Caching Trip 2022-02-22 Off to California

In spite of some recent health scares, we are off to California. Today, we left home in the dark in minus 5 degree weather hoping that the roads will be clear. Because we may be driving our car home in summer, we had to take our studded snow tires off of the car. I-90 was basically okay, with patches of snow/hard pack so Yeti drove slowly. Once we exited the highway at Whitehall, it improved. Clearly they had not gotten the storm we had on Sunday and there was barely any snow on the fields. Roads were dry. Yay. As we drove further into Idaho the temps (lowest was minus 9) got milder -- reaching a high of 43 in Salt Lake City! We do 2 hour stints driving and switch off to give the other person a chance to rest. We had good food from home in the car, so we didn't rely on lousy fast food along the way. I had worried about the Salt Lake City area, but weather reports were good for that area and so I didn't think that south of there could be a problem. Well, further south, it got colder again and dark clouds began spitting snow. For the most part, it was very light showers, but we did get to one high point where snow was heavier and blowing. Luckily it was not yet sticking. And, of course, I was driving at that point! Not fun. We checked the weather for Cedar City, UT where we would stay tonight and it predicted 100% chance of snow! Aagh. After getting down lower in valleys, the snow stopped and the sun actually peeked out a bit. So, we go to our motel about 5pm safely. Very tired from sitting on our butts for 11 hours! Heated up great turkey minestrone soup I'd brought from home in the microwave and enjoyed a glass of red wine. Nice to relax. It has started to snow here, so we may have up to 3 inches by morning. I am hoping that it won't still be snowing in the morning. I'm sure that the highway will be cleared. Hope so. Tomorrow we drive to El Centro, CA. We have to stock up on gallon water jugs there for caching!

Lemstar

Caching Trip 2022-02-23 Drive to California continued

As predicted, it snowed during the night about 4-6 inches. When we looked out the window before going to bed, it was snowing hard and blowing hard. Definitely worrying for the morning. I got up during the night and it had stopped and was clear, so I thought we'd make it fine. They did predict more snow, but said it would mostly come in the afternoon. Well, when we got up it had started snowing again. With a bit of dread, we still got ready, cleaned off the car, packed up and left the motel at around 7am. I thought the highway would be fine. It was okay, but still lots of hard pack, possibly ice, and snow on the road. Luck was with us and a plow was just ahead scraping the road and dropping lots of sand. Yeti was driving thank goodness; he has way more snow experience than me. He kept to a slow, steady speed behind the plow. Visibility wasn't great, but we just plugged on. This went on for about 45 minutes and then we began dropping in elevation. The plow moved to the fast lane and was clearly going to turn around having finished his section. The road got progressively better as did visibility as we got lower. Thank goodness. It went from slushy mess, to wet road, to almost clear road by the time we approached St. George. We were out the woods! Boy that was nerve-wracking. Yeti did a great job driving. We were Las Vegas bound! Temps warmed up too as we headed southwest and the sun even peeked out. Traffic around Las Vegas was terrible. Once we got passed this urban nightmare, we were fine. Got to El Centro around 2:30pm (pacific time) and checked into the motel. Then off to Walmart to buy 23 Gallon jugs of Crystal Geyser water -- the kind that Buck 30 said held up well to being buried! That's just for the first two days of caches. We'll head to another Walmart along the way for the remaining caches, plus we already had 5 gallons in the car that I'd bought at home. We have a big agenda tomorrow - lots of driving, digging, etc. We have to camp out, since we won't be too near to a town and don't want to do extra driving. We will probably will sleep in the car. Anyway, this is a first. I've never done caches before.

Lemstar

Cache 4, Heart of the Mojave

First day of Caching 2022-02-24

Beautiful morning as we headed out on our marathon cache setting. We had over 350 miles of driving today to set 6 (originally 7) caches. Our first was in Anza Borrega park and it started with a check station of the border patrol. They basically waved us through. This was the first of two border patrol checks today! Our first cache worked out fine. We didn't have to do much digging, but ended up burying the cache in a shallow hole with lots of rocks on top. And, so it went for the rest of the morning. The next cache was also an easy bury with lots of rocks. By early lunch we were at Chiriaco Summit along the I-10 interstate. We had lunch here and on we went. Lots of desert out there! Dry and flat areas with mountains surrounding the flats. We passed the Salton Sea near Mecca and did our next cache. Then, we hit a snag. Along the historic Route 66, a section of the road was closed...exactly where we needed to put our cache. We ended up driving north a bit and setting the cache a bit closer to I-40, which was really close to where the next cache was to be. So, basically we combined the two. It does mean we will have to carry out more water out of Twenty-nine Palms...not a great prospect. Oh, well. You have to be flexible and improvise as you go when a snag hits. The next two and last caches were in the Kelso Dunes/Kelso area. Kelso Dunes was several miles down a sandy/gravel road ending in a campground. Then we headed back on the paved road to Kelso Depot and proceeded to the next cache a few miles out. We went about 1/4 mile off the main road for this one. The soil was mostly sandy and loose, so not too hard to dig. We did use the surveyors tape to mark some bushes to give a general idea of where the caches were. And, we took lots of photos and wrote descriptions. Oh, and waypoints, of course. Hope they will all be okay and be there when we need them! By this time, we were pooped and decided to go a bit out of the way (only 20 miles) to Primm, NV so we could have a motel room and get a shower. Exhausted. Tomorrow we don't have as many to do and not as much driving. Thank goodness.

