Geocaching Redneck Style

This past weekend marks my 7th Thanksgiving trip to Winthrop, Washington. For 7 out of the last 8 years, I've spent this wonderful Canadian holiday in the USA!

We stay in the same campsite every year. The scenery is breathtaking! But the scenery this year was a little different.

Amidst all the red, orange and yellow trees was a lot of camo. Everyone in town (except the people you are with) was wearing camo pants, jackets, boots, and neon orange hats! It's either the newest fall fashion, or hunting season.

If you're still not sure, go to our campground and look around for this:

Ah, yes. The good ol' 3 point buck head hanging from a tree. Be glad I didn't put the photo of the REST of it. At least there's no blood in this one (good memories, eh supersleuth?).

So, but now we've established that it's hunting season. We actually got there 30 minutes after the season opened. It's only open for a week or two, so hunters make a mad rush to Winthrop to sink their bullets into one of the 15,000 deer in the valley.

Pass the venison, please!

There's something kind of creepy being in Winthrop for hunting season. I mean, besides the carcases hanging from the trees. When you go for a walk on a trail and hear a "BANG" in the distance, you know there's someone out there with a gun.

That's usually the extent to which we get involved with the hunt. But this year was different.

Colin prepared a bunch of geocaches to check out. So we went with another couple and both babies.

We followed the GPS's instructions and came to a logging road with a sign that said, "Primitive Road, no signs". Onward. So we're on this tiny offroad that most likely doesn't get a lot of use. Today however, it was a freeway. Every person in every car that passed us was wearing camo and a fluorescent orange hat. We must have passed 100 trucks on that 10 mile road!

We also passed hunters who were outside on the range, holding their rifles. It was really scary, considering we were the only ones out here unarmed. And most likely the only people with babies.

As we bounced along the road, I was asking questions like, "How far away from the road are hunters allowed to shoot from?" and "are hunters allowed to shoot across a road?".

We got about 300 meters away from the geocache when we reached the end of the road. There was a gate, so we had to walk the rest of the way. But beyond the gate, was hunting territory.

Mar and I stayed back with the sleeping babies. DON'T WORRY! Even if they were awake there's no way they were going past that gate.

The guys took off with the GPS. Colin was wearing a brown shirt (colour of a deer), so I was a little nervous. I got even more nervous when a truck parked beside us and a pair of gun-toting chicks got out and went on the same trail the guys were on.

They returned less than 10 minutes later, and gave us the GPS. I tied a red Zellers bag to my head, and Mar put a greasy red shirt on her head. Off we went, prancing like deer, along the path.

We never felt like we were in real danger or we never would have gone. But while we were gone, the guys were talking to a hunter who said it was very smart of us to wear red. He has some spare reflective vests he usually lends out to "tourist" types, but they were already on loan.

On our way back down the hunting highway, we contemplated honking the horn and scaring all the deer, but we remembered that we were the only ones unarmed.

And that was our redneck adventure of the weekend.

I'll leave you with some family photos:

Happy Thanksgiving!