A week ago REI had their great used-gear sale. I met a friend there and afterwards we went to get a nearby cache owned by a friend of mine. HMMMmmmmm! What I thought would be an easy grab resulted in a DNF after a lengthy search.
Without really planning our next caches, we just went to the nearest one according to the GPSr. It was an easy find. The next nearest cache was located in a canyon. I'm finally learning about these and how difficult it is to gain access. Most of the canyons in the San Diego area are surrounded by residential neighborhoods with cheek by jowl private property lines. I've driven around and around these areas with the GPSr saying the cache is only 258 feet away without finding any way to access the cache location.
So, after some of this driving around, we finally found a recreation area that offered a trail into one section of Tecolote canyon. We found "Druid Hollow" cache. In fact, I didn't even have to look for it. It was sitting in its spot completely exposed. After signing the log, I replaced it and hid it with some bark and leaves.
The next cache in the canyon was the "TecoloteMagnetExchange." This fabulous tree is located just downhill from the cache location.
It was somewhat ironic that I didn't have a magnet to exchange because when I started out Geocaching that is what most of my trades were. I got a whole bunch of refrigerator magnets at a Thrift Store and those were my early swag items.
We attempted to walk to another cache, but it turned out to be too difficult from the canyon, so we walked back to the car, getting a bit "lost" and losing the trail back to the parking area at one place.
I've found that sometimes I look at the Navigation arrow so much on the initial cache hunt that I forget to make note of the trail and general surroundings as I would without the GPSr in my hand.
Maybe setting a waypoint for the car, even in such an urban setting, is a good idea . . .
10-Day Forecast
