Blog Template Musings about Geocaching: 2007-07-22

Musings about Geocaching

Saturday, July 28, 2007

A Sunset/Moonrise/Moonlight hike for the SDCET

Looking at the "schedule" for the nearly-full moon this month, I saw that it was going to occur on a weekend, so I posted in our local forums suggesting a hike to the incredible area along the Carveacre Windcaves to Gaskill Peak trail. We started at my little "parking place" cache, "And so the adventure begins . . . " From there, we followed the silly little trail to finally get on the main, wide, well-defined trail and "Ouch that musta hurt."



From there we walked had to take a little side trip to "Ummm . . . not this way, " and then to fisnjack's "Gaskill View."

From there, I picked up my pace because I wanted to get to the windcaves to get some pictures in the sunset light.













After the sun went down, the moon came up to light our way. For most of the way, we didn't need to use our headlamps or flashlights. Here is part of our group at my cache, "Another Astounding Area."


I think everyone had a great time, even though the last mile was a little tough. Good thing we were going downhill most of that distance, as we picked up the last three caches, "A View to a Polar Bear," "Tunnel of Shade," and finally "Overflow Parking."


posted by Miragee at 11:40:00 AM | 0 comments

Friday, July 27, 2007

A little hike for a few caches on a hot day . . .

It was going to be another hot, and humid day, but fisnjack said he was headed out to clear of McGinty Mountain—again—so I took the opportunity to join him. I met him in a shopping center parking lot about ten miles from my house where we found a cache by Weatherlass. He did the rest of the drive to the trailhead, which, as the crow flies is about six miles from my house, but is a 25-mile drive . . .

After some searching I found a cache placed by ChuckB that I DNF'd when I was in the area a couple of months ago with dillweed. After that, and after making sure we had plenty of water and high-energy snacks, we started up the very steep pitch at the beginning of the trail. Once you get past that terrain obstacle, the trail would be a great mountain bike riding trail.



Once we got up on the top, I forgot about the trail to the east, and fisnjack didn't say anything, so we walked the loooong way around to get to the first cache along the trail.

The views were hazy, but fantastic anyway.





We found one cache hidden in a familiar container, one I think Chuy! might have gotten out of one of my caches, that was, fortunately still working great. A couple of those containers I used broke after a short period of time . . .

The next cache was in a shady area, which was very welcome.



The last cache was hidden high up in a challenging rockpile. As fisnjack and I surveyed where the cache might have been hidden, I looked at the Terrain rating for the cache on my GPSr and thought it was a '3.5'. While I was climbing up those rocks -- in my Chaco sandals -- to the cache location, and back down after signing the log, I kept saying, "I'd rate this a '4'." Once I got back home, safely down from that precarious perch, and logged into GC.com, I saw it was accurately-rated as a '4.' I enjoyed the climb, but wondered how the cache owner decided on that hiding place?

After that cache, we were done . . . so we made the walk back, checking on a few caches on the way, including "Birds" and "Cats." It was good to see they were still in place and doing okay, even with this heat. I have one container that has "melted" in the summer heat, so I'll have to do something about that one when it cools off enough to hike back there, with a stouter container.

By the time we got back to the truck, I was in need of a pedicure . . .



On our way back to town, we found a couple of other caches, and we stopped for a great lunch at Las Parillas, a little Mexican Restaurant tucked between a 7-11 and a real estate office. It is one of those places you are unlikely to know about unless someone has told you how great, and inexpensive, the food is.

I had a very fun day and was appreciative for fisnjack's company on the trail, and for driving to the trailhead.


posted by Miragee at 6:46:00 PM | 0 comments

Thursday, July 26, 2007

I placed a new cache yesterday

The little area of La Mesa called Case de Oro is a reminder of the small towns I lived in for 15 years of my life. The main street is only a few blocks long, but along that stretch of Campo Road there is everything you need. At one end, there is a Kragen Auto Parts store and a Goodyear tire store, as well as a few car repair places and "smog" shops. Then there is the obligatory 7-11. There is an Ace Hardware store, and a couple of Thrift Stores, a pharmacy, a grocery store, a Pizza Parlor, a branch library, a couple of gas stations, and some great little Mexican Restaurants. There is also a pawn shop, a bar, a couple of laundromats, a Carl's Jr, a do-it-yourself carwash, and at the far end of town the obligatory Starbuck's.

If you could somehow pick up the immediate Casa de Oro area, six blocks long by six blocks wide, and plop it down on the plains of Iowa or Nebraska, you would have everything a small town needed for survival, including some nice neighborhoods with modest, but mostly well-kept houses.

One block north of main street is this beautiful church building.



I placed the cache very close to where that nicely-framed photograph was taken. The only thing that would work in that location was a bison tube. I hope people enjoy being brought to that particular viewpoint of that beautiful Spanish-style building and will take their own pictures of the church building. I would like to see it in different light—early morning when the huge stained-glass window is more evident, or in the evening with a gorgeous sunset behind it.

It will be interesting to see how the cache and the location are received. It would also be nice if people would take pictures of the church as the seasons change and the backdrop of usually-clear blue sky changes.

(The picture on the page now is one I took before a storm in September, to replace the less-dramatic picture I took back in July when I placed the cache.)



posted by Miragee at 1:37:00 PM | 0 comments

Boy, I've gotten behind here . . .

Last Sunday evening I went for a little hike on "Dictionary Hill" with CTYankee9. From now on, I think Geocachers will be referring to it as "Backwards" hill because all the caches names are backwards. I don't know how it got started, but there is Y.L.N.O. . G.O.L , E.G.R.A.L., ynnuB ereH, M.U.I.D.E.M, L.L.A.M.S, sdneirf doog, k.c.a.b.y.a.P s'.k.d.c.i.D, D.A.E.H. L.I.A.R.T., yrros idoj, and O.N.A.N. Boy, it was hard to keep the caches straight because we couldn't pronounce the names.

There is one of those "pesky" buried caches up on that hill. One much larger than that clever one I found in Colorado I was so upset about when it got "turned in" and Archived . . .

The clouds were very pretty that evening.



The next day I went for a hike in MTRP with dillweed. We cleared up two of our DNFs from our last visit there and found a cache that has been in my GSAK database since the very beginning of my Geocaching careet, "Monitoring MTRP." It was near this amazing rock wall climbers use for practice.



A bit further down the trail we found a TB Hotel that has been in place for a while. I dropped off a TB I picked up on "backwards" hill the night before. I took a picture of the pretty clouds near that cache location.



Yesterday I went into town with my kayak to paddle over to Humphrey's to see K.D.Lang and Lyle Lovette. Wow, K.D.Lang has the most amazing voice. I was floored by it, as was the guy whose inflatable kayak was tied up next to mine.

On my way to the put-in place, I found several caches, one at the Villa Montezuma, and another in a busy place in the Gaslamp Quarter of downtown San Diego. I also DNF'd a cache down there . . .

I found two of Duncan!'s ammo can caches, and one of his Lock 'n Lock containers in a nice park at Spanish Landing, but that was followed by another DNF at a pretty new cache placed by Jahoadi and John . . .

A seagull was nicely-framed by this unusual tree at the Spanish Landing park.



It was a really fun day, except for getting home and realizing I lost the antenna for my car. I used to put it in a very specific place when I had to take it off to put the kayak on the car. Since I never even used the kayak last year, and have only used it once this year, I forgot that little routine . . . so, it is off to eBay to order a replacement. What did people who live in rural locations do before eBay?


posted by Miragee at 12:49:00 PM | 0 comments

 

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