Second Annual Family Camping Trip
Our family camping trip this year was to the Snoqualmie Pass area in Washington. We stayed for five days at the Denny Creek Campground and geocached all around the Snoqualmie Pass and the Iron Horse Trail.The reason we chose this area was because we wanted to find a Project APE cache on the west side of the Snoqualmie Tunnel. This cache is one of only about three Project APE caches left in the world, so we had to get it before it disappeared. (Project APE is a series of caches placed in 2001 in conjunction with the movie, "Planet of the Apes" by 20th Century Fox. Click here to read more about these special caches.)
The big "hurdle" that needed to be dealt with in finding this cache was that you had to go through the Snoqualmie Tunnel, which is 2.3 miles long and pitch black inside. We were kind of afraid of how we would all react to being in total darkness for about an hour, but we were also quite excited at the challenge. We planned and planned and planned some more to try to make this as pleasant a trip as possible for us. We decided to take the bikes and the trailer because if we walked 2.3 miles in the dark at Aidan's normal pace, we'd be in there all day.
It was a trip riding a bicycle in complete and utter darkness! When you can't see anything around you to
focus on, it's kind of difficult to balance. I got somewhat accustomed to it after about a mile or so, but I have to say that the combination of my horrible balance in the first place, our slick street tires and pulling a trailer (no matter how light it was), made the entire two trips on the gravel path a little less than carefree for me. Rita said she had no problems at all once her eyes acclimated, so she rode in front of me and warned of wet gravel and waterfalls. It was quite an experience!This tunnel is called "The Tunnel Of Light", I'm assuming because you can see the other end of the tunnel when you're inside of it. It looks like a small speck of light, truly making me grateful to reach "the light at the end of the tunnel". You can see the west end speck in the picture of me with the bike and trailer. You can also see how very dark it is inside. (Note: All pictures taken inside the tunnel were seriously manipulated with PhotoShop to make them perceptible. The camera flash just wasn't powerful enough to cut through the darkness.) We were about 3/4 way through, heading towards the east end when this picture was taken. In fact, we had just gotten one of the two caches that are hidden inside the tunnel. We came back the next day to look for the other one because I hadn't remembered to figure out the distance from an end of the tunnel to the cache. GPS receivers obviously don't work in there (funny, but cell phones DO), so you have to convert your GPS coordinates to feet, miles, steps, etc. I figured in miles and used my bike computer to tic them off. I was pretty proud of myself for getting us almost right on the spot!
Aidan would get very quiet during the rides through the tunnel. I would keep calling him to see
if he was doing alright, and it would take a really long time for him to answer. When we stopped for the last cache in the middle of the tunnel, I saw why he had delayed responses. The darkness had put him to sleep! He was looking at the pictures from the trip last night and we were discussing how he was sleeping on that bumpy ride through the tunnel. He said, "It was a very long tunnel! I got tired!" So my worries about Aidan not liking the total darkness were all for naught. He just saw it as an opportunity to take a nap!Rita took a picture of Aidan and I with the Project APE cache. Is that not the biggest
ammo can you've ever seen? It's amazing that it has remained un-muggled for so long considering its size and where/how it is hidden. It took us a long time to go through everything in there. The can was not full, but there were at least six gallon sized ziplocks in there. There were also lots of travel bugs since this is a favorite place for geocachers to leave them. They know the travel bugs will be picked up soon, and possibly travel a great distance from this spot because people from all over the world come to find this cache and will take the bugs with them on their travels home. We were glad we got to experience the "Mission 9: Tunnel Of Light" cache and the Snoqualmie Tunnel. 
I liked this spot on the South Snoqualmie River. The water is so clear and clean from being filtered through miles of stones.
Here we are after finding the "Asahel Curtis Cache". You can see how big the trees were here.
I thought this was a good picture of Rita. She wouldn't take a drink until I stopped trying to take a picture, and I wouldn't stop trying to take a picture until she gave me a good shot.
I won.
This was actually kind of a non-posed picture since I just called out to Rita and Aidan as they were sitting and talking.
