Let's Celebrate - Geocaching has come of age. You only turn 21 once, so it's a good time for being erratic.
Yes, Geocaching turns 21 on May 3, 2021. It's been an erratic past year to say the least, so let's celebrate turning 21 in good health.
The cache is not at the stated coordinates. They are for one of multiple parking areas. A different parking spot may be your selection.
Coordinate readings in the area are so erratic that I decided to make this a letterbox hybrid. This will save you from being frustrated, and the environment from being damaged.
If you prefer traditional coordinates to letterbox style instructions, there is a puzzle at the bottom of the page. I suspect that it will be easier, faster, more accurate, and less frustrating to simply use the letterbox instructions.
If you already know where the large erratic is located in this park, just head there and pick up the directions from that point. Yes, the cache is near an erratic, as are most other caches in the Pacific Northwest.
What, you may ask, is an erratic? It is a rock of any size, from enormous to as small as a grain of dirt that was formed a significant distance from where you found it. It was transported from its original location, usually by glacial ice. It differs from the native rock in the area where it now rests.
"Erratics" take their name from the Latin word errare - "to wander." Hopefully this cache does not wander!
Letterbox instructions:
- start at the Rose Garden pavilion in Priest Point Park.
- either walk or drive past the parks maintenance sheds to a silver gate on you left.
- wander down the trail marked "No horses or motor vehicles on trail."
- continue wandering past the parks storage area for things such as mulch. At this point your pathway narrows.
- continue almost a tenth of a mile to a large erratic rock on your right. Ignore all pathways and rocks on your left.
- turn to face the erratic while standing on the trail. Be certain to be at the main social trail to the erratic where you will have a fir tree on your left and a cedar tree on your right. Then take a moment to appreciate the erratic, of course.
- call the fir tree on your left fir #1. Continue wandering a short distance, in the same direction you were going. Pass - all on your right - fir #1, then a second fir, and finally another cedar tree.
- just past the cedar tree, you will see a fallen log reaching within inches to the trail.
- turn right and walk along that log until it meets a second fallen log.
- reach over the log you followed into the "V" created by the meeting of the two logs.
- under pieces of bark, you should find the camouflaged plastic geocache.
If you parked near the Rose Garden, be erratic and wander back to your vehicle by a different pathway to enjoy another portion of the trails.
Happy Birthday, Geocaching!
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Puzzle to get actual coordinates: purple, black. 0, black, white, white, yellow; white, red, red. brown, blue, white black, blue.