Musings about Geocaching: 2005-06-26

Saturday, July 02, 2005

I just passed 350 caches found

Last night I went to a Chris Issac concert at Humphrey's. No, I wasn't one of the people who had a ticket to the sold-out concert, I was one of the boat people.

Of course as long as I was in San Diego, I had to find some caches. I put "Grandparent's Cache" in the found column. It was one I posted a DNF for the last time I was there. The view from near FlagMan's parents house is fantastic.

I also found "Give me Shelter," one that I somehow missed the last time I was on Shelter Island.

Then it was off to the concert, but first I had to stop at the deli to get a great sandwich to eat during the music. I got the kayak ready and in the water. The tide was pretty high so there wasn't much of a beach, just enough. The sky was overcast by the time I was paddling across the quiet water.

The concert was great, but I kept thinking about a cache I could get on my way home -- have I mentioned how obsessed I am with this game/sport/hobby/addiction?

After the concert, which continued even after the 10:00 curfew time, I paddled back to the Bessemer Street location, washed off the kayak, and loaded it and everything else. Then I could finally look for the "Travel Bug Hotel -- Room with a View" cache on Harbor Island. It was only 11:00 p.m., what the heck.

There is so much light on that street that I walked the 300 feet from my parking spot without my headlamp. After realizing I couldn't see in those rip rap rocks, I walked back to the car, got my headlamp, checked the clue one more time, then walked back.

I found the cache easily this time. It was very well hidden, but I'm still surprised with all the fishermen who use those rocks that it hasn't been discovered by a non-cacher. I didn't have a Travel Bug to trade, so I just signed the log and finally started the 30-mile drive home.

Of course, after I got home, it wasn't midnight yet, I just had to log my finds. Finally I got to bed sometime after 1:00 in the morning and in my sleep I dreamed about Geocaching, Travel Bug Hotels, and shiny Geocoins.

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

The elusive Golden Hammer was finally found

The cache that gave me so much grief, when I couldn't find it, even though I had a lot of fun, on the same day someone else did find it, was finally found today. Actually, after looking for an hour, P.T. found it in its little hidey hole where it is in plain sight, if you just happen to look that direction while negotiating the big rockpile.

It was a bit hazy, but the view was still great from up there.

After finding this cache and the nearby "Walking for your Health" cache, we walked to two other caches I had already found.

We went back to town and had a nice lunch and afterwards decided to take one car. In loading up P.T.'s car, I realized I didn't know where my GPSr was. EEEEEk!

I told her to continue on caching and I would go back and look for the lost GPSr. I walked all the way out to "Golfcourse View," where I didn't find the GPSr. That meant I had to walk all the way back to "Walking for your Health." On the way, I saw mountain bike tracks on the trail and I hoped the person either didn't see it, or didn't ride that far.

Finally, I got to a place where I had put the GPSr in my pack after turning it off. However, when I put the pack back on, the GPSr bounced out. That is the last time I'll ever put it in a pack pocket without securing the lanyard to the pack.

Wheeeeuu! What a relief. I would be lost without the GPSr, and I don't know how I could have afforded to get another one.

I finally made it back to town and called P.T. about 4:00 p.m. She met me and we took off with plenty of daylight to still find several caches before we lost the sun.

We hiked up to "Santee Saddle" and then over to "Boot Rock," which was a great old timey cache.