Cache as Cache Can

A leftover from last night’s dinner. One of the peculiarities of the house – I would even call it a flaw – is the kitchen window, or rather, the lack of one. The table has 4 chairs around it – two on each end, and two on the long side facing the ocean. Unfortunately what they face is not the picture window or wall of glass that you might expect – it is a wall, with a large painting that might be of the cove to the north. When we were setting the table for last night’s dinner it seemed even crazier than usual that we would sit where you can’t see the ocean (there is window next to the table, but it faces the trees) while this beautiful evening was winding down into a gorgeous sunset . We thought about eating dinner on the little table that we play games on, but it’s too small. There’s a card table in the closet in the master bedroom, but it’s hard to get out. So we just moved the rocking chair that sits in front of the fireplace out of the way, and moved the kitchen table. We did have to close the blinds, but you can see through them, and it was nice to have true oceanfront dining right in our own place.

This morning started with a bout of frustration when my laptop wouldn’t connect with the internet. In addition to checking for comments on my blog posts I had also planned to look up some geocaches, but even though my phone and Dave’s iPad were connecting without any problems, the laptop would not. I rebooted it several times and turned its wireless on and off to no avail. Finally Dave reset the access point, which solved the problem. Unfortunately as part of my pointless troubleshooting I had told the computer to forget the network, so I had to re-enter the 20 digit network key. Oddly, it’s harder on the computer than on the phone, because the computer doesn’t tell you what you’ve typed.

Once I was reconnected I was able to look for some caches, and after a yummy breakfast of leftover fruit salad we headed out. There are quite a few caches along 101 through Oswald West State Park, so we thought we’d head down there. But first I wanted to try a cache called Zig Zag, which is off of Falcon Cove Rd. We drove to Falcon Cove road and took the leftt onto Elk Flat road, going past a school and through a gate with a wonderful “please scoop” sign on it. The road seemed very long and Dave got a little crabby about the branches scraping his car, but we made it safely to the turn around/parking area . The description of the cache says, “Find a trail through the forest until reaching a lookout point. From there a source to descend should reveal itself.” Dave found the trail, and we hiked along it – it’s very pretty – and sure enough, the source to descend revealed itself – a series of ropes tied to trees leading down a steep path a hundred feet or so straight down to where the ocean boiled itself around some big rocks in a beautiful, secluded cove. I couldn’t even bring myself to walk over to where the first rope was, but Dave did and decided it was not a good idea – we could go down, he thought, but he wasn’t sure we could go back up. We had plenty of cell phone signal (Dave was getting texts from Josh about cool things he’d found in the college library while we were there), but we didn’t want to end up as a rescue statistic on the pages of the Cannon Beach Gazette. But the trip was definitely worth it, and when we got back to the parking area the view up the coastline to the north was spectacular. A side note is that I was looking at the cache description while I was writing this, and it’s possible that the cache is actually accessible without going down the cliff face. We may take Tim and go back there. A further side note after more research – you do have to go down the ropes. Never mind.

We had three more caches to find – well, 4, but when we looked at the description for the 4th it said “The reasoning for the 5 star difficulty is you will have to have a flashlight to find this cache. The 4.5 on terrain is due to the actual terrain, as well as the extreme fear factor. Here is a cache for the explorer in you. This cache is NOT CHILD FRIENDLY!!! DO NOT TAKE ANY CHILD UNDER 14 OR 5 FEET TALL WITH YOU!!! You as well must decide if you want to risk it all for a cache. One slip and it is 200 or more feet to the crashing surf below, and people HAVE died here, but don't let this scare you away from an unbelievable view of the cliffs you stand upon and the true darkness of the cache placement.” Since we didn’t have a flashlight and had already proven that we were not interested in risking a fall to the crashing surf below, it was a no-brainer to take this one off our to-do list. Fortunately the other three were all child-friendly. The first was the most frustrating, as both the GPS and Dave’s phone did not want it to be where it was. We looked at the hint, and spent quite some time trying to look nonchalant as we scrutinized a stone wall. Eventually I found the cache which was so small we couldn’t even get the log out of it. Not very satisfying. The second cache was at the Neahkanie West Trailhead, and was one of my favorite kinds – the big ammo box hidden under a large piece of bark. The large pieces of bark never look natural, so they always make me laugh. There was some bridge construction between the first cache we found and the trailhead, and we kept getting stuck in the traffic from it, which was mostly just funny, since we were not in a hurry.

