5000th Cache Find At The Original Stash Tribute Plaque

On September 20th 2014, we The GO! Team along side my father Postie Bear awoke early in the morning to head out the door and begin what would be a 7 hour drive to Oregon to visit the birthplace of this amazing outdoor activity we all know and love.  That is right, we drove to the Original Stash Tribute Plaque - GCGV0P.  The reason for the trip was that we were making this our 5000th geocache find, while Postie Bear was getting his 3300th!  What a great reason to make this pilgrimage!!  If you would like to learn a bit about the history of geocaching and the Original Stash, take a look at this article by clicking HERE.

So as I was saying, we got up early and started the trip.  Catching the ferry to the mainland we had a nice breakfast and landed on the other side.  We headed down to the border crossing at White Rock, and thankfully crossed with no incident and barely a wait.  The drive down wasn't anything too spectacular, as the scenery is nothing different than what you would see at home drving on the highway.  But one would have to note the ingenuity that goes into the design of the highways and the massive clover leafs in the states, they are definitely unlike anything back home.

It was a very long drive, but we eventually arrived in Oregon and the Original Stash Tribute Plaque.  We all jumped out of the vehicle and converged on the plaque to have a read, take pictures, and make our place in geocaching history by visiting this historical location.  After that we wandered the few meters to the tribute cache hidden nearby and signed the logbook and leave some trackables!

After all that we headed up the hill and found the cache called "Un-Original Stash", and continued further up the road to find two more called "One in Fifty" and "Take a  Hike".
On the way back down we noticed a vehicle pulled over at the plaque and saw two ladies making the find.  We being the friendly Canadians that we are pulled over a chat, and what we got was a surprise!  Turns out the two ladies were tadrew and Cmisko  from back home in Victoria, BC!  What a coincidence!  We chatted for a bit, took a photo together, and decided to have dinner together at the Cheesecake Factory in Portland.  But before heading to the restaurant we found a few more caches in the area.

The next day we headed home and completed our 1220km round trip.  Instead of telling you about that end of the story (which isn't much except for driving) I have put together a hyperlapse film of the entire trip, so please check it out!

Also there will be some photos below!

  

10 to 4999

The other day (Saturday September 13th) Mrs. GO! Team and I decided to go out and get some caches.  We were only 10 away from being at 4999 cache finds, and since we were getting precariously close to our planned date for our 5000th we knew we had to get going.  So out the door we went.

A quick survey of the available caches we could do nearby had us driving out to North Saanich and Sidney.  We had a great day of caching, and made short work of every cache we went to.   Only one proved to be a problem, but that DNF was made tolerable by a visit from a very friendly cat who weaved in and out of our legs begging for attention (which he got)!
But you know 9 caches is nothing to scoff at, and so when we were done we treated ourselves to a very nice dinner at the Spitfire Bar & Grill near (YYJ) Victoria International Airport.

But since we had that small snag on the last one of the day, it provided us with a need to find one more to get all ready.  So yesterday after I got off work I took a look at the geocaching.com map to see what was available, and one cache near the Gorge Waterway stood out to me.  Reading up on the description what was needed we headed out to get our 4999th cache find.

Well this turned into a gong show of a trip, but you know what... I think I will let our cache log tell the story for you!

GC5BKTZ - Fill Me Up Cache Log:

Yesterday we The GO! Team headed out to get 10 caches to make us have 4999 cache finds. Well that failed to happen as the last one we did ended in a DNF. So it was back to the drawing boards for us.
Today when I got off work I looked online and spied this fellow sitting unfound by us in the Gorge area, and reading the description decided this was the cache for us. So after we had dinner we loaded up and headed out to the cache site.

When we arrived we grabbed our water and headed there. The tube was a QEF (even in the dark), and we set to it. Mrs. GO! Team plugged the hole and I poured the contents of the 2 liter bottle of water we filled prior to coming. We retrieved the cache, opened the container, unrolled the log, and..... we didn't have a pen. CRAP! Mrs. GO! Team thought there might be one in her car, so off she went to look (taking the half empty bottle with her) while I stayed at GZ. 

After a short time I got a text message from her saying she didn't have a pen. So I did the next best thing and took a picture of the tube, a picture of the container and the log, and a picture of me replacing the container in the tube. And then I headed back to the car. 
But along the way Mrs. GO! Team met up with me all excited that she found a pen. So I explained that I had taken proof pics and replaced the cache. But we decided that we would go back to the car again and get the 2 liter bottle and use the remaining water to retrieve the cache. So we went back, got it and headed to GZ a second time. 

Oh no the story is not done here! 
We arrived back at GZ and I twisted the cap, and a very unexpected "HISS" occurred. Turns out Mrs. GO! Team also had a bottle of carbonated water in the car too.. This caused us to laugh and laugh; and so back to the car we went to get the water, since there was no way we were using lemon flavoured carbonated water in this cache.

One more trip back to GZ and we were back in business. Snapped a few more pics to help flesh out our story, poured the water again, and retrieved and signed the log. 

BWT favourite point from us, we like these kind of caches!! 

SL TFTC!!

So there we are, at 4999 cache finds and ready to get out there and make our 5000th milestone a reality.  What is it you ask?  Well I think I may have hinted to it in a previous blog, but if I haven't you will be reading about it very soon.  So stay tuned to The GO! Team Adventures Geocaching Blog to check it out.