Geocaching in the High Desert

Posted on April 9, 2009 by mdavidson

Having spent much of my childhood in NE Oregon, I love getting the opportunity to visit the dry side of the state.

My bride and I enjoyed a 2008 summer vacation to the Bend area. We absorbed the sights and sounds, from the popular trails of Shevlin Regional Park in town to breath-taking views at 8000 feet atop Paulina Peak, the highest point along the rim of Newberry Crater. I found geocaches at these and other nearby sites such as Lava Butte, Lava River Cave and the High Desert Museum.

On one day, while my wife attended a meeting at Central Oregon Community College, I hiked and geocached among the myriad of trails in Shevlin Park. The central defining feature in this park is Tumalo Creek winding through and nurturing a wooded riparian zone providing a cool reprieve from the summer heat. One especially enjoyable cache hunt, Awaken Bacon, led to a rocky knoll affording a great overlook to the park. This would be an awesome place to take in a sunrise!

One of the more interesting caches was one I didn’t actually find! The Lava River Cave Earthcache (what is an earthcache?) required walking at least half way through this mile-long lava tube. We turned back when confronted with a small opening where we needed to get down on our hands and knees to get through! Not today!

I also really enjoyed the short quarter-mile hike out from the Paulina Peak viewpoint to the very edge of the crater rim to find the Almost 8000 geocache. Rugged rock formations out there on the edge! Love that tight feeling in my stomach peering down a steep cliff!

Geocaching with our grandchildren is great fun. Kids just love hunting for treasure! One of our granddaughters, who lives in the area, joined us for one night at our campsite at LaPine State Park. We hunted a fun, multi-staged geocache within the park that required locating three preliminary caches before finding the final container. These are great for kids because they build the anticipation of finding “the treasure” in addition to learning something new or seeing something interesting at each stage.

There is so much to see around Oregon’s high desert. We’re looking forward to visiting again to explore more areas such as the Metolius region, Sisters and Smith Rock State Park.

Go Coastal!

Posted on April 7, 2009 by mdavidson

I have lived, worked and played on the Oregon Coast since 1979 and thought myself highly familiar with it. That is, until I started geocaching! A common saying among geocachers is “I would have never known about that great spot if someone hadn’t placed a geocache there”.

One of my favorite portions of Oregon’s coastline is the rugged and generously trailed section between Gold Beach and Brookings. It’s a place I come frequently to hike, explore and geocache.

One memorable excursion in this area took me to the Cape Sebastian trails just south of Gold Beach. My wife dropped me off at one of the scenic vistas where one can see north to Humbug Mountain and south to Meyers Beach below. After a short time of taking pictures and watching brown pelicans cruise just above the ocean surface, I headed south down the trail in pursuit of four new geocaches placed since my last visit here. My ride would be waiting for me at Meyers Beach culminating in a total hike of approximately 2.5 miles and dropping 600 feet in elevation.

The first cache was just a short one quarter mile stroll down the trail lined with short, wind-blown spruce trees and thick brush. The trail came very close to the cliff edges in several places providing spectacular views. The cache was a pretty easy find – a small plastic container nestled near a…. oops, nearly gave away the hiding spot!

Continuing around the next bend in the trail I entered a forest of very dense, taller spruce which blocked most of the sunlight leaving me with the feeling I was entering the realm of hobbits. Short, gnarly tree trunks lined the path as I began descending towards the ocean edge. Another third of a mile brought me to the second cache, a medium-sized army surplus ammo can located just an arm’s length from the thick huckleberry-lined trail. Two down – two to go.

The trail dropped pretty quickly after this point, zig-zagging down a steep slope and onto a flat area where the forest gave way to a rocky outcrop about one hundred feet above the ocean. I found the third cache placed in this vicinity poised above a steep cliff with a great view of the broken and rocky edge and was appropriately named – RockyView Point. Before continuing, I checked on another cache nearby that I had found on a previous hike – still there!

As I was leaving this area, I spotted a huge flock of brown pelicans perched on nearby rock outcroppings! I crept towards them for a closer look but spooked them. They scattered quickly.

Proceeding to the fourth and final cache, the trail now hugged the cliff edge around to the east and towards Hunters Cove. This last cache of the day was a fairly easy find just off the trail – a plastic 5-gallon bucket with branches and moss for cover. Getting that darn lid off was way harder than finding it!

The final leg of this trek was about a mile long walk on the beach around Hunters Cove south to a parking turnout at Meyers Beach where my bride was patiently waiting.

Great hiking, awesome scenery and geocaching – one of my favorite ways to spend a day!

Geocaching’s Origins – Oregon!

Posted on April 5, 2009 by mdavidson

We Oregonians have the distinct honor of hosting the very first geocache – placed on May 3, 2000 in the shadow of Mt. Hood near Estacada. The original container is long gone but a commemorative plaque was placed in 2003. Many geocachers make their way to this “Mecca of Geocaching” to pay homage and often to commemorate a personal geocaching milestone . I made the trip, for example, to commemorate 1000 geocaches found.

Welcome to Geocache Oregon!

Posted on April 2, 2009 by mdavidson

Welcome to Geocache Oregon!

My wife and I hope this blog will entertain, inform and encourage you to get out and explore our spectacularly diverse state and have a little fun through the world-wide outdoor phenomenon of geocaching.

For the most part, posts will showcase a specific place or region of Oregon and how searching for geocaches brought us there.

In addition, there will be topics specific to geocaching such as GPS units, paperless geocaching, how-to tutorials and associated resources.

Please understand that if you don’t see many posts about a specific region of interest to you – we’ll get there! We still have full-time vocations but plan several outings each year in our little T@B RV.