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Spokane - APE - HQ - timing question


KBLAST

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My brother in Spokane is getting married Monday, October 18th at 6pm. I expect to be busy with that and not able to leave until around 8pm. I'm from OH and won't get a ton of opportunity to head to WA, so I wanted to knock out the two giants, the APE and HQ. I got my invite to HQ at 10am Tuesday the 19th, so that's all good. My plane then leaves shortly after the HQ visit. Here's the dilemma and where I am asking for experienced WA folks for some knowledge/advice:

 

I can either immediately crash at 8pm and try to get up early to get to the APE and then on to HQ. This may sound crazy, but my time is 3 hours different, so it's actually crashing at 11pm and getting up around 6 my time (3 WA time). I could also just take off and drive to a hotel near the APE cache and stay there, get up just before the crack of dawn and go get the APE cache and then on to HQ. I could also go get the APE cache after dark (or is it open that late? this is where I need your experience!) then crash near Seattle and then get up in time for HQ.

 

I could use help with this whole trip plan. How long is the trip from Spokane - Seattle, REALLY? Looks like about 5 hours, but how much time do I allow to get the APE cache? I'm in decent shape, so I'm not TOO worried about the hike, but y'all know what it's REALLY like. Where would I go to get a decent hotel near the APE cache? Which of my 3 scenarios above will be best? And when I get to HQ, how crazy is the parking situation? How tough is it to get where I'm going? Where do I go to get the pass I need for the trailhead? The link on the page is broken. Am I crazy to try to fit all this in?

 

I hope these questions are clear and someone can give me a little advice/help. I'm aiming at making the HQ cache our 1,000th cache, so this is a pretty big deal for me. :laughing:

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5 hours is probably right for the drive from Spokane-Seattle, maybe a bit less, depending on your speed and traffic.

 

Not to sound discouraging, but it doesn't seem like you have time to get the APE cache, realistically. The APE cache is normally a half-day activity, and definitely not recommended at night - you're hiking in the Cascade Mountains, which shouldn't be done alone for safety (risk of injury, bears, etc.). Plus you'll miss all the scenery, which is a big part of its attraction. (I don't know anyone who's done it at night.)

 

It's a 4+ mile RT hike to the cache with about 700 ft of elevation gain. Most people hike about 5 miles to see the famous Tunnel of Light and get other nearby caches, including one of the oldest in WA (Iron Horse). A fit person who runs up and back and does nothing else can do it in 90 minutes, but most people take longer. A Northwest Forest Pass is required to park at the trailhead; a $5 day pass can be obtained online or at a Forest Service office (there's one in North Bend), some stores like REI, or at local gas stations in North Bend, among other places.

 

Plus it's 20-30 mins each way from the closest hotels, which would be in North Bend. You'd be going up and down I-90: North Bend is around exit 31, the APE trailhead (Annette Lake trailhead) is at exit 47. Then you have to get from North Bend to the Fremont area of Seattle to visit HQ, which could take an hour.

 

Also keep in mind that we have shorter days this time of year. Sunset on Oct. 18 is 6:15 pm; sunrise on Oct. 19 is 7:34 am. Your appt in Seattle is at 10 am.

 

For details on the APE hike and other considerations, see the Going APE event page. We tried to cover all the bases for GeoWoodstock visitors.

 

Good luck!

Edited by hydnsek
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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.

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I would add that speeding from about Ellensburg to about Issaquah can be hard on the wallet. The boys in blue tend to keep a sharp lookout, especially with the instantly changing speed limit signs. But the timing does seem a bit tight to me. Also for any travel in the Snoqualmie Pass pass area you can have a one hour delay for blasting Monday to Thursday at 6pm.

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If it were me and I had to make a choice I'd skip the Lily pad and go for the Ape Cache.

 

I would second that. The icon is nice, but the experience is less so. Your limited to the lobby, get to oggle and swap stuff in the super large cache chest, and maybe take your picture in the picture booth, and your pretty much done. I think I would rather have the APE for my 1,000th. You can do HQ when you come back for the plaque :laughing:

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If it were me and I had to make a choice I'd skip the Lily pad and go for the Ape Cache.

 

I would second that. The icon is nice, but the experience is less so. Your limited to the lobby, get to oggle and swap stuff in the super large cache chest, and maybe take your picture in the picture booth, and your pretty much done. I think I would rather have the APE for my 1,000th. You can do HQ when you come back for the plaque :D

 

~ and IF you haven't done the Original Plaque Cache, I would wait to do that one when you decide to come back for the HQ :laughing:

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Well to fully help plan this trip more info is needed. Like what time does your plane leave? Will leaving Groundspeak at 10:30 getting to the airport area at 11ish give you enough time to turn in your rental car or did someone drive you and can drop you off at the curb. At SeaTac you do need atleast 1 hour before your flight time to check in and I mean from the time you get in line not the time you pass the sign on the road saying welcome to the airport. Second who will be with you? Wife? Friends? other kids? That will change so much you cant plan for it without that info. That being said here are two VERY ROUGH ideas for your trip.

