crs98

I can't tell you what the "best" options are, but a quick Yelp search of bike rentals revealed that there is a place at Snoqualmie Pass that rents bikes. They are only open Friday -Sunday. I've never rented from them, but they would undoubtedly be the most convenient option for you to rent something to go through the tunnel. https://www.evo.com/locations/snoqualmie-pass

I know that a number of the local cachers in the area have been checking on caches and making sure they are accessible and that there is adequate parking, etc. I don't know what changes to the route that will/should make. I know that @SeabeckTribe is also hosting a mid-route event which is not on the list yet since it was published after the initial list came out in early December. It should slot in after the virtual cache (GC9P5WJ) The Kitsap 9/11 Memorial Project.

@quadsinthemudd - Any idea when the next draft route will be posted? I'm sure that there will be last minute changes to the route, but any updates that you have will help for those of us who are OCD planners.

I'm looking forward to this one quite a lot. At the moment, https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC8KR8F (stop #52) is missing and disabled. As @DiscGolfBirdie is an active participant in this discussion, I'm guessing there's a decent chance it will get replaced.

@Terrible Ts - I was able to use the Template you created to import the cachetur trip just fine. I'm not sure how many tweaks there will be to the route yet, so I'm not sure whether or not to turn this into a trip or wait for a later draft. One thing I know that I find helpful and will definitely do for the trip if you don't is to add parking coords to every stop. Can you do that for a template?

Another option would be for you to drop it in a local geocache. Given that you live in Bothell, WA, may I suggest dropping it off at https://coord.info/GC9N1E0, which is nearby and an easy cache to find?

As promised, here's my newly created list of really old caches from California: https://coord.info/BM9B2P1

kunarion correctly suggested using the route feature, which will allow you get a list of all of the caches along your intended trip. The main suggestion I would make is to look for things that are highly favorited caches or any caches that are old (from 2000 or 2001) along the way. I have shareable lists of those old caches for BC, WA, and OR and will be generating one for CA since I think it would be a nice thing for lots of people to have access to, but I can't get that done until tomorrow since I've already used my full alotment of pocket queries for today. Here's the links for shared lists for those older caches. You can see them, map them, and decide if any of them are worth visiting along the way for your trip: British Columbia - https://www.geocaching.com/plan/lists/BM7GT3Z Washington - https://www.geocaching.com/plan/lists/BM7GT21 Oregon - https://www.geocaching.com/plan/lists/BM7GT4H

There are currently three active caches from 2000 in Washington - GCD Geocache (June 2000), GC79 Iron Horse (October 2000), and GCBC Monte Cristo (November 2000). There are 102 caches from 2001. All of them are included on this list: https://www.geocaching.com/plan/lists/BM7GT21. There are no caches from the year 2000 in British Columbia, but there are 34 caches from 2001. All of those caches are in this list: https://www.geocaching.com/plan/lists/BM7GT3Z. Oregon has five active caches from 2000 - GC12 (2nd oldest in the world) from May 2000, GC16 (June 2000), GC17 (July 2000), The Un-original Stash GC92 (October 2000) and Hembre Ridge GCA5 (November 2000). There are 92 caches from 2001. All of them are included on this list: https://www.geocaching.com/plan/lists/BM7GT4H.

This is specifically about Favorite lists. You have found every cache on that list.

It seems that the default sort order for your Favorites list is done alphabetically. That is probably the least interesting way to sort the list. Ideally you should be able to sort it based on any of the columns in the list, but if you only had one to choose from, I would probably pick it based on the date you found the cache, with the most recent ones listed first.

I meant to add this to my previous notes from last weekend, but parking at the Serene Lake TH for Serenity Now and Talbots Tools (stops #16 and #17 on the most recent draft) do require a NW Forest Pass. I don't remember if some of the other stops along the Skykomish river require a Discovery Pass, but it's likely that at least one of them does.