The third cache we found was one of the reasons we love geocaching. The cache itself was a tiny one hidden in a wall by a viewpoint. We’ve driven past the viewpoint many many many times, but we are not the type to stop at viewpoints, so we’d never stopped. Now we have, and it was another spectacular view – it overlooks all of Nehalem and Nehalem Bay, and although it was chilly and windy it’s a beautiful clear day and the view was fantastic. Dave was especially fond of this one, also, because I’ve had a run of finding all the caches, and he found this one. We try to be joyful when either of us finds the cache, but it’s easier when you’re the one who found it.

By now we were most of the way to Manzanita, which is good because Dave needed to stop for gas and we knew there’s a gas station by the entrance to Nehalem Bay State Park. So we got gas, not without a little backing and filling since Dave’s car has the gas tank on the wrong side. With that taken care of, we went back to the house to pick up Tim and then it was off to the Pig’n, home of PigAtCannon free wifi and also good breakfasts. We were a little worried that we wouldn’t be able to find parking and that there would be a long line, but neither turned out to be a problem. We parked in the back lot and walked up to Pig’n and they had a table for us right away. Tim and I had pigs in blankets (2.5 for me, 3.5 for Tim). Dave had eggs, bacon, hash browns, toast, and a side order of 1 pancake, which he also finished with Tim’s assistance. I do love Pig’n, even though they’ve stopped carrying the chai.

After Pig’n we headed to the chocolate café, which made me wish I had only eaten 2 pigs in blankets, or maybe even just 1. Tim got a milkshake and I got the hot chocolate. Two things about that: first, it is a family joke that whenever I try a milkshake, I always say that it is too sweet. Not so about Tim’s milkshake. Second, one of the things we miss about Heather’s restauarant (which has been gone from Cannon Beach for lo these many years) aside from the correctly named Fantastic Grilled Cheese Sandwich (oh, it was, it was) is the dark, rich hot chocolate. We’ve learned to make the grilled cheese at home, and we’ve now found a replacement for the hot chocolate. It was so rich and so dark and so good, but on top of pig’n I couldn’t even get halfway through it. We took it home and put it in the fridge – if it makes it that long, I’ll have it with breakfast tomorrow.

Now, a little history. Last year Dave and I went to look for the two bridges cache, which is a very pretty hike over two bridges (aha!) that leaves from very close to where we pick up the keys for the little house. We found the place where we thought the cache should be, but couldn’t find it, and when we looked at the logs for the cache no-one else had been able to find it for some time either. But when we looked this year, several people had found it and there were better descriptions of how to get there. Plus, we had the Garmin GPSmap 60CSx, which we bought pretty much specifically to find this cache. We convinced Tim to come along since he needed to get out and move around a little. We easily found the trailhead and a better parking place than last time, just around the corner by the sign for 3rd St. The cache isn’t far from the road – about .15 miles as the crow flies- and we set off with high hopes.

The first of the two bridges is a suspension bridge, which makes Dave very nervous. It made him especially nervous this time because Tim found the bounciness of the bridge irresistible. We probably could have left Tim there and come back a couple hours later to find him still happily making monkey noises and bouncing up and down. The second bridge is just a standard wooden bridge, so unremarkable that I didn’t even notice it on the way out. We hiked up the path (and it is up – you gain quite a bit of elevation in not very much time) and got to the fallen tree which is in the cache description. We even found a big old growth tree on the east side of the path. We spent quite a lot of time there. Dave found a stick and poked it into all the spaces around the roots, of which there were many. Tim had gone on up the path for quite a way, then headed back and crept up on us. He thought it was very funny to sneak up behind me and then make a noise just as I’d stuck my hand in under the tree where I couldn’t see. I did not think it was funny at all.

After we had gotten very frustrated at not finding the cache AGAIN, Dave looked more closely at the description and discovered that we had gone too far. Here I will point out that the Garmin GPSmap 60CSx, bought specifically to find this cache, was no help at all once we got within about 50 feet of the cache. It couldn’t decide whether we were 7 feet from the cache or 100, and would change its mind every 30 seconds or so about which direction we should go in. Arg! Very disappointing. Anyway, we went back down the path a bit (if you’ve gone around a switchback, you’ve gone too far, which we had) and found the right big old growth tree on the east side of the path – significantly smaller than the tree we’d been looking at. Dave started poking around the front, and I went around to the back and there, not really hidden under the piece of bark, was the nalgene bottle we were looking for. YAY!!! We documented the find with a photo, and then much to Tim’s sorrow we decided to continue along the trail. The trail is very cool; it goes over the tunnel. Where the cache is you can hear the ocean, but while you’re going over the tunnel you’re behind the hill, so you can’t hear the ocean, and then you can hear it again. We weren’t sure how long the trail was or where it came out, so once we got to where you could hear the ocean and see cars along 101 we turned around. (Further research when we got home showed that the trail comes out on 101 between Cove Beach Rd and Falcon Cove Rd; we plan to look for the trailhead at a future time). Tim was pleased to be headed back – it was past his nap time.