 

Scenario 1: this is what I would do if I was alone or with people as crazy as myself.

 

Leave Spokane by 9 I know you said 8 but plan for 9 and give yourself a little room for fun at the wedding (not everyone understands us).

with only 1 gas and potty stop you should make it to the parking area at 12:23am. you should be real tired by now :( but a good walk in the middle of the night will wake you right up! You know your abilities better than I but a brisk walk at night should sped up the pace and get you to the Ape and back in about 2-2 1/2 hours. :) This will get you back to the car about 3 am. You can get more caches on this hike but you need to decide what your goals are and go for them.

OK so here is were you have to decide to stay in your car for a quick 5 1/2 hour nap and then head on to Groundspeak or stop in north bend for a hotel for 5 hours of sleep. before heading to Groundspeak. It takes about 1 hour to get to Groundspeak with no traffic and knowing the area well. From ground speak it takes 30-45 minutes to get to the airport from Groundspeak. and back home with two new icons and some memories to tell your friends. :ph34r:

 

Scenario 2: If you have non-cachers/sane people with you.

 

same as above but you stop at the summit to drop off the non-cachers to stay in the hotel. its 150-170 a night. or they could sleep in the car while you did the hike then off to north bend to stay the rest of the night. My thoughts are to goto north bend and back would take up to much sleep/caching time.

 

 

As for not seeing the sights by doing the Ape cache at night I have done the Ape cache through the tunnel and the views you cant get because the tunnel is closed are way better than the view of the valley below. Plus you get a new icon that as we all learned this summer could be gone in the blink of an eye.

 

I have planned a few caching trips in my day and this is totally doable if you are able physical able to do it. One thing you must take into account is weekend lag! you will be tired from all the stuff going on so what you could do on a Friday night you wont be able to do on a Monday night after the weekend. :D If you have a few answers to questions about the planning I could help you hammer it out and send you a pdf from streets and trips with times and mileages.

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Well to fully help plan this trip more info is needed. Like what time does your plane leave? Will leaving Groundspeak at 10:30 getting to the airport area at 11ish give you enough time to turn in your rental car or did someone drive you and can drop you off at the curb. At SeaTac you do need atleast 1 hour before your flight time to check in and I mean from the time you get in line not the time you pass the sign on the road saying welcome to the airport. Second who will be with you? Wife? Friends? other kids? That will change so much you cant plan for it without that info. That being said here are two VERY ROUGH ideas for your trip.

 

Scenario 1: this is what I would do if I was alone or with people as crazy as myself.

 

Leave Spokane by 9 I know you said 8 but plan for 9 and give yourself a little room for fun at the wedding (not everyone understands us).

with only 1 gas and potty stop you should make it to the parking area at 12:23am. you should be real tired by now :ph34r: but a good walk in the middle of the night will wake you right up! You know your abilities better than I but a brisk walk at night should sped up the pace and get you to the Ape and back in about 2-2 1/2 hours. :ph34r: This will get you back to the car about 3 am. You can get more caches on this hike but you need to decide what your goals are and go for them.

OK so here is were you have to decide to stay in your car for a quick 5 1/2 hour nap and then head on to Groundspeak or stop in north bend for a hotel for 5 hours of sleep. before heading to Groundspeak. It takes about 1 hour to get to Groundspeak with no traffic and knowing the area well. From ground speak it takes 30-45 minutes to get to the airport from Groundspeak. and back home with two new icons and some memories to tell your friends. :blink:

 

Scenario 2: If you have non-cachers/sane people with you.

 

same as above but you stop at the summit to drop off the non-cachers to stay in the hotel. its 150-170 a night. or they could sleep in the car while you did the hike then off to north bend to stay the rest of the night. My thoughts are to goto north bend and back would take up to much sleep/caching time.

 

 

As for not seeing the sights by doing the Ape cache at night I have done the Ape cache through the tunnel and the views you cant get because the tunnel is closed are way better than the view of the valley below. Plus you get a new icon that as we all learned this summer could be gone in the blink of an eye.

 

I have planned a few caching trips in my day and this is totally doable if you are able physical able to do it. One thing you must take into account is weekend lag! you will be tired from all the stuff going on so what you could do on a Friday night you wont be able to do on a Monday night after the weekend. :D If you have a few answers to questions about the planning I could help you hammer it out and send you a pdf from streets and trips with times and mileages.

 

Thanks so much for all of your help everyone! I was waiting patiently for someone to respond (watching my emails) and none came... not sure why. ;) Anyway, now that I see these great responses, a few things:

 

If I skip one, it'll be the APE cache. I am alone, and if I head this way again, my family would love seeing the APE cache. My family would be much like someone mentioned earlier... "really? we came all this way for a booth and a lobby?"

