Geocaching: May 8th

We were in the park for a friends birthday get together and I threw on my canoe just in case we could get out on the water. After the singing and gift giving I offered rides in my canoe. One of our friends kids wanted a ride. It would have been her first canoe ride so we get all set to head out and I make about 5 strokes out into the little bay area there on the east side of the park when off in the distance I see lightning hit the hillside. Well I don't want to have my son and another persons kid out on the water in a lightning storm so I turn around and head back in with thunder rolling across the water from the distance pushing us along. Our friends little girl is apparently afraid.....very afraid of lightning and thunder and was begging me to hurry back to land. Her total canoe ride lasted less than a minute.

I got our kids in the car and waited out the rain story while many of the other kids and parents played Frisbee in the downpour. After some time all of our friends got cold and started packing up and soon we were the only ones left sitting in the parking lot. We were listing to a story on the radio so the kids were fine but finally we put a time limit on our stay. Amazingly it cleared off and in less than ten minutes after our last friend pulled out the rain stopped and glorious sunshine broke through the clouds. It was still a little choppy but The Bean Himself and I headed out to test the water. By the time we got around the point to the little bay where the marina is it was calm again. We paddled around a bit and then Mrs Bean and The Sprout walked over and brought my GPSr along. I knew about the cache around so took the opportunity to go looking for it.

Well we honed in on the basic area and The Bean Himself got out and walked over to where I thought the hide might be. First he picked up a yellow Pennzoil oil bottle. He asked "Could this be the cache"?, Uhm..nope. Then he found it right away. This is where it got interesting. I pulled the canoe up to rocks and he passed me the cache "Swimmer". I put my oar down and opened the container to find it half full of water. Paper and trinkets floating in lake water. So I can't leave it that way and put my hand over one side of the mouth then dump it out over the edge of the canoe using my hand as a strainer of sorts to keep the contents in.

This was only partially effective since a piece of paper and a trinket spilled into the water. "Dad you dropped a frog". Yes, a little frog of the stretchy plastic red variety had slipped past my fingers. So I reached over and grabbed the little guy and in so doing the canoe shifted. "Dad don't sink the canoe, Don't sink the canoe!" It wasn't my intention to sink the canoe but it seemed very likely that this is exactly what was going to happen. The canoe as it tipped within a fingers breadth (really a very small finger) of water pouring over the side had shifted onto some rocks. It was stuck there at an angle with me trying to get it righted with little luck. The canoe seemed determined to go wrong instead of right and I had a few moments of grave concern. Well I finally got my oar and pushed it back. Oh yeah I did get the frog too. Anyhow I made an attempt at signing the log. You'll have to trust me on this one as the marks on the paper don't look much like TheBeanTeam.

I handed the container back to The Bean Himself and he got back in and we headed out across the bay. Three quarters of the way across I asked. "Did you put anything on it to hold it down?" "No." came the reply.....so we turned around and found it again to make sure it was secure. Paddled back to the opposite shore and picked up The Sprout for the return trip around the little point.

We canoed well over a mile and a half. Not bad for a stormy day I guess. Left nothing.....took a weathered yellow Pennzoil bottle.

May Day Hike

The weather was perfect for an afternoon stroll so we headed to Mt Pisgah to get out of the house.

We decided since we were there we might as well do some Geocaching so headed out to We Love You Lane County Parks, a cache by Rain or Shine.

The hike out was wonderful. An abundance of wildflowers in bloom made every turn a wonder to see. The sprout saw a slug that she thought was "very cool" and both kids wanted to take it home to show at school. Uhmm...No.

The Bean Himself and Mr Bean headed up into the old quarry to make the find. The terrain was a bit much for The Sprout. We found the cache after a bit of searching with The Bean Himself actually making the find. While Mrs Bean and The Sprout were below still in the quarry they searched around for another way up and discovered instead an abandoned vehicle in the woods to the NW of the quarry.

A very old delivery truck from the 30's or 40's. Very cool to see it there. The Bean Himself was extremely interested in checking it out. After we hiked back out Mrs Bean found another cache by herself while we waited in the van. She had solved the puzzle for BeavTeam Sudoku 7 earlier and decided to try and locate it even though the kids were done in.

