A bit of caching after my trip to R.E.I.
As long as I was all the way over at the R.E.I. store, which is about 35 miles from my house, I took the time to find three caches that were nearby.
I found a place to park at the end of a cul-de-sac and started out looking at the map screen on my GPSr and walking straight ahead on the first trail I saw. However, when I did a quick search for nearest waypoints, there was a cache only 163 feet away. I don't know why I didn't see it on the map screen; I must have been zoomed in too far, or zoomed out so much the cache icons were on top of each other.
So, I changed the GPSr to the Navigation arrow and followed it into the brush.
Since I have done "Sky Show Hideaway," I know there are caches hidden in nearly inaccessible places on steep hillsides, so I continued through the brush until I reached an absolutely impassible barrier of shrubs and aromatic plants.
I retreated and while I watched the distance increase from 48 feet back up to more than 100, I rethought my decision to wear my shorts for this cache hunt.
Up near the property line of a nearby house, I saw a wide path, so I followed that to a place where there was a faint trail down through the iceplant. I followed that and the "Go To" arrow down the rocky trail gradually reducing the distance to the cache location.
I looked for too long for this cache, considering how relatively exposed the ammo can was once I saw it. I didn't look over that way because a huge branch has broken off a manzanita, nearly blocking access to the cache.
I signed the log and went back up the hill to the next cache. In my Palm, I didn't have any past logs for this one and I looked too long in the wrong location. Once I found the "dead yucca," I started my search again. At one point, I saw my dark shadow in the late afternoon light. Something wasn't quite right about the intensity of my shadow and I looked again. There was the cache -- a plastic container covered with black duct tape. It was a very good cammo for that time of the day.
The final cache was just a bit more than .1 mile away. The description said it was a blue Tupperware container and that is what I saw. A large blue-lidded Tupperware with no camouflage or covering at all. The cache had a great view of Highway 52. Since I found the cache in an uncovered condition, I left it that way, but I was surprised by its exposed condition.
After returning to my car, I looked at my map and saw a cache not too far away. I thought I had time to find it. However, the park it is in was surrounded by residential areas. I couldn't find a place to park where there was access to the canyon.
All the canyons in the San Diego area are interesting and surprising, but the difficult access, when parking coordinates are not given in the cache description, makes the hunt a bit frustrating . . . and gas consuming.
If I place caches in areas that might be difficult to get to, I will include parking coordinates or street names and directions. Although some people might think that is part of the "game," I don't. I want to park my car and get out and start walking.
That is the "game" for me.
I found a place to park at the end of a cul-de-sac and started out looking at the map screen on my GPSr and walking straight ahead on the first trail I saw. However, when I did a quick search for nearest waypoints, there was a cache only 163 feet away. I don't know why I didn't see it on the map screen; I must have been zoomed in too far, or zoomed out so much the cache icons were on top of each other.
So, I changed the GPSr to the Navigation arrow and followed it into the brush.
Since I have done "Sky Show Hideaway," I know there are caches hidden in nearly inaccessible places on steep hillsides, so I continued through the brush until I reached an absolutely impassible barrier of shrubs and aromatic plants.
I retreated and while I watched the distance increase from 48 feet back up to more than 100, I rethought my decision to wear my shorts for this cache hunt.
Up near the property line of a nearby house, I saw a wide path, so I followed that to a place where there was a faint trail down through the iceplant. I followed that and the "Go To" arrow down the rocky trail gradually reducing the distance to the cache location.
I looked for too long for this cache, considering how relatively exposed the ammo can was once I saw it. I didn't look over that way because a huge branch has broken off a manzanita, nearly blocking access to the cache.
I signed the log and went back up the hill to the next cache. In my Palm, I didn't have any past logs for this one and I looked too long in the wrong location. Once I found the "dead yucca," I started my search again. At one point, I saw my dark shadow in the late afternoon light. Something wasn't quite right about the intensity of my shadow and I looked again. There was the cache -- a plastic container covered with black duct tape. It was a very good cammo for that time of the day.
The final cache was just a bit more than .1 mile away. The description said it was a blue Tupperware container and that is what I saw. A large blue-lidded Tupperware with no camouflage or covering at all. The cache had a great view of Highway 52. Since I found the cache in an uncovered condition, I left it that way, but I was surprised by its exposed condition.
After returning to my car, I looked at my map and saw a cache not too far away. I thought I had time to find it. However, the park it is in was surrounded by residential areas. I couldn't find a place to park where there was access to the canyon.
All the canyons in the San Diego area are interesting and surprising, but the difficult access, when parking coordinates are not given in the cache description, makes the hunt a bit frustrating . . . and gas consuming.
If I place caches in areas that might be difficult to get to, I will include parking coordinates or street names and directions. Although some people might think that is part of the "game," I don't. I want to park my car and get out and start walking.
That is the "game" for me.
posted by Miragee at
8:02:00 PM
10-Day Forecast
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