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Nurse To The Ape

Nurse Dave

By Nurse Dave
in Northwest

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Nurse Dave

+Nurse Dave

Posted
Posted

Hey NW folks, my wife (Beckerbuns) and I will be leaving the kids with my parents in Portland and making the pilgramige to the APE cache on July 6th. Anyone who hasn't been there yet or just wants to make the trek again is welcome to join us. After that we're going to downtown Seattle to spend the night. If anyone is interested we can set-up times and such.

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Team GPSaxophone

+Team GPSaxophone

Posted
Posted
Hey NW folks, my wife (Beckerbuns) and I will be leaving the kids with my parents in Portland and making the pilgramige to the APE cache on July 6th. Anyone who hasn't been there yet or just wants to make the trek again is welcome to join us. After that we're going to downtown Seattle to spend the night. If anyone is interested we can set-up times and such.

Oh yeah, pick the weekend of my campout when you know I'll be in Colorado :ph34r:

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WeightMan

+WeightMan

Posted
Posted
Hey NW folks, my wife (Beckerbuns) and I will be leaving the kids with my parents in Portland and making the pilgramige to the APE cache on July 6th.  Anyone who hasn't been there yet or just wants to make the trek again is welcome to join us.  After that we're going to downtown Seattle to spend the night.  If anyone is interested we can set-up times and such.

Oh yeah, pick the weekend of my campout when you know I'll be in Colorado :P

I don't know about weekends in Colorado, but in Washington July 6 is a Wednesday and not on a weekend.

 

:lol::lol::ph34r:

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WeightMan

+WeightMan

Posted
Posted
The what? :ph34r: (says the n00b...)

He is talking about this cache, which is one of three still active of the type. It is one of the biggest boxes you will see and gets you a new icon on your profile of finds. This particular one is a favorite around here and involves a 2+ mile trek through the former Milwaukee Road tunnel at Snoqualmie Pass. Join the group and find out about it.

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Team GPSaxophone

+Team GPSaxophone

Posted
Posted
Hey NW folks, my wife (Beckerbuns) and I will be leaving the kids with my parents in Portland and making the pilgramige to the APE cache on July 6th.  Anyone who hasn't been there yet or just wants to make the trek again is welcome to join us.  After that we're going to downtown Seattle to spend the night.  If anyone is interested we can set-up times and such.

Oh yeah, pick the weekend of my campout when you know I'll be in Colorado :lol:

I don't know about weekends in Colorado, but in Washington July 6 is a Wednesday and not on a weekend.

 

:P:lol::ph34r:

My campout runs from Friday through Tuesday. I couldn't drive from here to Washington by Wednesday morning :D

 

 

Now, if you want to pay my airfare I'll gladly attend B)

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Shop99er

+Shop99er

Posted
Posted (edited)
Hey NW folks, my wife (Beckerbuns) and I will be leaving the kids with my parents in Portland and making the pilgramige to the APE cache on July 6th.  Anyone who hasn't been there yet or just wants to make the trek again is welcome to join us.  After that we're going to downtown Seattle to spend the night.  If anyone is interested we can set-up times and such.

Oh yeah, pick the weekend of my campout when you know I'll be in Colorado :)

I don't know about weekends in Colorado, but in Washington July 6 is a Wednesday and not on a weekend.

 

:(:o:)

Air's thin there, so they loose the basic concept of time. B)

 

I lived in Arvada eons ago.

 

I would love to go, (been wanting to hunt this one for months), but my Bosses are unreasonable. They think I should be at work that day. :o

 

Now, if this was gonna be on a weekend, me and Team Hawkinson would be all over this, as we are planning to go up there this Summer.

 

[edit--added blah-blah]

Edited by Shop99er
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WeightMan

+WeightMan

Posted
Posted
I AM SOOO THERE !!!!!  WOOOHOO finally having weekdays off pays.  Now I just need to get to 99.

If you're going through the tunnel, you only have to get to 96. :o You'll pass 3 on the way to the ape cache:

 

Iron Horse (East)

Bloody Fingers, Dirty Diapers

Iron Horse

My advise is to do Dirty Diapers after lunch though. I call that cache Dirty Fingers since that is what I got. I didn't realize it until I got out of the tunnel though. That stuff was tough to get off.

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Dagg

+Dagg

Posted
Posted

Hmmm three days off work and a possible cavity search at the boarder…

The time off shouldn’t be a problem, not too fond of cavity searches though…

 

If I can swing it, would I be better off taking the ferry to Port Angeles, Anacortes, or Vancouver and driving down? That is if you don’t mind me tagging along…..

