B+L

Can we count hikes we've already done? Why limit it to hiking? How about mountain biking, ski touring, etc? Anything human powered. Uphill is uphill. Then I suppose you need to decide whether absolute elevation or total elevation counts and whether or not you want to have some sort of minimum threshold for distance per outing, whether max elevation is at a cache, or on the way to or from a cache and so on.

He's too shy to tell you, but you are his hero.

Here's an explanation of why that's not possible. It might not have been possible when your citation was published. But HTC provides customized phones to their cycling team which use ANT+ to log position, speed, cadence, pulse, etc and upload it. Current Droid/Droid X phones and iPhones have ANT capable hardware (minus the necessary firmware update and/or blessing from Mr. Jobs). Someday is getting closer.

Someone tested one placed inside an ammo can and they claim that it worked perfectly fine. Perhaps Garmin is just being overly cautious.

It's hard to get excited about hiking on biking trails. Make it a ride instead of a hike and we'd perk up a little. We probably can't go anyway because we have some home projects to finish first and we never seem to get them done as fast as we'd like to think we will.

I finally remembered to ask about this. L's dad thinks the only mine tunnels that still may be accessible are on the back side of Hart's Pass. The Azurite mine being the most well known. The Forest Service was soliciting bids to re-open the road to the mine this year, so the situation may change in the next year or two. He is not aware of any mines or tunnels closer to Twisp, although the book we referred to in our last post does indicate that extensive mine tunnels once existed near Alder Creek. As L's dad says, Alder Creek is really snakey, so keep that in mind if you go exploring during the warmer months.

There is a hotel at Snoqualmie Summit: Summit Lodge which is only a few miles east of the trailhead. You have to know your own capabilities. If you are reasonably fit, have some decent footwear, a headlamp, etc. you would probably be able to do the cache in a couple hours fairly easily, assuming that you have daylight for most of the hike. We would not recommend doing this hike at night. The trail is rocky and rooty in sections until you reach the old railroad grade. To ensure that you keep to your schedule and return on time, skip the other caches along the trail and set a turn-around time and stick to it no matter what. The Forest Service station at the summit closes for the season right about now, but they do have a Forest Pass vending machine outside the building. The station is right next to the Summit at Snoqualmie Ski area. There is a cache a few feet away named Laconia. The gas station or even the hotel might also sell passes. Getting from the trailhead parking lot to Groundspeak HQ in one hour could also be tough if you run into any traffic problems. All of this assumes that you are by yourself. If you have your family with you, then please skip the APE cache and save it for another time.

A few we did recently that we enjoyed: DRAMA CAME TO MT. HOOD Pioneer Lady on the Barlow The cache page on this one is really nicely done: HCRH - Mosier Twin Tunnels We skipped the final to do some other time, since this multi is really kind of awkward unless you are headed west on 26, but it's worth a visit even without doing the cache: Third Time's a Charm!

The oldest cache we've found is GC6, hidden May 9, 2000. It can't be logged because it's archived and the cache page is locked. http://coord.info/GC6 The next time someone goes on about how caching was better in the old days, show them this picture of the 5th cache ever hidden. It's right next to some active railroad tracks at a spot where people pull off the road and run into the woods for emergency bathroom breaks.

A Canon Rebel XTi with a Canon 70-300 USM zoom. The goat was only about 15 feet away and moving fast, so we were very lucky to get a decent shot. It could easily have turned out like this picture of a chipmunk that we took on the way up to the lookout:

Mountain goat at Alpine Lookout. Too close to fit into the frame.

Coyote near Yamhill, OR. We also saw a bobcat and a black bear the same day, but they were a little too quick for us to get any photos.

Pika at the Ape Cave

No lava tubes. There are mines, but as far as I know none of them are accessible to the public because they are all on active claims. There is a pretty extensive mine in the Twisp area that's probably the one you've been hearing rumors about. L's dad knows the area as well as anyone, so we'll ask him about it and report back. Discovering Washington's Historic Mines, Volume 3 is full of good information about the area.

Hoary Marmot near Upper Melakwa Lake. This little guy was sleeping in the grass and I almost stepped on him before he woke up and ran off. He was very curious and did not go more than about 10 feet before he stopped to watch us. Another Hoary Marmot "whistling" near Upper Melakwa Lake.

Pika near Hemlock Pass

The best beans ever. They kept us warm all night and then powered us up to Sourdough Gap today against a breeze strong enough to blow the dog off the chain. We're not sure if it was the beans or the breeze that were making the snow melt so fast that we could see it shrinking. Aix was a lot more fun than it should have been thanks to all of our fantastic hiking companions, but next time, we want the beans before and after the hike.

huh? What is AIX? A mountain. Bzzt. Sorry, that is incorrect.

huh? What is AIX?

We're thinking proprietary Unix operating systems for 1000, Alex.

Multiple trips in one thread, that'll do it fer shure. This Sunday, July 11, is Tubal Cain, meeting 9:00 am in Silverdale. (Thanks, Crim. I may have to call off those hit men. ) Next weekend, July 16-18, is the Bumping Lake campout with Aix as the hiking goal on Saturday 17th. How's that? Thread is pretty cheap. Maybe we should start more of them. Anyway, we're in for Tubal Cain.

We're presently negotiating with NWCREW to rent him the basement of site 63. You shouldn't have any problem finding a spot because the sites can allegedly accommodate up to six people. There is a $10 fee per extra vehicle, so to get the best deal, you'll want to find some socialists to go halfsies with

Get back on the trail hippie.

OK

We've been to some of these caches. The user names are real enough. Some of them are letterboxers. The presence of the stump in their banner picture is kind of interesting. It seems the forest defender was rather late arriving. It is pointless to speculate about what motivates this person. They were kind enough to provide some excellent clues to their identity. Someone with access to the right tools could track them down pretty easily. The way they post details about some of the hiders is really creepy. Much creepier than stealing some caches would be by itself.