Geocaching.com
For some, Geocaching is all about the search, all about finding that hidden cache. The journey there and what you see often falls into second place or worse. For me the journey is the best part. Especially for those hunts that take us into the mountains of North Eastern Washington.
I enjoy the Jeep ride, the fresh air and the gorgeous scenery. Green meadows, dark fern covered valleys and trees that reach the sky. All this is wonderful and I enjoy it a great deal. However, a bonus of geo-caching is coming across those scenes or places that you totally do not expect.
The mountains and the trees are large and not to be missed. But when you’re out on your next search be sure to look around you, look under those great trees. Don’t miss the little treasures there. We’ve come across many different types of mushrooms, it’s amazing how beautiful they can be. Knowing nothing about mushrooms, I’m sure they were probably poison, but they look good on film!
One trip (non-geocaching) in the mountains brought us to an old building. We got out to try to see just what it was. 
After wandering up the hill a bit we could see the flume pipes coming off the hill. They ran right down to the building we’d found! We figured it must have been the processing house (or at least that’s the story we gave it). I enjoy giving the place a story and a history. I can just imagine the workers and the activity! I’ll most likely never know if it’s true or not, but it’s fun to imagine! We then decided this site would be a great location for a cache next summer! I enjoy imagining the history of each place that we stumble upon.
One of the most unexpected finds came at the end of a geo-caching day. We found one cache that we had failed to find once before. Then we moved to another cache that had been damaged and helping out (with the owner’s permission) by placing a new container so the cache could stay active. After that we decided to come home “the back way”. It had started to snow and it was quite pretty. 
Traveling along a gravel road we rounded the corner and came across a sight that made you feel like you were in an old movie! Across the entire road was a cattle drive! Five horses and cowboys, three dogs and many cows…we were on the Ponderosa! The drive itself wasn’t really all that unusual, the setting was just perfect and it truly looked like a cattle drive from the old West! We followed them for a while and during that time I was able to take this photo (I have a copy in my office and people think it’s great!). Then they noticed we were there, they slowly parted and we moved on. The moment was gone, but I had the memory on my camera. So ALWAYS take your camera, you never know what you may see!
These finds are the bonus moments that makes geo-caching extra fun for me. Enjoy the find, but don’t forget about the journey!
Happy Hunting!
Pegz
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I am thinking that this winter may not have been too very friendly to this building that was already about to fall. We will head up there in the spring to plant a new cache and report back on the findings…