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5

+5

Posted
Posted
Hmmm three days off work and a possible cavity search at the boarder…

The time off shouldn’t be a problem, not too fond of cavity searches though…

 

If I can swing it, would I be better off taking the ferry to Port Angeles, Anacortes, or Vancouver and driving down? That is if you don’t mind me tagging along…..

Hey, what happens at the border stays at the border! :o

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AndrewRJ

+AndrewRJ

Posted
Posted
I AM SOOO THERE !!!!!  WOOOHOO finally having weekdays off pays.  Now I just need to get to 99.

If you're going through the tunnel, you only have to get to 96. :o You'll pass 3 on the way to the ape cache:

 

Iron Horse (East)

Bloody Fingers, Dirty Diapers

Iron Horse

My advise is to do Dirty Diapers after lunch though. I call that cache Dirty Fingers since that is what I got. I didn't realize it until I got out of the tunnel though. That stuff was tough to get off.

In addition I would add that it is also very difficult to get out of your clothes so watch what you do while you are searching. Just about every surface is coated in greasy soot.

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Nurse Dave

+Nurse Dave

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  • Author
Posted

Well cool! We'll have at least a small group of folks. Maybe someone that has done it or that area before can help us out. We're not into the deathmarch thing, so we'll just be doing the tunnel and the caches around that area.

 

Anyone know of a good meeting area around there?

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WeightMan

+WeightMan

Posted
Posted

The obvious meeting spot would be the Iron Horse State Park parking lot at the east entrance to the tunnel, but there is a $5 parking fee per vehicle. Perhaps we could meet at Rattlesnake Lake and car pool up from there.

 

As a side note this log for Iron Horse indicates some construction work and possibly the disappearance of the cache. Sad to see this old one go, if that is the case.

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Suziq

+Suziq

Posted
Posted

I was up there on the 11th and it was still there They are bulldozing in the area but on the oposite side of the trail. I realy cant see them bulldozing the cache. When you get there you will see what I mean. From what I can see they might actually be making a little park or somthing right at the trunnel. Or it could all be cable work it was flagged when were were there but once again not where the cach actually was. Close but not that close. Its a great view and popular spot. You do need the cache page the coordinates take you to the middle of the trail you will need the directions mentioned to find it.

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WeightMan

+WeightMan

Posted
Posted

I had found Iron Horse, but that was last summer and so the construction was not going on. I can understand why they would work the north side of the trail, but not the south side. I hope the cache is still there. I suspect the cacher was not looking in the right place because they were convinced the construction was a problem.

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LindaLu

+LindaLu

Posted
Posted

Count me in! I had found the APE cache previously, but Iron Horse was missing at that time (someone took it to Texas, as I recall), so I'd love to go back to the area. I had to wait to see if I had the day off before replying, and I do!

 

Looking forward to meeting you, Dave and Becky!

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WeightMan

+WeightMan

Posted
Posted
Anyone have any idea how long the round trip walk will be to the APE cache & back. Just an approximation is okay, it's for planning purposes.

I like the No Death March idea.

The tunnel is just over 2 miles long and the Ape cache is less than a mile from the tunnel. So round trip would be six miles or so. Of course there are the caches to do along the way as mentioned above.

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Nurse Dave

+Nurse Dave

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  • Author
Posted

So I figured we should actually start planning something. I look like we just take I-5 to 18 to I-90? Mapquest says 3:30 from Portland and we'll leave at 7.

 

Question, I seem to remember hearing that you can park at either end right? So if we meet below and carpool up to the $5 parking area...do you end up back where the other cars are?

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Allanon

+Allanon

Posted
Posted
So I figured we should actually start planning something.  I look like we just take I-5 to 18 to I-90?  Mapquest says 3:30 from Portland and we'll leave at 7.

 

That would be the scenic route. :lol: The other option would be I-5 all the way to I-90, but it's all on which way you want to go.

 

Question, I seem to remember hearing that you can park at either end right?  So if we meet below and carpool up to the $5 parking area...do you end up back where the other cars are?

 

This I'm not sure about so I'll leave it to those in the know to answer.

 

On a personal note - I may have to pull out if my foot doesn't heal by then. I got a blister on the ball of my foot this last weekend after a rock got into my shoe, and if it's not 100% better, I'm not going to risk re-injuring it. I'll know better as we get closer to the event.

