The Triad

We were all hyped that the chance had finally come to do the Triad. The opportunity to visit the Lily Pad, the location of the original hide, and find the APE cache was exciting. The thought we could tie a few vacation days together with a business trip was great too. Although I am a regular visitor to Washington, Ali hadn't been there in years. Neither of us had ever been to Oregon.

We started our journey in Seattle. A couple of days in a town like this never seems to scratch the surface. I've always heard about the rain there and was blown away by the mostly amazing weather we had. We spent the morning doing some caching around Seattle and had an afternoon visit planned to Groundspeak. Our visit was awesome. We have spent so long as reviewers that we forgot a lot of the things we were going to do (take lots of photos, trade items, leave some trackables, visit the photo booth). Instead we just spent time with people who have come to be our friends.

The "cache"

We had to be in Portland, Oregon by the evening but got to visit the area around the Lily Pad before our journey continued. We county hopped our way to Oregon with a nice detour to walk around Tacoma.

Our second Triad stop was Thursday at the Original Stash location. For both of us, this was a bit of a yawn. The words cache and dash best describe it. The road to the cache is filled with park and grabs too. Historically its cool, but the weakest of the three stops.

We were both also distracted at the thought of grabbing Oregon's two oldest caches. Since we chase old caches these were the perfect fit for us. It also helped that they were hiking caches in the woods and two months we need for the Jasmer Challenge. The caches are on National Forest service lands, but are accessed through private roads. We had not anticipated the sign at the gate near the start of the private road which read, Closed to Public Entry May 2, 2011. We called the number to see if the restriction had been lifted but the recording said no car access yet. We hadn't planned for the 18-mile version of this cache hunt. Sadly, we turned away and moved on.

We regrouped at enjoyed a super afternoon at Salmon River. Mount Hood and the river were gorgeous.

By the time Saturday rolled in we were both eager to head for Snoqualmie to hunt the A.P.E. cache and the last stage of the Triad. This trail, the A.P.E. cache and all the surrounding caches were all we expected and then some. It was in the 40's and raining with lots of snow still on the ground and raging streams from the snow melt. It was an awesome day on the trail.

miatabug at the APE Cache.

Since it has been muggled, I guess the spoiler won't matter.

It is strange to think we were one of the last finders of the Triad... maybe the last. It's too bad someone saw fit to steal so many caches from this area. We had a great time. The area is stunning. Hopefully, we will be able to return and claim a find on the replacement cache as well as making it to Lake Annette.