Well I was over at my bankers house on Saturday, and I was teasing him because he never rides anymore, and his bike just takes up room in my garage.[8D] All of the sudden he says "hey lets go see this stupid geocache that you put out in the woods."

Anyway here are a few pictures from the day, and also I am including a few from this morning from a friends house an hour and a half away. I went in to help him do some more wiring. This house is going to take forever.

Heading out from the garage, don't he look enthused?



Heading down the street with my trusty handlebar mounted camera.


Yep there's the one stoplight, hey look another drift boat, I saw a dozen of them today on my way back home.


Heading up the fire road. At least the snow is gone. Three weeks ago we tried to drive the Dodge up and almost got stuck.


To the left and up.


Almost there.


Finally there.







Olympic Mountains off in the distance.


Another shot close up.


Here I am acting like I know what I'm talking about.



Another shot of the 225





Well lets go see if the geocache is still there. I was hoping that nobody took a dump in it, its been known to happen.[:'(]



And here it is, so far so good.



Checking the log book


Still has some goodies in it.



Artsy fartsy shot


Classic beer can tree target.



Last of the snow, I'm not sad.


Looking over town


Stolen sign


Heading back down the hill





I call this one...."rapist van in the woods"






Look at the noob trying to pass deej


Hey get back here, don't make me open up the KLX and embarrass you.



Sheesh.....I do cast a big shadow.[&:]


Sweet, I got the Harley wave, too bad I didn't wave back, I was too busy taking the picture.[8D]


And finally back in town, and I thought this was a cool picture, its a Shay Locomotive used like 100 years ago to haul logs out of the woods. I used to play on that thing when I was a kid................and no it wasn't new when I was a kid.



And to end the weekend trip I just got back from helping a friend of mine who is building a new house do some wiring. He is the best carpenter I ahve ever seen, the whole house is only out of square by 3/8 of an inch, and he built the whole thing by himself.

Wow how would you like to wake up to this view every morning? And remember the mountains from my geocache? Well this picture is from the back side of those same mountains, 60 miles away.









Daaaaaaa Dodge!!


Oh that's right we came to work on some stuff, well here is where we are so far.





But for some reason we ended up drinking coffee and staring at the scenery. Then it was lunch time and we also had to watch an episode of The Rockford Files. Then it was back to work, but the mountains kept calling.


That is from the second story deck.

here is a closer shot.


Well that's it, I "worked" and the wife went and spent money. But its all good, she bought a back massager at Cosco, which is good for me because now I don't have to rub her back.[8D]

 

Nice pictures deej. Looked like more play and coffee than working.

 

And that's a bad thing?

 

I know Nothing! lol

edit: although I miss the logging roads etc.

 

Truth be told I'm not all that excited about the status of the geocachebut it makes my heart sick when I see your pictures of the Northwest. I miss it.

That one you've labeled "Heading back down the hill", well righton theedge of the puddle I spotted this 6-inch wide mountain lion paw print in the mud on the edge of it, fresh as could be, butthat was in Oregon, out past Vernonia and up in the mountains, but an old logging back-road like that looks to be. I was working on this crew that was doing an archaeological clearance survey tomake sure there weren't any Indian sites or old settler sites they'd be destroyingwhen the local utility company put ina natural gas pipeline and the rest of the crew had dropped me off and we'd all split up to cover different areas and right about that puddlewas where they were supposed to come back and pick me up, except it was in Oregon. Have to admit I got a little concerned because that paw print was fresh and I knew I wouldn't beat that cat on footto the bend in the road let alone back100 miles or so to a town ifI had to walk back on my own. Anyway the guys came and picked me up and the cat didn't come back. Though ten years later or soI did havea huge one amble across the road maybe 20 feet in front of mycar in the mountains ofNorthern California in the middle of the night. Those cats are BIG!!! BIG as any African lion I've seen at zoos, just without that mane around their heads.

Anyway thanks for the pics its always good to see those forests and the Olympics and Cascades or thenorthwest coast. Most beautiful part of the world I know except maybe for Greece.

Take care.

 

And some day I'll post a picture of this baby deer or elk(so long ago now I'd have to look at the pictures again to see which) that we found. We named her "Baby" andtied a bright orangeflagging ribbon to her because she was so naivelytrusting we got worried she'd get hurt or shot by someone if we didn't do something to try to protect her somehow. But we'd see her day after day for the time we worked that area of the gas pipeline's proposedroute we werechecking. Pay wasn't that great but it was a good job. Outdoorsand in the woodsand doing something useful and worthwhile. And we actually didfind quite a number ofNative American artefacts and some old settlers' artefacts too.

 

Hey J, I know what you mean about the cats, I have felt "followed" a few times before. That's why I pack this.


With or without the scope, either way, someone is going home in a body bag.[8D]

 

Just remember, that when you charge a cat having your knife open, they normally run away.

 

Let's hope it runs away, but I wouldn't count on it if s/he's in an ornery mood. They are bigger than me.I'd feel my chances were a little better off packing what deej's got if I needed it.

Other cool thing I found was this wall where'd they'd cut the road through about 5 to 7000 feet up in the mountains and there was this whole maybe 1/2-mile long stratified cut-bank with layers and layers(maybe 20 feet high) of fossilized seashells and snails andother underwater fossils. Must have been there for millions of years. It's one thing when you read about this stuff in school books when you're a kid but to see proof that some mountains a couple hundred miles inland from the coast that are now 5 to 7,000 feet above sea level were once under water was pretty cool. Juststumbled across it while we were working in that area.

Anyway if you run intoany of thosecats, tell them I don't meanthem any harm andhopefully they'llrespect thatand be o.k. with me if I'm ever back out in their territory again.

Take care guys.

 

That area is absolutely beautiful. I'm very jealous. If you ever get bored, you can ride with me on the flat, sceneless highways of Nebraska! Ok, it's really not THAT bad, but not nearly as nice as where you live deej.