On the trail are many trees which have fallen across the trail, which someone has come through and cut with a chainsaw. Most of the cut ends are covered with moss and tree ears, but one of them had 3 slugs on it. I took a picture of it when Dave suggested the title of “slugfest”. Going back Tim was in the lead, and it was a little like hiking with an eager Labrador – he’d run on ahead, then wait for us to catch up, then run on ahead again. I suggested that instead of waiting for us to catch up he should run back to us and then greet us with a goofy grin and pant loudly. He was not amused. The walk back was pretty uneventful until we got to the suspension bridge. Tim got there first and was having a great time bouncing it. I don’t mind the bouncing, but it was unclear if we’d be able to get Dave across. I did get a wonderful picture of Dave’s face as Tim threatened to bounce while Dave was on the bridge.

Speaking of pictures, Dave commented while we were walking back that I don’t put any pictures in the blog. I don’t because I spend quite some time just writing, and it seems like adding pictures would add even more time. Also it would make the blog take longer to download. But I am curious if faithful readers would enjoy having pictures (for example, I do have a picture of slugfest) along with the words.

Once we got back it was relaxing time. Although it’s sunny it really is quite chilly, so it was a perfect day to sit in the sun indoors with a breeze blowing through the screen door to the deck. The cherry I put out for the seagull (he’s been here two mornings in a row) before we left for the hike had not been eaten when we got back. Maybe the seagull only eats in the morning. After some relaxing and reading time the gull did show up, and Dave had fun tossing it cherries and peanuts. It is fun to watch it catch them in mid-air. It’s kind of funny when the gull misses – it gives Dave a slightly irritated look, as if to say “hey, let’s throw them over the plate, yes?” Another thing that’s fun is to balance treats on the backs of the chairs – the gull can’t quite figure out how to get up there and keeps sliding down the arms. They’re not the most coordinated or graceful birds out there.

After relaxing time we all went to Newman’s at 988 for dinner. Many, many years ago this was called Puliccci’s, and we never went there. More recently, but still long ago, we took the boys there and did not enjoy it. Since then Dave and I have gone several times and liked it very much, but this was Tim’s first time back. It won’t be his last. The guys started with a 3 cheese ravioli appetizer, which was perfectly fine, but my polenta with wild mushrooms, garlic, eggplant, goat cheese and a balsamic reduction was the single best food I have had all week. The layers of flavor, especially combined with our 2008 Chateau de St Cosme Gigondas, was of sock-removing quality. Oh yeah. Next course, a crab salad for me, was a little weak – Tim’s grilled romaine salad and Dave’s wild mushroom soup were better. Entrees – duck breast and foie gras for me, medallions of beef for Tim, rack of lamb for Dave – all super yummy. Tim even enjoyed the foie gras, although we didn’t tell him what it was until after he really liked it (we used the same technique with smoked tongue several years ago at a Tapas place in Boston, with similar results). Desserts rounded out the meal, with Tim proclaiming his chocolate pot de crème even better than Irish Table’s. Did I mention the Gigondas? Dave had a vintage port with his cheese plate for dessert that did not remind me too much of Nyquil. Tim drove home with the beautiful crescent moon shining in the window. This is a good time indeed.

After dinner we were all pretty tired, so we didn’t play any of our usual games. Dave and Tim made a nice fire (as they have every night) and we turned off all the lights to watch the moon set. Once again it turned very orange and went down as a flame. Tonight the folks on the other side of the point to the south have their floodlights shining on the ocean, which is a waste of electricity and also contributes to light pollution, but is kind of cool anyway. It lights up the whitecaps of the waves, so they seem to sort of appear out of nowhere.

While we were watching the moonset, Tim was finding that you could download the bro-stache from the geico commercial (is the man with the bro-stache invited to the party? Only if he’s ready to rock) and then had to go check his look in the mirror. There will be a little helicopter flying, but it’s going to be an early bedtime for this blogger.