Belleterre

I always take the ferry if the schedule and location are good. The Southworth/Fauntleroy ferry saved me 50 miles of driving each way when I was going to UW. Definately worth the fare. But, if you drive, you get to set your own schedule - subject to all those fun things like traffic. The ferry also has fun things like -gasp- terror threats to disrupt the schedule. Anyway - since you're coming to my side of the water, I don't have to worry about ferries for this hike. Yippee!! BTW - TL, please count me as 3 people. Dad and the BF are coming too.

Count me in too - and maybe a dog.

How about Mt. Zion GCKDRH out of Quilcene? It's 3.6 miles RT, with an elevation gain of 1323 feet. Dogs are allowed although a bright orange bandana would be good this time of year. However - per Ruck's log of March 8th - there's another trail up - the Deadfall Trail. After a bit of googling, I came up with a description and it looks like it can be done as a 3.4 miles car swap. Since it's so short, I was just thinking of parking at the Deadfall Trail (Latitude 47.8928, Longitude -122.9858) and going up that trail and down the main one and back along the roads. This trail claims 3.2 mile RT with 1380 feet gain.

You can also find an archived cache if you know the owners name.

Is anyone interested in biking the Iron Horse on Sunday, Oct. 12 from Hyak to the Garcia Crossing (exit 38)? There are 13 caches on that section including 4 placed since I was there last. It should be about 13 miles with a car shuttle. I'll be a wimp and cancel out if it's raining.

Yay! A date that wasn't already booked on my calendar. It is SO taken now. See y'all there!

Yeah - some people are lucky enough to be retired so they can hike Mt. Muller today - like my Dad and brother.

Pink Lady has traveled just under 26,000 miles. She was turned loose 5.5 years ago in honor of my Grandmother on her 102nd birthday. The TB's original goal was to visit Grandmother's birthplace near Berlin where she was given a guided tour. Since then, she has traveled extensively in Europe and South Africa. She is also the oldest original TB I still have out there. Jeremy the GeoPuppet has traveled a little over 14,000 miles in 5.5 years, but he's on his 3rd reincarnation.

With almost no moon, we should have a real spooky time on this hunt

I attended my first ever CITO last weekend in Mt. Rainier National Park (no caches allowed). It caused some missgivings because we wouldn't be placing a cache, but I just looked up CITO in the guidelines and here's what it says in part: :: The CITO event cache category was added to differentiate cleanup events from other types of event caches. Use this category when you are asking geocachers to show up on a particular day to pick up litter at a park, remove piles of junk near a popular waterfront, etc. :: In spite of the name, none of the guideline says a cache needs to be placed, so I'm okay with it now. The camaraderie, meeting new people and helping out the park made it as good as any other event and there was still plenty of talk about caching and finding of caches afterwards, not to mention some really good food, to make it a *real* event.

3rd hand official scoop on the bear attack:: This weekend, I heard a rumor that the guy was harassing the bear and had sicced his dogs on it, so I asked around a little and this is the story that got to me today. My friend Sue is a friend of one of the guys who took the injured man to the hospital and this is the story as he heard it directly from the idiots mouth: The man came across the bear and cubs and sicced his dogs on them. He also ran after the bears himself. Mama correctly took exception to this and attacked him. He also stated very firmly that he did NOT want the bear to be put down. Duh! So maybe the comments about it definately being a male were to try to protect the mama. Am I the only one that thinks she missed a good opportunity to qualify him for the Darwin Awards?

Yippee! It's been a bummer to drive by and see all the baricades. Can't wait to get back in there. Although I'll probably be too chicken to go in alone for awhile. I have mixed feelings on the bear and that mostly has to do with questions about what truly happened. One article made it sound like the bear went through the dogs and deliberately went after the guy. That's a bear that probably needs to be put down - relocation isn't going to keep him from hurting other people. But what mitigating factors were there? I guess I'm rooting for the bear for the most part. But I'd really prefer he didn't run into my yard which is only 1.5 miles away. There have been several bear sightings within my tiny neighborhood over the years and it's never bothered me, but this one has me a little jumpy. (I don't have a gun, so no-one has to worry about me shooting him.)

Ah - so many plans to be pushed aside. I think I'll have to skip the party, but I would be interested in teaming up with the Halloween night fools - or is that ghouls?

Huh - for some reason I read right over the post with the date for Lime Kiln. Put me on the *probably going* list for now.

With the exception of turkey day and turkey day weekend, I'd be interested in going.

Ditto hydnsek's comment.

I looked hard for it too, but didn't see anything. Mainly I was looking for a sun glint off a windshield, but didn't see any. The cars and one outhouse at Climber's Bivouac were clearly visible from up high, though.

I had the same idea before my climb. Even thought about bringing my hot pink sarong to show up better. But then I thought about it being 5 miles away (I think) and decided the odds of anything showing were pretty slim. So, aside from that - I was obviously looking at a webcam shot before hiking was allowed, so no-one was on top. Do people actually show on that webcam now?

Huh - according to that link - there were 4 quakes when I was on the mountain. And I thought it was just my legs quaking. Guess I shouldn't complain too much about the heat we had after reading Super88's log.

Blinded by the sun? Heat stroke? Exhaustion? Uh - can I blame it on my brother?

I have 1 or 2 open spots on a permit for July 30. If you're interested, contact me by this Saturday. After that, contact Super88, and put the word 'cell' in the subject line so he can get the message on his cell phone.

Registration is now open to the public. It's not on the mshinstute page yet, but it's up on active.com. http://www.active.com/event_detail.cfm?eve...iate=0/register

MA's is August 19.

This sounds very good compared to the last draft I saw. It also doesn't seem to require a $10 fee which some people have been required to pay to place their cache in a state park. One question I have is if there is any appeal route if there is an anti-caching ranger like we had a big hassle with at Manchester SP a few years ago.

Ah, but Kealia - the itching doesn't start until a day or two after the bite. Get your calomine ready!