get the cache, but someone else grabbed it before I got there. Handed them a sticker and went back to the car. It's getting warm out now.

Log by travisl for M.P. Coin Exchange (Traditional Cache)

Log by travisl for M.P. Coin Exchange (Traditional Cache):

travisl found M.P. Coin Exchange (Traditional Cache)

The group I was with found the cache, and having read the cache page, we attempted to swap out a coin for the one that was in there.

Suddenly, a piece of the cache container popped off and went flying a good ten feet away. The cache didn't have a log, so I just made a mental note of what the container was, and headed back to the car, while the others attempted to reassemble it.

Log by travisl for Lapel Pin Exchange (Traditional Cache)

Log by travisl for Lapel Pin Exchange (Traditional Cache):

travisl found Lapel Pin Exchange (Traditional Cache)

Ran from the car to the cache.

Stickered it, and ran back.

Why do I have so much energy this morning? Must've been the Snapple.

Log by travisl for The Nikita Cache (Traditional Cache)

Log by travisl for The Nikita Cache (Traditional Cache):

travisl found The Nikita Cache (Traditional Cache)

Gee, this hiding spot seems familiar. Didn't I see one like this earlier this morning?

Log by travisl for Sparky (Traditional Cache)

Log by travisl for Sparky (Traditional Cache):

travisl found Sparky (Traditional Cache)

Strange place for a cache, although the container's created. Not the kind of place I'd say ''thanks for showing me this neat spot,'' but I will say ''thanks for the neat cache.''

Log by travisl for Liquid Sunshine (Unknown (Mystery) Cache)

Log by travisl for Liquid Sunshine (Unknown (Mystery) Cache):

travisl couldn't find Liquid Sunshine (Unknown (Mystery) Cache)

Water from the San Francisco Bay area.

Cacher-as-plug from eastern Washington.

Me, from Tacoma.

Cache, broken.

DNF, from geocaching.com.

Log by travisl for P.M.G. Token Exchange (Traditional Cache)

Log by travisl for P.M.G. Token Exchange (Traditional Cache):

travisl found P.M.G. Token Exchange (Traditional Cache)

We were a few minutes behind the main part of the group, but apparently far enough behind them that the park gate was opened by the time we got there. A quick and easy find.

Log by travisl for Holly Ridge (Traditional Cache)

Log by travisl for Holly Ridge (Traditional Cache):

travisl found Holly Ridge (Traditional Cache)

The gate was open, so I was able to drive all the way up to the top, where some guy had his trailer set up and an antenna spread all the way across the field, about 50 feet up, in a misguided attempt to contact the alien from Alpha Centauri who endorsed George Bush in the 2000 elections. At least, I think that's who he was talking to.

I grabbed a sheet of aluminum foil out of the trunk and built myself an impromptu hat, so that neither the alien nor the guy in the trailer would read my thoughts. This probably also interfered with my GPS signal, or my brain's processing of the signal, because I took a trek into the woods, back out of the woods, and back into the woods, before someone else found it.

Stickered the log, zig zagged back to the car (in case the aliens were trying to track me visually), and shot out of there like a bat out of Russ Davis' hands.

Log by travisl for Phaedra (Traditional Cache)

Log by travisl for Phaedra (Traditional Cache):

travisl found Phaedra (Traditional Cache)

Climb up a slick ivy covered hill, or hike up a huge set of stairs and another half mile round trip? Blanked if I do, and blanked if I don't. So I took the long way, because I figured I was less likely to end up at Portland General Hospital if I went that way.

Went that way. Looked for quite a while. Finally, someone else found it a good 60 feet from where I'd been looking. Never saw the rock pile until the way out.

Log by travisl for Berry Dale Cache (Traditional Cache)

Log by travisl for Berry Dale Cache (Traditional Cache):

travisl found Berry Dale Cache (Traditional Cache)

It's geocachers posing as muggles posing as geocachers posing as muggles! While the rest of my group distracted the mugglecachers, I, covertly disguised in my ''Muggle'' t-shirt, grabbed the cache, but was quickly caught, and suffered the wrath of The Wizard, who convinced me to sign the logbook and re-hide it.

Log by travisl for The Micro Park (Traditional Cache)

Log by travisl for The Micro Park (Traditional Cache):

travisl found The Micro Park (Traditional Cache)

I drove up.

I parked.

I turned off the ignition.

I grabbed my GPS and a sticker.

I got out of the car.

By now, my passenger had already gotten out of the car, found the cache, and was waiting for me to hand him my sticker so we could move on to the next one.

What a day.

Log by travisl for Larry's Lincoln Log Cache (Traditional Cache)

Log by travisl for Larry's Lincoln Log Cache (Traditional Cache):

travisl found Larry's Lincoln Log Cache (Traditional Cache)

With the young Imposters running around, there was no chance for me to find it before they did. Thanks for the hunt.

Log by travisl for A Dicey Hunt (Unknown (Mystery) Cache)

Log by travisl for A Dicey Hunt (Unknown (Mystery) Cache):

travisl couldn't find A Dicey Hunt (Unknown (Mystery) Cache)

I think I've got the coordinates (obscure, but simple), and they're in a good spot for a cache (a spot I've thought to myself ''there should be a cache back there''), but after 35 minutes of searching, it was time to give up and go back to work.

I built a little rock pile, both to show the next seeker where I was searching, or to aggravate the next seeker who thinks ''that's an unusual pile of rocks -- the cache must be there.''

I wasn't sure if this was a micro or a regular (I didn't print out the cache page), but now that I see it's a micro, there's one more spot I want to give further examination, although my GPS said I was 45 feet away at the time.

(There's another parking space that's a lot closer, if you don't mind increasing the terrain rating by half a star.)