One hundred and four geocaches while Camping in Castle Rock, Wa.

Team DONnJAN took a trip to the Castle Rock, Washington. The first half of the week was a fun filled geocamping trip with the second half saved for our annual family camping trip. We stayed at the Seaquest State Park not far from Mt. St, Helens. The area is gorgeous and there is a wide assortment of geocaches, many being Earthcaches, to choose from. We camped in this vacinity for eight wonderful days.  During our stay, we traveled down to visit a few caches in Oregon, too
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We saw many truly imaginative and fun hides. Several made us say. "Wow, look at that." I wish I could comment on each, but there were truly too many. My very favorite ones offer something interesting or historic to see. I love a cache worth exploring.

One geocache we especially enjoyed was, 'The Graveyard of the Dead.'  This is an earthcache that gives a brief history lesson about the Columbia River Bar.

The columbia Bar.

The reason it's one of our favorite geocaches is because the coordinates led us to the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse.  Lighthouses are always a treat for us and if there is a cache, it's even better.

The beautiful and majestic lighthouse.

The 53 ft. lighthouse was completed in 1856.

The view below the light house is absolutely breathtaking.

High above the Pacific.

Not far from the lighthouse is another earthcache called, 'Big Betsy.'   This cache is located at the remnants of old Fort Canby, a military reservation at Cape Disappointment built in 1863 to protect the mouth of the Columbia River.   Big Betsy is the nickname for Fort Canby' largest muzzle loading cannon.

There are signs within the buildings explaining their purpose and history.

You can walk through all the rooms and halls.  It's cool.

The cache I have probably talked about the most to family or friends is called, 'Bores on the River.'  This cache is located by The Borst Home in Borst Park.  This is definately a favorite.  I love these old homesteads.

In 1854 Joseph Borst married sixteen-year-old Mary Adeline Roundtree.  Joseph and Mary started their lives together in Joseph's small cabin.  In 1855, war broke out with some local indians. Many families, including the Borsts, moved to nearby Fort Hennes. After the war, the Borsts returned to their land and lived in a blockhouse that had been built during the war

The Borst Mansion was built in the early 1860s by Joseph Borst.  It took two years to complete construction. He built this house for his beloved Mary.

The house still has all the original furnishings.

When Mr.Borst built the house and barn, he said they were so well built they would last for 80 years. 120 years later, the beautiful house still stands strong.  Sadly, the barn is no longer there.  It was damaged in the 1962 windstorm which struck the Pacific Northwest.

This little graveyard isn't far from the house.

A sad little place.

Another fun geocache was the 'Jackson House Estate,'

Another old homestead.  I love 'em.

 

This old house was built by John R. Jackson when he married Matilda Koontz. in 1848.

This luxurious home had cedar floors and glass windows.

The Jacksons ran the local post office, grocery store, tavern, courthouse.and later the northwest's most popular inn.

An old spinning wheel.

Another really interesting place is big, beautiful Beacon Rock.

 

Beacon Rock is the 848 foot tall core of a shallow volcano possibly as old as six million years. It's dark basalt is frozen in columns after its final eruption.  The rock was named by Lewis & Clark in 1905.  We were led here, and got a wonderful history lesson, by an earthcache by the name of 'The Navel of the World.'   This is truly a fun cache to do and a fun place to explore.

There are several signs at the base of Beacon Rock that tell its history...

as well as, how it was born.  It's fascinating.

Here is my husband, Don, posing for our earthcache log.

Me by Beacon Rock.

This is a great area to cache in.  There is alot to see with alot of interesting history to learn.  The area is gorgeous.  Waterfalls, lakes and grenn, green trees.  We're going back soon because there is so much more I want to see.

Camping kittens

At 5 weeks old.

What do you do when suddenly and unexpectedly end up with five tiny rescue kittens five days before an eight day camping trip? 

Here's how it happened--

My mom's neighbor had a litter of 4 1/2 week old kittens.  Mom had made arrangements with this young man for my husband and me to stop by and meet the kittens.  Our long time friends were looking to adopt a pair of kittens.  Knowing these kittens would be offered an outstanding home, we planned to meet them and call our friend with more information about coloring, etc.  We also hoped to trade telephone numbers between the two so they could get together when the kittens were a bit older.

As soon as I saw the kittens I realized they were sick.  After handling one of them I could see they were sick because they were crawling with fleas.  Hundreds of fleas were all over these five tiny kittens.  Their gums were paper white because they were so anemic. Another day or two with those awful fleas and I believe they would have died. I asked the young man if I could take them home and clean them up.  He said I could.

I left his house and returned two hours later with a small dog crate to transport the kittens and a Frontline for the mother cat.  It took three hours of bathing and constant combing with a metal flea comb to get the fleas off these baby kittens.  We started them on kitten formula mixed with Wellness canned cat food.  By the following day, four seemed much better and their gums were already healthy pink.  One little tortoiseshell girl took a couple of extra days, but by the third day she was doing great, too. 

Tippy

By this time I had already grown very attached to the whole litter and did not want to return them to the owner.  I knew the house was crawling with fleas just waiting to attack "my kittens."  So.......I struck a deal with the young owner.  I would keep the litter and make sure each kitten went to a forever home where they would be spayed or neutered.  In return, I would pay to have the mother cat spayed so there would be no more kitties.  He was happy,  I was happy and  Mommy cat has been spayed.

Abigail on the bench in the travel trailer.

So, again I ask.......
 
What do you do when suddenly and unexpectedly end up with five tiny rescue kittens five days before an eight day camping trip?

We took them with us.

We have a twenty-two foot travel trailer with a bathroom.  I set up a kitten play area in a large popup dog crate.  It fit perfectly across the top of our bathtub/shower.  I added a small cat box, a pillow and tons of kitty toys.  We carried a second medium sized dog crate in the back seat of our truck for traveling.

Mocha on the back of the bench.

They had a blast.  Each day we moved their playpen outside with us for part of the day.  We set it up on top of one of the tables.  Each night the whole setup was returned to the bathroom.  The first half of the week was fairly quiet with my husband, myself, three dogs and five kittens.  After the fourth day, we were joined by twelve other cat loving family members.  Needless to say, the kittens were a hit and added a whole new fun element to our family camping trip.  They got tons of attention and everyone loved them.

After we returned home, our long time friend visited our home to meet the kittens.  Karen was immediately drawn to the two little sisters. but her husband wanted the little black and white boy.  I'm thrilled to say they adopted the three of them. 

Yuki, (means snow in Japanese.)

I don't believe we could have found a better home for those three little guys. Karen adopted two kittens from us about 15 years ago. Those kittens were born to a cat we had rescued toward the end of her pregnancy. Karen and her family offered those kitties a wonderful forever home for many years.  Unfortunately, both cats have passed on over the past couple of years. the second one recently.  Karen and her husband decided it was time to adopt two more kittens.

Muggle

Don and I have decided to keep the other two.  They are now known as Abigail and Muggle.

Yes, that makes four cats. 

Yes, we are crazy.

Our two will be joining us on another camping trip in a couple of weeks.  This time it will be to a beach resort.  They are defnately too young, (and too destructive), to leave home alone.

For now they're known as our 'Camping Kittens.'

Muggle & Abigail