A Sunburn in February

I know that I need to finish my San Francisco trip posts, but I have to sneak in this one about Saturday. I went on a power boxing trip with some of my favorite letterboxing friends: Maiden, Der Mad Stamper, RaqsEnigma, and Hunter. Maiden was kind enough to plan our route and drive us around and keep us on schedule. They picked me up at 5:30 and we headed up to Long Beach.

I forgot my set of clues, my camera, my sunglasses, and my pedometer but that in no way spoiled the day. RaqsEnigma and Maiden were kind enough to document the day for us and gave me permission to share their photos here.

Maiden actually let us have a bathroom stop on the way to Long Beach and she caught this lovely moment of Raqs and DMS.


We were at the first box at the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge and on the trail by 8:30.

I love this sign. On the left side by the three hiking figures it says "Caution, from October to May you may encounter water as high as your waist!" We took our chances and the trails were nice and dry...no water in the way or mosquitoes!


Here's me and Hunter stamping in.


The tide was out and there were all these really cool ripples along the water line.


Here's part of the group looking for the rest of the series. Unfortunately they weren't there, but we enjoyed the walk anyway. We even saw a blue heron here!


We toured historic Oysterville, which was really cool, and the old cemetery and picked up a couple more boxes.

We stopped at Loomis Lake State Park and picked up a couple more then headed for Discovery Trail to pick up a bunch of boxes in various places along the trail. No, we didn't walk the whole thing! We drove in between. We enjoyed the boardwalk and the lovely views along the way.

Dolphin sculpture


Looking down at the box finders


Clark's Tree


Pretty beach


Searching for an elusive box.


Riding on the sturgeon.


Psycho Pstampers (our team name for the day) minus Raqs who was taking the picture.


Whale skeleton.


We tried for one in Long Beach at a kite store, but the store clerk couldn't find it and we had to go away empty handed. It was okay though, because Maiden gave us 10 minutes at Marsh's Free Museum. This was an historic moment because when you are power boxing with Maiden, there are no side trips. You are there to box and everything else is ignored. But the kite store was closed for another half hour because the clerk went to lunch and she let us explore a little.


We even got to see Jake the Alligator Man in his Christmas attire.


Then we headed out to Black Lake for four boxes. What a beautiful spot! And we got some lovely images here.

Psycho Pstampers minus Maiden at Black Lake.


Pretty lake view.


Look how gorgeous this is!


After Black Lake we headed to Cape Disappointment State Park and found some more amazing boxes and beautiful countrysides.

This is a hidden grotto area by Beard's Hollow.


Hunter was kind enough to climb up to the box and then pose for a photo.


We had to navigate around this huge puddle in the middle of the path to get to the grotto area and the box.


Raqs and DMS are so photogenic!


Here's the group again.


Here are some shots at the North Head Lighthouse. I love this spot...it's so beautiful!





We did a few more boxes then headed in to Astoria. By then it was starting to get dark. Got some great shots of the sunset.




I was too tired to climb back down this sand dune after getting a box, so I took a shortcut.


Even though it was dark, we kept on boxing. We drove up to the Astoria Column and found a really great box.



Boxing in the dark!


Here are the Psycho Pstampers at the Rogue Brewery in Astoria. We ended up with 39 finds, 6 attempts, 3 geocaches and a whole lot of fun. I think we walked about 10 miles yesterday and the hill at the last Washington box was a killer.


Along the way we saw elk, bald eagles, deer, a blue hering, many dogs of various breeds (no whippets or greyhounds, though), some cows and horses, and a dead crab.

Boy, did we have fun!