I checked on the coordinates for my lunch event cache (updated!) and my own five hides (#20, #21, #24, #25, and #26) which were all in good shape today. In addition to that, QuigQuay and I looked for a number of caches that I hadn't yet found out on that leg of the intended trip, and I have a few comments on some of them. #16-17. These two caches are right at the start of the very popular hiking trail up to Angel Falls and Lake Serene. When we got there just after lunch today, the cars were parked about 3/4 of a mile down the dirt road. I think these caches are fine ones to get, but they should stay early in the route (currently at 7:30am which is great). If you get there late, there will be a long walk through crowded cars to get to GZ. #18 - Dipper Crazy #3. I'm pretty sure this cache has been gone for a long time. It's been three years since the last legitimate find and there were a lot of DNFs on it (just one iffy found it log from a novice cacher). It's rated as T1 and there is no possible spot for a T1 cache to be anywhere close to that spot. #28 (Shelby's Cache), #29 (His Cache), and #30 (Her Cache) - I think these should be dropped from the route. They all are on the same trail system (trailhead at N47 50.700 W121 37.642). It's about a half mile walk from that spot to Her Cache which is the first one you get to. That cache is actually there (we found it today - the first find in nearly five years), but it's really the only one of these three that is possible for a CM. His Cache (#29) is almost certainly missing. It's a fairly significant climb to get on top of the big rock (which is where the hint says it is), but QQ was able to do it and there is no cache on top of it. The last find was five years ago and we're pretty sure it's long gone. Shelby's Cache (#28) is another mile or so of a walk from Her Cache. We found that one today (first find in almost four years) and it is in a cool spot, but the terrain is rougher than advertised and it's a long walk on a cache machine just to get one cache. #42 (Somewhere Out There), #43 (Stuck in the Middle) and #44 (Up There Somewhere) - all three of these should stay on the route. We looked for and found them today (the last one had several DNFs before we found it today. They are all there and in fine shape. The walk getting to them is pleasant and the caches are all fun to find.

Also, a new cache that would fit in well along the route was just published yesterday. Gold Bar would fit in nicely in between stops #11 and #12.

#21 - Forks of the Sky - Picnic Bend Trailhead - this is actually the trailhead for both caches Forks of the Sky - Picnic Bend (#20) and Picnic Bend (#22). It's an easy flat trail to both caches. Stops #24 - WaStatePks100: Forks of the Sky - Index Town Wall, #25 - Forks of the Sky - Blocks of Granite, and #26 - Forks of the Sky - Boulder Field are all short walks from the same parking area which is at N 47° 49.061 W 121° 34.283 (posted parking coordinates). Note that to reach stops #24 and #25, you have to cross the railroad tracks and walk alongside them (there is a fairly clearly marked roadway, which you can see on the map). Please add that note in the description - if you follow the trail all the way to the wall, you'll find that there is no trail and the terrain gets much rougher. Once you get those two caches, you walk back the same way towards the parking lot, but then continue on the trail to get #26.

Definitely a wet weather caching day ahead of us all. The National Weather Service's forecast for Shelton on Saturday is: Saturday Rain. High near 52. Breezy, with a south southwest wind 13 to 23 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New precipitation amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible.

Can you identify any specific cache you found from that period in your life? If you can, you might be able to look at the logs from when you were in the area and possibly identify your old username. If you can do that, you can click on the username and get a list of the caches that you found back then. The key would be to find at least one cache that you know you found so you can look at the old logs to identify your old name.

I'm a big fan of virtual caches in National Parks as well. I think Hurricane Ridge would be a great place to put one (again, replacing the one that used to be there).

Also, you mentioned safety as a concern. Other than the roads being snowy, the only other real concern I can think of would be for wildlife. This is bear country - we saw very fresh bear scat while walking up the last little bit of the road to the cache site. If I had to guess, I'd say we probably scared the bear off with our approach. Honestly, you are extremely unlikely to see bears or cougars while in the area - they tend to shy away from human contact at all costs. The one caveat would be that you really don't want to get in between a mother bear and her cubs. Cubs may not have enough training or instinct to stay away from humans. As long as the roads are in good shape, I wouldn't worry about a pair of people going up to this area even if you don't manage to wrangle up anyone else into accompanying you. Having said that, it's always more fun to cache with other people, so I do hope you get some takers on the dates you are looking at.

