Centurion Guard

Last saturday afternoon turned sunny and in the low 50's, so we abruptly decided to go search for the oldest geocache in Alaska, right here in Sitka along Sawmill Creek. After pausing along the drive up to see the bears at the Fortress of the Bears (you can see in from above when the brush has lost foliage) we arrived at the new bridge across Sawmill Creek and our trailhead. The creek reminded RD of Provo canyon, with its steep sides and beautiful trees, but we didn't see any fish. The trail wasn't marked well, and after taking what seemed like a path, we had to bush-whack most of the way. Reese has fun using a stick to whack the brush, and Cameron and Grace were troopers. Grace laughed at times as RD and I had to pass her through brush. They thought it was quite the adventure; I was glad we had our emergency pack and our GPS! Eventually we got close to our coordinates, and starting searching for the cache. RD gave the boys a hint, and they found it hanging on a big exposed tree root. As usual, they loved getting new anything, and we had fun finding a different way back that seemed a little thinner. We were right by another cache, so headed over to the dam hydroelectric power station for the Shocking Cache. We had the right idea of where it was hidden, but took awhile to get to the right part of the dam (since we avoided the slippery rocks). The caches were very fun, but we were surprised the first geocache in Alaska would be put in the middle of the forest, when there are so many splendid views around. The young men group in our ward is putting out more caches, so we're looking forward to more adventures!