Lemstar

Cache 9, Badwater Road, Death Valley

Death Valley Caching 2022-02-25

Today, we made it to Death Valley! After a quick morning cache by Hwy 15, we had to go into Parumph, NV to buy more water bottles and HEET (the fuel we use) at Walmart. Going to these larger towns is a real hassle....lots of traffic and aggravation. But, we got the supplies and headed to Death Valley. Turns out very few gas stations here carry HEET. It's an automotive product (gasline antifreeze) and it burns in our alcohol stoves. So, now we have to scramble to add Heet to whatever cache will be useful. I've never had such a problem getting HEET. We bought out Walmart's entire stash! Death Valley was very dramatic. Of course, dry, dry, dry. Very colorful cliffs and mountains...reds, yellows, greens, browns...we were at almost 400 feet BELOW sea level! Got our two caches done with not too much trouble. Hope they are all still there when we get there. We also went to see Furnace Creek and Stovepipe Wells, two park centers with lodging. Furnace Creek was a zoo...and the accommodations there are for rich people...$400-600 a night! I tried to get a room in Stovepipe Wells, which was cheaper, but they were full. So, we went over the border to Beatty, NV and we have a room here. The little general store in Furnace Creek was better than Stovepipe, but not enough of an incentive I think to go there (it's a bit off trail). Stovepipe was much calmer. We have to decide now whether to send a box there, which we can still do. Tomorrow's ride is not as arduous as yesterdays (today was less driving too). It's tiring to sit in the car so much. Next town stop: Dyer, NV. Three more days of setting caches...

Lemstar

Cache 10, Racetrack Road, Death Valley

Finishing Death Valley Caches 2022-02-26

Today was pretty exciting; the caches were on gravel roads considerable distances so it was slower going than I originally thought it would be. Another nice sunny day with dazzling blue skies. We woke up to a cold morning in Beatty, NV (23 degrees) and as we got back down into Death Valley it warmed up fast into the upper 30s and into the 40s...later warmer. Got to Uebehebe Crater via paved road and turned onto Racetrack Road, which was sandy/gravel. The signs warn to use 4x4 high clearance vehicles; it was fine for our car. Large rocks along the road, but really we have been on far worse. If the road had been muddy, that would have been a different story. Anyway, the first part of the road seemed narrow and we were wondering about the return trip. Didn't see how two cars could pass... We found our waypoint for the Crater cache and went a bit beyond to find a place to pullover and soon found a jeep track. We cached, took photos, wrote descriptions and took a bearing as well. Then onto the next cache further along Racetrack Road. That went okay, too. We had to backtrack and when we got back to the beginning of Racetrack Rd. it didn't seem quite as narrow. Then, the glitch of the day happened. Our car GPS was telling us weird directions to the next cache, which we didn't trust. I found that some of the remote ones had the GPS doing weird things...anyway we lost about 45 min to an hour bumbling around and finally trusted our park map and instincts and took a turn on a gravel road. The GPS "recalibrated" and said we were on track! Aagh. Don't blindly trust technology...you sometimes still need the old methods! I was driving this time and the road was quite good, mostly straight as a ruler. 28 miles on gravel, though, takes a bit of time. It became a winding road up through some red rock hills and finally wound down towards an old abandoned mine. At this point, the trail was on this road. It then turned off onto a jeep track and we shortly found our cache site. We had lunch here, too. Phew. We were done for the day. On to Dyer, NV, which is a trail stop for us. We were hoping to get a cabin there for the night. As it was a Saturday, I was a bit concerned. When I finally had cell service, I tried calling, but only got voicemail. I soon lost cell service. When we arrived we headed to the general store and they offered to call Linda, the owner of the RV park and cabins. She didn't answer her phone so the store owner's daughter was nice enough to run over to her house and get her. Luck was with us; she had a cabin free. It was really nice, with a kitchen too. We are happily resting here and doing paperwork. May actually go over to Boonies, a local tavern, for dinner. Only two caches for tomorrow, but a couple of stops in towns to do research. We have a real problem with the fuel that we use for our alcohol stoves, a product called HEET (it's gas-line antifreeze). We have found in the past that most gas stations carry it (except in tropical climates). But almost no one has it. So far, we've only found it in Walmart. So,we bought a bunch and are putting it in some of the caches.

