The Day I Went to the Sound and the Water Was Gone Traditional Geocache
travisl: Hmm... doesn't look like I'll get down there any time soon to replace it. I'll archive it and leave the area open for someone else to hide a cache.
The Day I Went to the Sound and the Water Was Gone
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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One of the things that amazes me about Puget Sound is that it's really a canyon as deep as the Columbia River gorge, only it's filled in with water, and we're perched on the edge of it. I've often wondered what it would be like to see the ravines, hills, and canyons of Puget Sound without all that water in the way. It's 900 feet deep in spots -- that's more than three times the height of Snoqualmie Falls, and half again as high as Multnomah Falls.
There's a painter who frequents local craft shows (like the ''Taste of Tacoma'', ''Bumbershoot'', or ''Celebrate Some Dead Guy In Puyallup Day''), who creates some pretty neat conceptual landscapes of what the Sound would look like with very little water in it. I'm always transfixed by the images.
Anyhow, I've been to this spot three times before I planted the cache, and every time, it was nearly high tide. The day I placed the cache, however, the tide was out. Way out. It looked as if I could almost walk to Vashon Island. I'd have loved to have hidden the cache under a log out there, but I know it wouldn't stay there for long.
The cache is, instead, in a more permanent location. It's a a bit of a challenge (two star terrain) at low tide, and more difficult (three star terrain) at high tide. You could conceivably do this one at high tide without getting your feet wet, if you have good balance. Or you could end up falling into the Sound, knocking yourself out, and becoming food for rabid carniverous harbor seals. You know they're out there, just waiting for the day the Orcas leave.
The cache location is easy to find -- it's at the Dumas Bay Centre (doesn't that ''re'' at the end make it sound snooty? or Canadian?), which you can find by going anywhere in Federal Way and following the new "Explore Federal Way!" signs. The park is open 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
The cache container is a largish ammo box. If you're wondering whether your CD or your pocket video game or your pet chinchilla will fit in there, yeah, they probably will.
Rehide it better than you found it; there's lots of good sticks and rocks around. Most Federal Way cachers do a better job re-hiding caches than I do, so keep up the good work.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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