I have been to GC25 and figured I would add a couple of words of advice. (1) As stated in the description, the roads up to the area were pretty good and passable by pretty much any car until the last 1.25 miles which would be iffy in non-4WD transportation. Those roads are off pavement, but were good solid dirt roads when I was there a few years ago and you should be able to drive up that far in pretty much anything that isn't ready to fall to pieces. (2) The snowpack in the Idaho high country often melts out at around that date. I don't know whether or not any of the roads would be under snow in most years (let alone this year in particular), but it is something you should at least check into. I would hate to have you make the trip up from CA only to find that the dirt roads are impassable because of snow. The cache elevation is over 5000 feet high if I remember correctly. Check with the CO to get his opinion on whether or not the cache will be something you can drive up to in mid-June. (3) There will be limited (at best) and likely no cell phone reception in this area. If you are a phone cacher or use your phone for routing to caches, you need to download maps, etc. before you head up to the cache. --Cliff (crs98)

I'm the C/O of the cache I think your talking about, it's actually stop #77 and to clarify it's Spirit Quest Home of Piece. There were several reasons for the daylight hours only restriction in the beginning, and I have kept it on mainly to keep people from looking for it at odd hours, like 2AM in the morning, or accidently going inside the cemetery when they shouldn't. Keeping in mind during the summer dark can be as late 9PM or even later. I think since the cache is accessible from the sidewalk on the street outside the cemetery that it is just fine for folks on the cache machine to look for the cache in the early evening, even if it is after dark. I have posted a note on the cache page as well to that affect. However please don't assume that is ok at my other spirit quest cemetery caches in the area such as Mountain View and Old Pioneer. Those are inside the cemeteries and should never be looked for after dark ever, which is why they were removed from the CM because of the time the CM would get there. But for SQ Home of Piece it's totally fine to look for it in the early evening hours. Thanks, SirKarp Duly noted. Thanks for making it clear that this will be OK (for those of us who get that far along the route anyway).

#78 on the final route is accessible from outside the cemetery, but the CO has asked for it to be done during daylight hours only.

You haven't defined what you mean by physically challenging caches, but I'll make a few suggestions - there are a ton of trails on that part of the Kitsap peninsula. None of them are particularly challenging from the point of view of either distance or elevation, but you could easily spend the better part of several days just walking on the trails and finding caches. North Kitsap Heritage Park, for example, has about 15 caches in the park and it's 799 acres (bigger than a square mile) in size. You can find a trail map at http://www.kitsapgov.com/parks/Parks/Documents/Trail_Maps/nkhp_map.pdf with at least 6 or 7 miles of trails in the park's woods. Side note - if you want a full set of trail maps that are downloadable to a Garmin or DeLorme GPS for free, check out Moun10Bike's Northwest Trails map set at http://www.switchbacks.com/nwtrails/ It just so happens that one of the best gadget cache makers in the world also lives in this area. Goblindust is famous for his incredibly well designed and interesting cache creations and I would highly recommend stopping by any number of his caches as well. Here's a link to his caches in Washington State - https://www.geocaching.com/play/search?ot=4&owner[0]=goblindust&r=48&e=1&sort=FavoritePoint&asc=False

Not for just July and August, but for all of 2000, you can take a look at this bookmark list created by lamoracke: http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.aspx?guid=4ef60473-96d9-4f21-9266-3b45890a601e If you want to, you can make a PQ out of this.

I know that puzzles are often bypassed on cache machine routes because they are not always something that all cachers can solve. Having noted that, I want to call out one particular puzzle cache that is actually on the route for those that are interested. Colonel Ebey's Time Capsule http://coord.info/GC13DA is the oldest active puzzle cache in Washington. If you haven't already I found this cache, I strongly encourage you to solve it and find it while going on this cache machine. Despite the 4-star difficulty, it isn't that hard to solve and it will be well worth everyone's time to grab this classic EraSeek cache.