Musings about Geocaching: Awesome views in the Crest area today

After my long, steep hike with dillweed yesterday, I wasn't planning on going anywhere today, but fisnjack twisted my arm . . .

I still needed to get gas, something I didn't do yesterday because there aren't any stations along that back route I took. And I had all those cans and bottles we collected to take to the recycling center. So, I talked fisnjack into meeting me at the Recycling Center in RSD so I could accomplish that errand first. I got there, but the place was closed. Bummer! Then, when I called their 877 number to get the address of the closest RePlanet place that was open, I got caught in "Voice Mail Jail." By the time fisnjack arrived, I was not, as they say, a "happy camper."

We decided to drive into El Cajon. It wasn't the direction I wanted to go, but I could fill the gas tank on the way to another recyling place.

When we got there, it was very exciting. There were several people waiting in line and the attendants were efficiently weighing out cans, bottles, and plastic containers for them. When an automated machine became available, I quickly got in line and started putting in the cans and bottles it would accept, one at a time. After our half-hour diversion, I had receipts for nearly twenty dollars in recyling money. After turning those into cash at the nearby Ralph's Grocery Store, we could head for our destination, the little community of Crest high above the east end of El Cajon.

We parked the truck in the same place we parked before and started up, up, up. At the first cache, I got a picture of the old stone water tank with Bell Bluff in the background.

There were expanses of slickrock in some places, and lots of exposed boulders along the meandering trails we took to the several caches hidden by several different cachers, including Chuy!, Ginger!, Jahoadi and John, and map4navigation.

This was the view high above the invitingly-blue swimming pool Jahoadi saw and thought "Cannon Ball" on the warm day she was up there placing the ammo can.

We got to travel over the next section of trails a couple of times because we didn't realize there was a benchmark on the hill until we hiked down to "DBT."

The views were really fantastic, although the sky was somewhat hazy. The haze didn't obscure the distant views because we could see Point Loma, the Silver Strand, the Coronado Bridge, and the islands off the coast of Mexico.

For the middle of January, the day could not have been more beautiful. The sun was warm, but the breeze was cool, just perfect for hiking.

At the end of the day, our two GPS units almost agreed on the number of miles we traveled, although they didn't agree on the time we were stopped.

The GPS Map 60CSx was more accurate at reporting the amount of time we were stopped. There is no way we were stopped for the length of time my Vista HCx reported . . . Very confusing.

Here is the Profile of our hike:

At the very end of the day a strange woman approached us. Apparently she is called the "Wolf Woman of Crest." I wanted us to get away from her so I behaved rudely, saying I needed to leave. I did not want to engage her in conversation. I could see where that could only end badly . . . I'm sure glad I don't live near her . . .

I had a great day today and once again am grateful to fisnjack for getting me out and for doing the driving.