Musings about Geocaching: What a fun Fourth of July . . . and another FTF!

A few days ago, "lostguy" placed a series of caches along the Anderson Truck Trail, a hiking and mountain biking trail between Alpine and Lakeside north of I-8. His caches are always fun, and he puts cool stuff in the containers large enough to hold stuff. I had both a new Red Jeep TB and a Geocoin to release in "safe" locations away from the thieves who steal them because of their own selfishness.

Since it has been very hot here, I didn't know if heading over there was a good idea or not, on such a warm day, but I woke up very early and was able to get out of the house by 7:00 . . . once again without letting anyone know where I was going . . .

When I got close to the first cache, I found a little place to tuck my car in off the road, which was winding and narrow, and bordered by a curb. I brought my mountain bike, but since I am not an experienced rider, I didn't know if I should get it out, so I scouted the trail first. It looked doable . . . and it went on and on and on. I didn't really feel up to hiking that distance. So, I walked back to the car, got the bike out, put the front wheel on, secured the front brake, put two quarts of water in the pockets of my lumbar pack, and headed for the first cache.

When I was trying to load the caches into my Palm the other day, I got the "blue screen of death," not just once, but twice. However, it looked like the file got loaded anyway. When I looked in the Palm for the cache description, there wasn't anything there. If there was a hint, it was there, but "lostguy" described the container and its hiding place in the description.

So, without that description, I was "caching with coordinates only" and had trouble finding the first container.

From the first two caches, I headed down, down, down. Here was one of the views before I got to the "ATT -- Serenity Sounds" cache.

And, here was the pool near that cache.

I had trouble finding one of the other caches also, calling it a DNF on my way out, but getting to the correct location on my way back. All the others caches were fun to find, and they were in neat locations with great views. It was a really good day — of course any day when I am feeling better is a good day — and I only dumped the bike one time. Fortunately, it happened in slow motion, so I didn't get hurt, and the one glass water bottle I was carrying (don't ask why I was carrying a glass bottle) tumbled gently out of my pack and onto the ground without breaking.

Here is the track and profile of the ride and hike:

Here are some of the pictures I took.

I sure wish I could have focused the camera on this guy. He flew right over me a few times and I could have gotten some great pictures if the camera focus had been correct for the distance he was above me.

Tomorrow I will be going into town for a short trip. I have to take my car in to get it fixed and I don't know when I'll be going caching again. Since it is so hot now, only very early morning trips, or late afternoon/evening caching adventures are worth pursuing. I'm sure thankful to both gratefuldad116 and "lostguy" for putting out these two new series of caches, and to map4navigation for putting out that one new one I was FTF on today. Seeing that blank log was a pleasant surprise. Getting six FTFs in one week is a lot! Whoooooo Hoo!!