Day 10 - Seattle!

Ever since we first started caching we have always wanted to do the Washington Ape cache.  We first became aware of it a short while after we started caching in 2007 and then when it was archived in 2011 we were really disappointed.  Luckily some local cachers decided that the muggled container had probably been dumped somewhere on the trail as the nearest parking was a couple of miles and they felt it was unlikely that it had been taken.  As luck would have it they found it quite quickly and took it back to Geocaching HQ.  Groundspeak then held a poll to try and decide what to do with the cache.  The choices being:  Keep it in HQ as an exhibit, make it trackable at mega events or replace/relocate it, only make it loggable once a year or at mega events or replace and unarchive as a standard cache.  While we were waiting for the results of the poll to be published and a decision to be made we had already gone ahead and planned the outline of our trip to the states and booked our flights, this didn't include Washington state.  We thought that if the Ape was eventually unarchived then we could possibly go and find it another time.

The Ape cache was eventually unarchived and as time progressed we realised there's no guarantee that the cache would remain active especially if someone deliberately tried to sabotage it so we thought it would be too good an opportunity to miss seeing as we were going to be fairly nearby in terms of being in the same country as opposed to a 10 hour flight away.  After looking at our itinerary we decided that we'd probably allowed too much time in LA.  So we tweaked our plans and booked flights from LAX to SEA-TAC to return the following day.  So this is how we came to wake up at 2 am to catch a flight to Seattle for a crazy 30 hour trip.

Waiting for the shuttle to LAX

Leaving LA

Cloud art

Where has the sun gone?

Careful with the bikes

Arrived in Seattle at 9am and caught the shuttle to the car rental facility, picked up a Kia Optima then drove to Jimi Hendrix memorial - Mark had visited back in 2015 but I was keen to visit too.

Jimi Hendrix Memorial

Then off to the trailhead waypoint, stopping off in North Bend for coffee and to buy a discovery Pass which is required for parking.

Wow such beautiful colours

Fab coffee shop drive-thru in North Bend

We also came across the cutest little drive-thru coffee shop we've ever seen.

The temperature was noticeably cooler than what we'd been used to further south and also the area was much greener with the autumn colours just appearing on the trees.  The scenery was fantastic and we were sad that we weren't able to spend longer in the area.

Once at the trailhead car park we headed straight for the trailhead and into the tunnel.  We knew we were going to be very short on time so we decided to take our folding bikes.  It was noticeably colder inside the tunnel and there was also a very cold wind.  So we peddled hard to keep warm.

The tunnel is 2.25 miles long an is the world's longest bicycle and pedestrian tunnel.

We eventually came through the other side and enjoyed the ride to GZ with all the colourful leaves on the trees. The cache was a quick find of course and we were really chuffed to finally have found a legendary APE cache.

Without further ado we whizzed back through the tunnel and back to the car and off to Seattle to our motel stopping off at Kurt Cobain's favourite bench on the way.

Kurt Cobain's bench and house behind the hedge

We attended an event in the evening and it was really good to meet up with Annie Love from HQ again, we first met her back 2014 in Portugal and have bumped into her a couple of times since.

The gum wall

Tomorrow HQ!