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CENT5

+CENT5

Posted
Posted (edited)
Ah, I was just going by what mapquest was telling me.  We're just going to shoot right up to the cache area.  I'll take the direct route.  Think that will shave off 10-15 minutes?

18 can be a bugger if any little thing goes wrong. Listen to KOMO AM 1000 for traffic reports when you get close. They have them every 10 minutes on the 4's (1004-1014-1024 etc.)

 

You can also look here for road construction etc. WSDOT

Edited by CENT5
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AndrewRJ

+AndrewRJ

Posted
Posted
Question, I seem to remember hearing that you can park at either end right? So if we meet below and carpool up to the $5 parking area...do you end up back where the other cars are?

This is if you are doing the 22 miles. They were talking about meeting at Rattlesnake Lake probibly. If you just want to do the first few I would carpool up from North Bend off I-90 and then after you get the caches just drive back to the cars.

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WeightMan

+WeightMan

Posted
Posted

The first thing that must be cleared up is which set of caches do you want to do. Do you want to do the entire 22 miles on bikes or just get to the Ape cache and then, with perhaps a few miles more to Avalanche Shed, back to the cars. There is also the option of parking at Asahel Curtis parking area (which also requires payment) and hiking up the Annette Lake trail to the Iron Horse trail. That gets you to the Iron Horse trail west of the Ape cache and fairly close to Avalanche Shed. It is then an easy walk east to the tunnel. The two disadvantages of that route (which I did last year) are the hike up the trail and you don't get the full tunnel experience.

 

From your original post I assumed you wanted to walk the tunnel to the Ape cache and then back. If that is what you want then meeting at Rattlesnake Lake and car pooling up to Iron Horse State Park for parking makes the most sense. If you want to do the Annette Lake Trail then meeting at Rattlesnake makes sense as well. If you want to do the bike ride then Rattlesnake Lake is a must and then ferry people and bikes to the pass and back again. Parking someplace further west is also an option for car pools to the pass for the hike through the tunnel.

 

As to your routing. Highway 18 is a two lane road and is prone to delays for construction as well as accidents. It is deceptive since it looks like it should be a four lane highway and people tend to have head on collisions there. Thus the construction which is still ongoing. I would say take I-5 to I-405 and then to I-90. I-5 tends to get very congested as you get close to the I-90 ramp. I-405 gets congested almost any time in either direction.

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Recdiver

+Recdiver

Posted
Posted

Okay I'd like to do the tunnel and the APE cache and wouldn't be opposed to doing any caches on the way. Is it possible to park below (Rattlesnake Lake) carpool up to the upper trail head, do the tunnel, the APE cache, any others and end up at the cars parked at Rattlesnake Lake (or wherever)? I’d prefer not having to walk uphill back to the cars if possible. Or is there a better way to do it?

thanks

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MarcusArelius

MarcusArelius

Posted
Posted (edited)
Ah, sorry.  Just planned on starting on the east side of the tunnel and walking through to the APE and then back.

 

Is Rattlesnake lake on 90?

Rattlesnake lake is a good bit south of I-90. If you are only doing the upper section of the trail I would just head directly up to the pass.

 

If you only want to do the tunnel one way people could meet up at Garcia (free parking) N47 25.436 W121 37.280 and shuttle to Hyak

 

I agree with Weightman on the route I-5 to I-405, to I-90

Edited by MarcusArelius
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WeightMan

+WeightMan

Posted
Posted

I don't think Marcus is suggesting walking from Garcia to Hyak. I think his suggestion is to use Garcia as a general parking area and then pool up to Hyak and the Iron Horse State Park to cut back on the number of people that have to pay to park up there.

 

I originally suggested Rattlesnake Lake only because I knew it had been used before and was free parking. Given that NurseDave only wants to do the tunnel and then to the Ape cache, Garcia sounds like the place to meet. We can then pool up to the pass. I won't link to them since that has already been done in this thread, but the caches along the route would be Iron Horse (East), Dirty Diaper Bloody Fingers, Iron Horse, and Mission 9: Tunnel of Light. Total walk would be about six miles of almost level ground. There is a slight downhill from the tunnel to the Ape cache, but not much. As I suggested earlier save the Dirty Fingers cache for the return trip. It keeps the fingers cleaner longer and it is actually easier from the west. I won't say why. I'll leave that to the finders to see why.

 

It sounds like we have the cache list set, the parking and pooling basically set. Now time is the problem. When do you think you can be there Dave?

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