 

However they would love the trek to the APE cache. This is assuming we'd ever have an opportunity to come this way before it goes away - a serious consideration and concern of mine.

 

I'm crazy enough to want to do what quadsinthemudd recommends as scenario 1 and have done much worse for FTFs and challenges right here in OH, but it WILL be more difficult with the elevation changes I'm not used to and such. I totally misread the cache page - thought it said .25 miles there and .25 back. ;) Looking more closely puts this better into perspective.

 

My flight leaves at 1:43 pm - I think I'm ok for that timing. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

As far as the wedding, this wedding is special because it is my brother, but he is TOTALLY not expecting me to stick around. He's been sort of planning this all with me! He told me to leave by 7 or so, but I'm probably holding out until 8.

 

If the hike to the APE cache is awesome enough and something my family can handle, I will (if the opportunity arises) bring my family with me the second time and grab all the other caches in the area. Is there something about the APE cache location that is SUPER amazing, or is it the whole area that could be taken in by visiting the other caches on the next go-around? For me, the prestige of grabbing one of the most famous caches out there with the special icon is the draw, not necessarily the view.

 

So knowing who I am and a few more of my goals, any other thoughts/insight?

 

Again - thanks a ton to everyone who's chimed in so far!!! I've learned a lot already and feel a LOT more informed.

 

New side note - what's up with these ART caches I see being mentioned around the Seattle area? Is this something else for me to make sure I take the time to grab... maybe even bypass the APE for one of them? I don't want to regret missing out on some cool stuff that appears GUARANTEED to be gone the next time around.

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If the hike to the APE cache is awesome enough and something my family can handle, I will (if the opportunity arises) bring my family with me the second time and grab all the other caches in the area. Is there something about the APE cache location that is SUPER amazing, or is it the whole area that could be taken in by visiting the other caches on the next go-around? For me, the prestige of grabbing one of the most famous caches out there with the special icon is the draw, not necessarily the view.

Based on your response, I'll make the radical suggestion that you save the APE cache until you can come back with your family and do it together in a sane, enjoyable fashion :D , since it sounds like they'd enjoy it. Look at pictures from the cache gallery and you can see the mountain scenery, the waterfalls, etc. You're in the Cascade Mountains! And you can visit the Tunnel of Light and get one of the oldest caches in the state along that same trail section. I'm an optimist and I think our APE cache will still be here; it's managed to survive nine years and a lid disappearance.

 

Plus - and this is the real kicker - the Snoqualmie Tunnel is supposed to reopen next summer (that's the Tunnel of Light), and you could get the true, original experience if you wait till then: walking/biking through the spooky two-mile tunnel to the light, views, and caches on the far side. WSGA plans to hold a followup Going APE event to celebrate the tunnel reopening, possibly the same weekend (Aug 20-21, 2011) that Groundspeak is planning its Block Party.

 

And, as previously mentioned, you could also zip down to Portland area during that more leisurely followup trip and get the Original Stash Tribute Plaque and complete the Northwest Triad.

 

My 2 cents.

Edited by hydnsek
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If the hike to the APE cache is awesome enough and something my family can handle, I will (if the opportunity arises) bring my family with me the second time and grab all the other caches in the area. Is there something about the APE cache location that is SUPER amazing, or is it the whole area that could be taken in by visiting the other caches on the next go-around? For me, the prestige of grabbing one of the most famous caches out there with the special icon is the draw, not necessarily the view.

Based on your response, I'll make the radical suggestion that you save the APE cache until you can come back with your family and do it together in a sane, enjoyable fashion :D , since it sounds like they'd enjoy it. Look at pictures from the cache gallery and you can see the mountain scenery, the waterfalls, etc. You're in the Cascade Mountains! And you can visit the Tunnel of Light and get one of the oldest caches in the state along that same trail section. I'm an optimist and I think our APE cache will still be here; it's managed to survive nine years and a lid disappearance.

 

Plus - and this is the real kicker - the Snoqualmie Tunnel is supposed to reopen next summer (that's the Tunnel of Light), and you could get the true, original experience if you wait till then: walking/biking through the spooky two-mile tunnel to the light, views, and caches on the far side. WSGA plans to hold a followup Going APE event to celebrate the tunnel reopening, possibly the same weekend (Aug 20-21, 2011) that Groundspeak is planning its Block Party.

 

And, as previously mentioned, you could also zip down to Portland area during that more leisurely followup trip and get the Original Stash Tribute Plaque and complete the Northwest Triad.

 

My 2 cents.

Wow - if that's the case, then yeah, I'd rather wait. If the APE cache shuts down for any reason before next year, would you be willing to fund my trip to Brazil? :laughing: Thanks for the input, all! I think I've decided to hold off on the APE cache until next year-ish. Groundspeak HQ it is!

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