The route this day took us from Longview to La Pine, via some counties we needed to visit. A long and interesting day on the road.

Approximate time on road/out caching:  14 hours, 15 minutes
Total miles driven: 308.8 mi / 497 km
Total caches found: 28
Total DNF: 5
States visited: Washington, Oregon
Famous places visited: Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum, Silver Falls State Park, The last Blockbuster in the galaxy
Most memorable cache: GC41W3Z Welcome to Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum
Biggest surprise: When we were allowed to stick our heads outside the Spruce Goose roof window
Weather: Sunny, light clouds, cloudy
Highest temperature: 84°F / 28,9°C
Lowest temperature: 49°F / 9,4°C

Early up

We had a long way to drive, and a lot we wanted to see. So the only choice we had, was to get up early. The first reward for this, was a very nice sunrise at GC1HNZ8 A Long View.

DNF, DNF everywhere

A part of the reason for driving the route we did, was to find caches in a couple new counties in Oregon. Even with four DNFs, we still managed to grab finds in Columbia, Washington and Yamhill counties (and Polk later in the day)!

The Spruce Goose

Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum was the next on the plan, after a couple caches around McMinnville. Ever since we saw the movie The Aviator, and we learnt that the Spruce Goose still exists, we knew we had to visit this museum!

The museum did not disappoint, and there was a lot of cool airplanes and other aviation equipment to look at. The highlight was without a doubt when we got to tour the cockpit of the Spruce Goose.

And as if that wasn’t cool enough by itself, we even got to stick our heads out the window, and take a look at the massive wings from the top! Amazing! 

A couple virtuals

We enjoy finding virtual caches, so we made sure to include two easy ones in Salem on our plan. GC7B8G5 American Heroes and GC88Z1M One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

What’s that?

When driving towards GC17JE8 Basalt erosion at Silver Falls State Park, we started seeing smoke. A lot of it. And then even more. It smelt bad, and looked crazy. Suddenly, we were right next to the source of it.

Silver Falls

When we arrived at Silver Falls, we learnt that all the local farmers were burning their fields today. A lot of people just couldn’t hike, as the smoke were burning their eyes. It wasn’t comfortable, but no way we would give up when we were this close! So we hiked down behind the falls, and it was worth it!

Roadwork, again

A couple (large) caches later, we had planned another earthcache – GC3RGG3 Mt. Washington’s Frigid Past. This was also the cache we had planned to use to get Jefferson County. But that didn’t happen. The small pullout was closed off, and we had to follow the pilot car right past it.

But there was no way we were going to give up finding a cache in Jefferson County, so we stopped and found GC2CHDZ INSPIRATION POINT instead.

The last one in the galaxy!

When we arrived in bend, after finding a couple caches along the way, we stopped at the last Blockbuster in the galaxy. It felt a bit like stepping back in time, specially since there was actually customers there! I think this is awesome 😀

We didn’t have anything else planned for the day, and only had the final stretch to La Pine left.

Pictures