Leakage from a Cluttered Mind

A while back, escooby (Dave C.) had mentioned in the forums that he wanted to do a long caching hike in Joseph Grant County Park (Grant Ranch). I told him I wanted to go too, and then asked geodanimal (Dan) about it. We made plans to meet at the Grant Lake parking area at 8 AM. Unfortunately, I had an email from escooby this morning saying his car’s clutch had gone out, so just Dan and I made the hike.

We needed to pay a parking fee, so Dan jumped out to feed the bills into the self-pay station, but the bill slot was jammed up. He couldn’t pull it out with his fingers, so I jumped out with my mini-leatherman tool and pulled a crumpled $5 bill from the slot. So… we got to park for free.

After parking, I made use of the porta-potty, and by the time I came out Dan had found Grant Lake Trailhead (8:29 AM). From the parking lot, we headed back down the main road to the Washburn Trailhead. Even though there is space for a couple of cars by the trailhead, the whole road is posted no parking.

Heading north on the Washburn Trail, the first cache we came to was White Barn. As we approached, we couldn’t see any likely hiding spot–no trees, rocks, etc. I zeroed about 30 feet away, but Dan wasn’t fooled. He searched the most likely looking spots and found it at 8:57 AM.

Just a short way farther up the trail we had to strike out across a grassy field for a small hilltop and Washburn Hilltop View. Again, my GPSr indicated about 40 ft away, but it was a quick find at 9:07 AM.

We found Enchanted… – Squashy! at 9:23 AM. Up to this point the trail had been relatively level, but soon began a steep climb.

Much of the road to Washburn Trail JAC followed a fence-line, so rather than going around hills on contour lines it just went straight up-and-over again and again. We found it at 10:06 AM.

Continuing on the Washburn Trail we found kablooey’s Garden at 10:21 AM. Next we got Alpha Virus 2 at 10:53 AM.The container was well camoed. Then we found Another tree, another cache at 11:18 AM.

We detoured out and back a little bit to get Drink Deeply. (11:36 AM)

Pala Seca Cabin was a nice place to take a break, after we spent quite a while looking for the cache. The hint was good, but… Found at 12:29 PM, then sat on the porch and ate our lunch.

Antler Point was pretty close by straight line, but up a very steep hill, so we followed the trail around and back. We found it at 1:14 PM.

Magnetic Therapy (Traditional Cache) 1:32 PM

Shelter From The Storm (Traditional Cache) 1:46 PM

Fallen Monarch (Traditional Cache) 2:00 PM

Who goes there? (Traditional Cache) 2:15 PM

Philcam L. Back Memorial (Traditional Cache) 2:32 PM

Where’s the Beef? (Traditional Cache) 2:45 PM

Moss Trees (Traditional Cache) 3:05 PM

Pig Hill (Traditional Cache) 3:21 PM

Just the beginning . . . (Traditional Cache) 3:36 PM

The Scale House (Traditional Cache) 4:18 PM

Rudolph’s Gift (Traditional Cache) 4:32 PM

Stary Night (Traditional Cache) 4:40 PM