Aidan rides his trike EVERYWHERE.
We were glad we brought it with us on our camping trip because he rode and rode and rode, all in our camp parking spot. I took him out to pedal around part of the campground to give him a workout.
Here he is, climbing.
Again.
He's in the "I want to practice balancing at every possible opportunity" phase, which makes even the shortest of hikes or walks turn into exhaustingly long ones. He was proud that he made some significant progress on this trip.
In the silly department, we were our usual silly selves and we snapped a couple pictures of bits of our silliness.
Below, you will notice that we discovered a wonderful specimen of "Belly Button Tree". These rare trees were previously thought to be extinct. However, with perserverence and tenacity only the silliest people can maintain, we believe we will make the history books with this jewel of a find! Here, Aidan demonstrates the similarities of the two belly buttons.
Being dedicated re-enactors, we pride ourselves on our skills in reproducing scenes from history in the greatest of detail and attention to authenticity.
Here, Rita and Aidan re-enact an important moment of discovery: Someone in some exploration party (like the one Lewis and Clark had), way back when, discover the southern end of the Snoqualmie River. Impressive, isn't it?
Aidan had a couple of firsts on this trip. To the left, you can see his first attempt at taking a picture. This was his best shot yet, as most of the time, he completely covers the lens.He also roasted his first marshmallows over the campfire on this trip. He was very excited to know that we would let him do his own this year, and watched me make our custom marshmallow sticks out of wire coat hangers.
In my opinion, you really can't call what Aidan does to his marshmallows, "roasting". Some people like their marshmallows with a crispy outer shell, and
other people like their marshmallows soft and golden browned only. Aidan likes his marshmallows, um, raw. He had fits and got upset that 1) I intentionally caught my marshmallow on fire, 2) sometimes the marshmallows accidentally caught on fire, and 3) how on earth Rita and I could possibly bring ourselves to actually EAT a marshmallow that had caught on fire. He insisted on quickly waving his marshmallow about a foot above the fire pit and then saying that it was done and, "can't you see the golden brown on it", after which he would eat his pitifully pale, powdery, RAW marshmallow.Don't you hate it when...
...You misplace something important and/or expensive, and there is absolutely no doubt as to who did the misplacing and when?
...The thing that has been misplaced is something you always put away in the same place - except for this one, last time?
This has happened to me. Again.
This time, I wormed the cats and then the chickens. I put the bottle of wormer in its ziplock bag along with the syringe I use to administer it with. Normally, the wormer and the flea control stuff goes on top of the fridge, out of reach of curious hands. I always put the items right back after finishing each respective job.
Now, only the flea control stuff is on top of the fridge. No wormer to be seen. It's not like it's a tiny little thing that is easily lost. It's about a 4 ounce sized white bottle, in a 1 pint ziplock bag with a syringe. How can I possibly misplace that? I've looked EVERYWHERE. Neither Rita nor I can find it. It's to the point now where, we've been looking in all the same places for so long, we wouldn't be able to actually see it even if we did find it, you know?
Oh, this is SO irritating...
...You misplace something important and/or expensive, and there is absolutely no doubt as to who did the misplacing and when?
...The thing that has been misplaced is something you always put away in the same place - except for this one, last time?
This has happened to me. Again.
This time, I wormed the cats and then the chickens. I put the bottle of wormer in its ziplock bag along with the syringe I use to administer it with. Normally, the wormer and the flea control stuff goes on top of the fridge, out of reach of curious hands. I always put the items right back after finishing each respective job.
Now, only the flea control stuff is on top of the fridge. No wormer to be seen. It's not like it's a tiny little thing that is easily lost. It's about a 4 ounce sized white bottle, in a 1 pint ziplock bag with a syringe. How can I possibly misplace that? I've looked EVERYWHERE. Neither Rita nor I can find it. It's to the point now where, we've been looking in all the same places for so long, we wouldn't be able to actually see it even if we did find it, you know?
Oh, this is SO irritating...