Lemstar

Cache 14 Bell Flat Road

Middlegate Station 2022-02-27

We are now relaxing in Middlegate Station, which is an old motel/bar & Grill, and RV park combined. It's seen better days, but the people are very friendly. We will be coming through here on the hike. They took 2 bottles of Heet to hold for us and we'll be sending a box here, too. There seems to be a lot of action here; it is at a junction of two major roads. Today we did three caches, all were pretty straight forward. Two were via gravel roads and the first was along a paved road. We've seen some big mountains in the distance and closer by with snow - a ten thousand footer nearby here. We have had views of the Sierra too. Vibrant hills here, with browns, yellows, white and dramatic red colors. The first thing we did today was divert a bit to Tonopah, a trail town. We wanted to see it and to check out the market. Also, we wondered if any store or gas station here would have HEET. The market, Raleys, is pretty big and good. Finally, a Texaco station did have HEET. Amazing that we have to worry about this. We did put two bottles in one of the caches, too. Tomorrow we only have two caches left to do, but they are far apart. Lots of driving ... yuck. It will be a tiring day. When we went over to the grill for dinner, lo and behold a couple of guys were setting up to play music. I swear Live Music follows Yeti around. So, we danced all night! Great end to another tiring day. More driving tomorrow!

Lemstar

Stillwater Road Cache

Final Day of Caching 2022-02-28

Well, this caching business has been exciting. Some things definitely go wrong. Once again the car Garmin GPS took us on a wild goose chase for the coordinates we plugged in. We were in a wildlife sanctuary and it led us to the middle and stopped; this was clearly not our spot. We were not near the trail! Instead, I pulled out Steve Tabor's description on how to get to the trailhead and also we used our Backcountry Navigator app on the phone which showed the track for the trail and the exact spot we wanted. Finally, after wasting at least 30-40 minutes going astray, we were back on track and found our spot. It was a long ride now to Gerlach, NV with a stop in Lovelock (a trail town) to explore what they had. Gerlach is pretty tiny, as a quite a few of our town stops. We had lunch at a local cafe and then headed off into the hills for the final cache. Again, we ended up relying more on Backcountry navigator and our tracks for the trail route to find the cache spot. This went very smoothly. Then the fun began!!! We were heading to Denio Junction, NV and there were several shorter ways to get there, several on gravel roads. We were on one of those roads and it seemed like a good one. So, we decided to try it rather than backtracking a fair distance. All went well for a while and we must have gone 25-30 miles in and almost made it to Summit Lake where we'd make a turn on a road which would take us to a paved Hwy leading right to Denio Junction. The gravel road was inching up and blobs of snow starting appearing on the road. Then we reached a part with more snow. Yeti thought he could get through and kept going with some speed to plow through. We got stuck. It was not just the wheels stuck ... this was easy to dig out....but the center of the road was higher with the snow and the bottom of the car was stuck up on this snow. Yikes. Luckily, we did have the right equipment otherwise we would have been in a terrible pickle. We got out our shovels and started digging. Poor Yeti, he was lying on the ground in snow digging under the car! I was trying to dig out wheels and as much of the under part as I could reach. We also had a furniture blanket that Yeti has used to put under the tires in snow situations. We tried that and after a few futile attempts, Yeti got backed up a bit. Then we had to dig again. Repeat. Meanwhile, I was digging the center of the road to lower the snowpack there, so if we did manage to back up more we would not get stuck again on that. I tried once too and got the car back a few more feet, stuck again. Back to the shovels. We were only about ten more feet to the dirt, so we were determined to get out. It was already dark at this point. Once again, we stuck the blanket under the rear tires. Yeti tried one more time, rocking forward and back and finally the back tires gripped and he just kept going. I sang out when he got to dry land! Holy, moly. That was a back-breaking effort; it took four hours to dig ourselves out, but we did it. I did wonder if we'd get out before the next day! We were exhausted. This was not an exercise that was good for either of us, but especially for Yeti's bad disc. In the end, we drove back to just before the paved road and pulled over for the night. It was too late to go into town ... we slept in the car. Very glad to be out of that mess.

Lemstar

Boise respite 2022-03-03

We got to Boise yesterday and are chilling out with our friends Chris and Mike and the two dogs, Rowan and Obi. They are the best dogs - border collies. And, so smart. Of course, Chris is now practically an expert dog trainer and she and Mike spend a considerable time each day working with both dogs. Rowan loves attention and as I love dogs, I give her lots of attention! Went for a nice walk yesterday and today. So great to move after so much driving. I dread the car ride down to San Diego (we pick up a rental car at Boise airport tomorrow). Our car stays with Mike and Chris until we get back. He's picking us up at the end. We stay overnight in Lone Pine and get to San Diego the next day.

Lemstar