Blog Template Musings about Geocaching: 2005-10-30

Musings about Geocaching

Friday, November 04, 2005

A cache maintenance trip and five new caches await approval

Blue's Blue View had two DNFs, so I needed to hike up there and check on "him." The cache container was a plastic blue whale I found at a Thrift Store. As others had done with toy alligators, I had put a 35mm film canister in his belly. A few weeks ago, ChuckB found him some 200 feet down the hill from where he belonged, but the last two searchers didn't find him. Since he was not covered with rocks, just sitting under a bush, I was worried he was gone.

Since it is a long hike up that mountain, I decided I could use the opportunity to place some new caches. I prepared several cache containers with trading items, log books, and Geocaching "explainers" and filled my daypack with them.

On the way up the hill I placed a new cache where there is a great view of Lyons Peak. The location is just above some of those pale Nolina plants that I have only seen on Mt. McGinty and up in Joshua Tree National Park.



When I couldn't find "Blue," I put a small tin container with a few trade items under the bush in a slightly different spot and covered it with rocks.

From there, I headed south towards another viewpoint. Along the way I placed a cache that has this view of Mt. Miguel.



Further down the trail I placed another cache similar to the one T.R. Violin has at "Take a Break Here" on Twin Peaks in Poway.

Finally, I made my way down to the lonely tree, a place I have wanted to put a cache ever since I started this obsession . . . er . . . activity last January.





The view from the tree


Before the day was done, I had covered a lot of territory as evidenced by my track:




posted by Miragee at 8:25:00 PM | 1 comments

Thursday, November 03, 2005

Another new "Found" map from Keen People

This map shows the new cluster of 44 caches I found on my camping trip out to the desert.




posted by Miragee at 7:48:00 PM | 0 comments

One day to recover and off for two more days of caching

Tuesday it was an almost unbelievably warm day, so we headed toward the coast where it would be a bit cooler. But first, on our way, we stopped to find some new caches in the Chollas Lake area. One was a cache I looked for for a long time several months ago. Only after I got home that day did I find out it had gone missing less than a week after being placed. This time it was an easy find, but quite a distance away from its namesake, "The Lonely Field of Dreams."

We had fun taking pictures of the Travel Bugs we had with us, one of which has a goal of traveling to as many different caches as possible.



The Tool Team Traveling Token at R.I.P.





Bendo at the "Lonely Field of Dreams cache"


At the coast, the ocean was flatter than I've ever seen it. There were still surfers on their boards out on the water, but they had long waits between the very small swells. We walked all the way out to the end of the pier again to get the coordinates for the final "OB Offshore Mystery Cache" location.



The view of the pier where the OB Offshore Mystery Cache adventure started.

After checking out that location, which was very close to a cache Duncan! placed, we took off towards one of HaZzMaTt's caches located in a very beautiful spot.



The view from "PaRadiSe FOUND !"


We worked our way out on Point Loma and found the "Resting Soldiers" cache near the military cemetary. My GPSr was acting strange and I wonder if it was because of all the military equipment and radar in the area.

The last cache of the evening was "BayWatch," one we couldn't find a couple of weeks ago . . . because it wasn't there when we were looking for it. It was very treacherous walking on the rip rap rocks after dark. P.T. finally went back to the car and got her flashlight and she found the very well-cammoed cache under the bushes.


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Wednesday morning we met down near the steel bridge in Rancho San Diego. There are many caches in the area near the Sweetwater River, but we were initially only going to do the "Beyond the Bridge" Multi-cache. However, when P.T. remembered all the Puzzle Caches nearby, we walked back to the car to get the information necessary to look for those.

We found the first waypoint, then we found another cache, "Cross Over the Bridge! Too." Then we found the second waypoint and headed up the hill to "Searching for a Princess," the cache where FlagMan broke his PDA. From there we headed to first one, then a second, then a third puzzle cache location.



At the last cache, "What Time is It," we found the big ammo can almost completely empty. Some people found it the day before and they took the swag, leaving either nothing behind, or worthless items.

By the time the adventure was over, we had walked for almost four hours, had covered probably five miles, and had found five caches. However, we only found two of the five waypoints for our original "project." LOL!

I had to run some errands, so once we made it back to the car, we changed out of our hiking boots, put on our trusty Chaco sandals, and took off for Target, the Water Store, and the Recycling Center. With that break, the rest of the afternoon felt like a different day.

A very easy, drive-by micro by FATTBOY was a welcome cache. An interesting, short Multi by Wiz Creations was fun, but a search for another "Eye Hide . . ." cache was disappointing. I didn't find the cache, but the location, and the coordinates left a lot to be desired. I have no need to return to that location to clear up the DNF . . . I'm afraid I left a somewhat mean log for that one . . .

Since daylight savings time ended last weekend, it gets dark very early now. I was home hours earlier that I used to get home a couple of months ago. I actually got all the caches logged before 9:00, something that used to take me untill nearly midnight.

After logging my finds, I was only seven away from 900 . . . a number I didn't think I would achieve in less than three years when I got started back in January.

posted by Miragee at 6:42:00 PM | 0 comments

Monday, October 31, 2005

The "Keep on Truckin'" Geo-Campout was a great success

I arrived Thursday night after finding several caches along the way. The drive was beautiful, with high clouds making the usually plain-blue sky very spectacular.







Today, I finished logging all the caches, some 43, that I found, along with seven or eight caches I didn't find. One of them had been archived, but for some reason, that information wasn't included in the Pocket Query I ran right before leaving.

I have many more pictures to share, including one of T.R. Violin that I thought turned out really good.



I took that while all of us were taking a break at 17-Palms after finding the "Prospector's Post Office" cache.

I was FTF on T.R.'s "S-22 Desert Cache," which was quite an adventure, considering I thought I only had to walk .18 miles to get to it.



Huge washes kept blocking my path so I had to keep trying a new direction, and another new direction, and another new direction before finally figuring out how to get to the place where I knew the cache had to be hidden.



There is much more to write about, and many more pictures to post, including this one of P.T.'s and my Chaco sandals at the "Hydro Cache."



Anyone who has hiked to that one probably thinks we are nuts to wear sandals, but they are so comfortable, I'm glad we have worn them to places we shouldn't have, like the Twin Peaks caches.

So, I'll work on this some more over the next few days. I would like to "flesh out" the details of the wonderful adventure of camping with lots of really great people.

posted by Miragee at 5:23:00 PM | 0 comments

 

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