Into California

I woke up early and wandered around the streets for Weed doing a bit of geocaching and waymarking before loading up the family and heading on south. I was able to grab Fore Edgewood and photos for a few waymark visits and postings. I wanted to make a stop in Dunsmuir. This is a town full of rail related history and I thought The Bean Himself would like to roam around a bit. Our first stop was a short hike to Hedge Creek Falls. While there we grabbed a geocache. Hedge Creek Falls is a lovely little fall with a trail under and beneath the cascade. The trail goes on out to an overlook of the Sacramento River with a view of Mt. Shasta to the north.

Next we stopped at an old steam engine display. It was Southern Pacific 1727, a class M-6 Mogul built by Balwin.


After the hike we wandered the picturesque streets of Dunsmuir. The main drag is almost lost in time with its town clock and the California Theater along with the other historic structures through town.


We spent a bit more time here than we anticipated and stopped in at the visitors center then wandered around down by the turntable and the Amtrak Station. We stopped in for a coffee at the Brown Trout Cafe and then headed on down the road.

We didn't make it far because I had heard of a unique caboose motel that was nearby so we dropped in to see it for ourselves. Rail Road Park Resort has over twenty cabooses that have been converted into motel units. Also on site is a Shay style locomotive Class 70-3. One of only 5 examples made by the Willamette Iron and Steel Works in Portland Oregon that survives.


The resort sits at the base of Castle Crags and is a beautiful location to relax.

We asked permission to wander around and look at all the caboose....(cabeese?) and The Bean Himself had a blast looking at all of the different logos and pointing out his favorites which all happened to be Santa Fe's.




We continued south for a bit and stopped to do a few geocaches that I had read about. After a short hike we came upon the location for the first geocache, Old I-5: Bridge to the Past. It is on an abandoned arch bridge along a section of old Highway 99. I waymarked it as the Harlan D. Miller Memorial Bridge-Dog Creek Bridge- near Vollmers California. Next we drove beneath the bridge and found Master Builder and got another perspective of this fantastic bridge.

We finally hit the road in earnest and made a straight shot for Sacramento where we checked in and then went out for dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. The restaurant is located in a former depot of the Western Pacific Railroad. It is a great old structure that heralds an era gone by.

California in April

In early April we took a little vacation to visit Sacramento and the California State Railroad Museum that is located there in Old Town.

We left after work on Wednesday and drove until we reached the metropolis of Weed. It was around 27 degrees and it was a bit surprising getting out of the van and into the cold night air.

Surprise Beach Wanderings

So I surprise Mrs. Bean with a spontaneous trip to the coast. I arranged for a friend to watch The Bean Himself and The Sprout and spirited her away for a night in Florence and then a hike on the Oregon Coast.
We had a great room with a view of the Siuslaw River Bridge. I was wide awake at sunrise so wandered out and let Mrs. Bean sleep. I took a walk over the historic bascule bridge designed by Conde B. McCullough. that was opened to traffic in 1936. While crossing I took few benchmark photos along the way. After the walk Mrs. Bean & I joined up and we headed over to downtown Florence for some coffee.



After a quick tour of old town and a delightful cache, (Democracy Under Pressure) which is located in one of the stores, we headed back across the river and grabbed a geocache named (Prichard's Perch) at a little wayside.

Then it was on south to our goal of the day. There was a breif stop for a cache (McCullough's NW TB B&B) that has a great view of another Conde B. McCullough Bridge. This one being his namesake.

We had been reading about a mystery shipwreck in the news that had been uncovered by winter storms. By the time we went searching for it the ship had been identified as the George L. Olson. Along the way and just up the beach a bit was the wreck of the M/V New Carrissa so we had a chance of seeing two shipwrecks in one outing. We opted to hike in over the dunes. in retrospect the best way would have been to hike up the beach but the dunes were beautiful.









The New Carissa was a bit more impressive than I expected. The size of her was more than I had anticipated and it was only a portion of the ship. Photos can't do her justice. We found the two caches at the location. An old virtual (Wreck of the New Carrissa) and a newer ammo can cache (New Carrisa by Flight Control) .

Next we made the trek on down to the Olsen wreck. We were the only ones hiking and we had to continually get out of the way of 4X4's who were driving out to see the wreck as well. Some of the dune buggies that came by were traveling so fast they really made me nervous. We grabbed our final geocache of the hike (North Jetty #3) along the way and after this last one we were only a short way from the wreck. Stepping to the edge of the sand wall it was a real thrill to see. Just as I turned on the camera and put it to my eye a jeep screamed into view and slid to a stop. They sat there for about thirty seconds then tore off down the beach again.

We scrambled down to the wreck and I was as impressed with George as I was with Carissa. Much more of this ship lies beneath the sand than is exposed but the site of this small portion still inspired a feeling of touching forgotten history.

