Musings about Geocaching: Two long hikes and sixteen caches found

Yesterday morning I woke up late . . . I was not awake enough to meet duganrm as we had earlier discussed, but after I saw there was a new cache out in my territory, I got very awake, very quickly. I thought I might have a chance for the FTF since I have gotten a few other FTFs out this way.

So, I called duganrm and he was up for the challenge, changing his planned route and driving out to the Horsethief Canyon trailhead. He got there before I did and found out cegrube had already been there and gone. Figures! That's what I get for sleeping in.

It was a beautiful day, although getting warmer by the minute, and it was very hazy with all the humidity in the air. We started down the trail and hadn't gone more than a few feet when Richard stopped suddenly because of this guy:

We checked him out thoroughly to make sure he wasn't going to do us bodily harm if we got too close to him, and then I got a few pictures before we walked past, trying not to disturb his sunbathing.

The trail is very steep at first, but it finally levels off in the canyon where it goes under huge, old oak trees.

We went to a cache I had already found first, then we went to the new cache, "Hopalong Rides Again" and then after signing that logbook and retrieving the T.B., we continued on to "Latitude 32's Treasure Trove."

From there we continued up a narrow, often steep trail back to the parking area. Here is what our track looked like:

I was hot and sweaty, and part of me wanted to go back home and vege out the rest of the day, but duganrm motivates me to do more than I think I can, and he offered to drive after we got into town, so I followed him to a Park 'n Ride in La Mesa, where there just happened to be a cache . . .

At 4:30, we went to the trailhead at the east end of Clairemont Mesa Blvd. to meet Team Adelos and finkbr. Little did I know it would be almost six hours before we got back to the cars.

We had lots of fun, and found 13 caches, during our extensive navigation of the western front of the MTRP cache wars.

By the time we had walked about six miles -- ten miles for the day -- I was starting to hurt. Right before that point, however, I was thinking about the big hike this Saturday and was wondering if I could participate . . .

It was a great hike and I certainly couldn't have found several of those caches if I had been by myself. As usual, duganrm's excellent Geosense found the trickier hides . . . and he also had the correct coordinates for a Puzzle cache I didn't even know about.

He also had a cellphone, which we used for three lifeline calls. One that helped us find a cache after dark . . . two more that didn't help us find a cache we think has gone missing.

There are still several caches on that side of the park I need to find . . . plus I have to get back up to the top of Fortuna Mountain because T.R. Violin put another Terracache up there . . .

I had a great time and got lots of exercise. The only thing that could have made the day better was if I could have gotten a bunch of great pictures. However, I didn't take any pictures. It was sunny, but so hazy it didn't seem worth wasting all that expensive digital film . . .