The tide was starting to make its way in so we started our walk out. It had taken us about two hours to hike in over the sand and we were feeling it. I started longing for a ride in one of those 4X4's that had annoyed me earlier. We must have been looking pretty ragged because finally a guy pulled over and asked if we wanted a ride. Yes! We did. We climbed in the back of his pickup and rested for about two miles. I kept an eye on the GPS screen and when we were almost due west of our van I knocked on his windo and indicated we needed to get out. He looked at me like I was nuts. I pointed to the dunes and said our van is right over there and he did a double take and was convinced we were nuts. By the time we made the long haul over the dunes I figured he was probably right in his assessment. We hiked around seven miles but we were more tired than many a hike in the woods that was much much longer.

On the drive backup north I stopped and snagged one last cache (Basketball) that was near an Oregon State Beaver Board Historical sign commemorating Jedediah Smith.










We stopped for dinner at sundown in Florence. Tired but satisfied. I had my eye on the Hot Rod Grill for some time and decided to make it our dinner stop tonight. It is full of nostalgia in and out. Including some vintage kiddie rides, antique gas pumps, and a few booths and decor that is made out vintage car bodies. Service was adequate, the food passable and the atmosphere great. The final hours drive home was uneventful and pleasant with remembrances of the day and discussions about the challenges of parenthood and how much we missed the little legumes.

Meeting with Uncle Sam

I have been trying to get together with my brother for some time. He mentioned the Sportsman's Show in Roseburg as something he hoped to go to and I decided to make a visit happen. The Bean Himself and I hit the road early for the meet up.

We stopped at a rest area on the way down to stretch our legs. I was snapping some photos and a passerby offered to take one of the both of us. Nice gesture I thought since I am not in many of the kids photos. There is a nice Oregon State History "Beaver Board" at this location detailing the history of the Cow Creek Indians.

We were soon on the road and hooked up with Sam at the fairgrounds. Near where we parked is the county museum and part of their collection is the old train depot from the nearby town of Dillard. The Dillard depot is a beautiful old structure and we spent some time photographing it's new home.

After the show we all loaded up and headed over to the Rodeo Steakhouse. The Bean Himself really loved this place because of the large containers of peanuts that were at each table.

It wasn't so much the peanuts but the fact that the restaurant allowed and even encouraged you to throw the shells on the floor. We had some problems while paying. They made a mistake running a card and they gave me a card for a free entree at one of their locations. Nice that.

While we were eating I had mentioned that I thought there was an old locomotive somewhere around and that I would like to visit it with The Bean. Sam knew right where it was even though he hadn't been there for decades. Sam grew up in the area and played on the locomotive when it was first donated and installed in the park 50 years ago.
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We drove on over and The Bean Himself played for awhile. He really enjoyed getting up close and personal with the engine (Southern Pacific 1229). Afterwords I grabbed a few photos of a rare benchmark. An intersection station using an airway beacon. Most airway beacons are long gone but this one is still standing tall. Next we checked out the old Southern Pacific Depot that is now a McMennamins Restaurant and found a benchmark on it's wall then we bummed around downtown a bit.

On the way out of town I saw a vintage neon sign in action and did a u-turn to capture photos of it before heading home.

Origin of TheBeanTeam:
TheBeanTeam was created on a Thanksgiving day in 2002. Brother in-law RvrRnr (aka Dean) introduced Mr. Bean (aka Garbanzo Bean) to an activity called Geocaching.

We were a new family with a brand new baby boy that we were obsessed with. This little boy also has, as part of his name, the "Dean" moniker and his Aunt started calling him The Bean. In December of 2002 Mrs. Bean (Coffee Bean) produced a Christmas gift that included a GPS receiver and we signed up for a geocaching account. Thus, TheBeanTeam was born.


In April of 2006 the team added another member. The Sprout was born and transformed our home as only a little girl can.

Our original team included our greyhound, Dango Dog, who went everywhere with us and accompanied us on our wanderings. He was a retired racer who helped separate folks from their money by being a class c racing dog and not all that dependable on the track. He was dependable in our home however, we could depend on him to dig in the trash if we didn't secure it and to run off if the chance provided itself. Dango developed a limp that proved to be bone cancer and has retired once again...this time permanently. Rest in Peace Dango Dog.

Since 2002 we have added other activities as well. Mr. Bean now hunts benchmarks and creates waymarks . Both are GPS related activities.