Halloween Hunt, 5/5 (Livermore,CA)

This afternoon I went with Dan (geodanimal) and Janet on a nice, clear day for some cache hunting in Del Valle Regional Park.

We started with Dragon Head Cache (N 37° 37.403 W 121° 44.773), about a half mile up the trail from the parking lot. I’ve never been in this area of Del Valle before. This cache is actually very close to the Wente Golf Course. We spotted the most obvious hiding place from 20 yards away.

Another 0.4 miles up the trail was Chile Today, Hot Tamale (N 37° 37.135 W 121° 44.683). This was an uphill trek, but the reward (besides finding the cache) was the view back down the canyon toward Livermore. This was also a straightforward find. It was a Tupperware container and it had been stored upside down. During the heavy rain a week ago, the lip of the lid must have funneled water into the container. Things were pretty wet. For our return to the car we chose not the wide path we had come up on, but a narrow use trail. This turned out to get seriously steep, so I’m glad we were going down and not up.

Leaving Del Valle, we talked about walking into Sycamore Grove from Veteran’s Park, but since I’ve done most of those already, Dan and Janet will go there another time. We decided to try for Mine the Gap (N 37° 36.233 W 121° 39.703), a few mile drive up Mines Road. A few years ago, I used to take a weekly bike ride up Mines Road past the cache location. It’s a challenging ride--the climb is serious. We had some difficulty finding this one--it was just an Altoids tin. I was searching the right type of location, but just didn’t expand the search far enough. After quite a while, Janet found it just outside the area I had searched.

Kid’s Cache 2 (N 37° 41.302 W 121° 43.148) has a reputation of being hard to find (certainly not easy for kids). I had gone looking once before, but didn’t spend a lot of time. Indications were it was going to take hands and knees searching. So, with all of us there, that’s what we did. I guess it might have helped us some if we’d been thinking more like a kid, but eventually Dan found it.

For our final hunt, we went to Altamont Creek Path (N 37° 43.336 W 121° 42.813). I think I’d been here looking three times before. All of us were still puzzled and not finding it. Dan found a place where something obviously had been, so we began to wonder if the cache had disappeared. Some time later, Janet searched the same area and found the camoflaged cache, not 6 inches away from where Dan and I were looking at the suspected hiding place. I guess we need to learn to be more thorough in our searching.

All in all, it was a good hunt. We were five for five--the best outing we’ve had.

Fly Away Home (Livermore, CA)

I guess this was the third time I visited the site of Fly Away Home (N 37° 40.677 W 121° 44.460). Didn’t even get out the GPSr, since I knew exactly where it would point. The previous times I had come were on weekdays, and there was always some activity nearby. Still, I had looked and looked, turning over all the trash and avoiding the dog poop. Today, it was right there where its always been, well camoflaged.

Updraft (Livermore, CA)

Wow! I didn’t know Del Valle park property included where Updraft (N 37° 36.227 W 121° 41.065) is located. It’s a good climb rewarded with a great view. The cache (an ammo box) was quickly found.

stAirway to Heaven, Got Gas (Livermore, CA)

Tonight, Karen went to a Community Theater event, so I decided to try some night cache hunting. There was a full moon, but several of the caches were virtual ones where I had to read something at the cache site, so the flashlight in my cache kit came in handy.

First, I swung by stAirway to Heaven (N 37° 41.751 W 121° 49.105) out by the airport. The sculpture I needed to find to satisfy the virtual find was of an early flying vehicle. Now I’ve seen the sculpture before while at the airport, but never stopped to read what it was all about. Interesting... an expensive project that never got off the ground.

Next, just a little ways away, I hit Got Gas (N 37° 42.217 W 121° 49.107). This is always a busy location so how do you inconspicuously search for a micro-cache? I parked out of the way, and used the GPSr to triangulate the probable spot, then moved the pickup to shield my grab. (Actually, I used the hint because I’ve had such poor luck finding caches, but the described method would work).

Then it was head west on the freeway into Pleasanton.

Night hunt (2 finds, 3 DNFs) (Pleasanton, CA)

The first night hunt try in Pleasanton was for Comp I/O, a puzzle cache. Solving the puzzle and getting the coordinates was pretty simple, given my background with programming. But that didn’t help me actually find the cache. The area was very busy, given it was a Friday night. I may know where the cache is hidden, but just couldn’t check without being seen. Probably some early morning would be good for this one. (DNF)

For the Good of the Game (N 37° 40.877 W 121° 53.638), a virtual cache was my next stop. Found the plaque and needed information in a dark part of the Sports Park. Didn’t see a soul on this jaunt.

Nearby was Home Run (N 37° 40.672 W 121° 53.792), a camouflaged match stick holder. The softball game had just ended, so no people, but still light. Didn’t help--couldn’t find it. New log entries, however, indicate I may have been making a bad assumption. I think I have to learn to consider all possible meanings of clues. (DNF)

Next up was Silver Gyrations (N 37° 39.530 W 121° 53.982), another virtual cache. It’s a kinetic sculpture. I’ve been there before, but always just looked at the nice fountain. Never realized there was a sculpture there. Since there was no breeze it wasn’t doing its thing.

From here, I drove by It’s Modern, but in the dark, on a still busy street, I couldn’t quickly find a safe place to park. I’ll save it for daylight.

Finally, made a stop for Quarter Pounder (N 37° 40.184 W 121° 51.520). Didn’t feel like wandering around in a McDonald’s parking lot at 9:45PM with all the people likely thinking I was casing out their cars. Looked some, but I’m not getting this finding micro-caches business yet.

Star Spangled Cache (Livermore, CA)

There were two caches I wanted to find at Veteran’s Park (east end of Sycamore Grove): Star Spangled Cache (N 37° 37.610 W 121° 45.439) and the second leg of Fisherwoman’s Reprise. The first was actually a quick find. Had to push some poison oak out of the way to get to it.

The second leg of Fisherwoman’s Reprise took a little more time. I hiked a bit to get to these coordinates, and then struck out. There’s been a lot of searching activity, judging from the beat down grass, but I could not find the cache.

Centennial Curse (Livermore, CA)

Centennial Curse (N 37° 40.578 W 121° 46.763) is a virtual cache at a rather (in)famous Livermore monument. When the city didn’t treat the totem pole with the respect the artist thought it deserved, he supposedly placed a curse on one of the city’s public works. I drive by it all the time, but this is the first time I actually went to read the plaque.

Magic Trig DNF (Livermore, CA)

Magic Trig is a puzzle cache. It has 4 satellite caches that contain only the distance to the actual cache. You have to find the satellites and then compute the location of the final cache.

That meant I hand entered the waypoints into the mapping program I use, MacGPS Pro. To my surprise in the field, the waypoints in the GPSr weren’t correct. Perhaps this is why I found only 1 satellite (apparently one other satellite is out of commission because of new construction).

Turns out the map coordinate systems of the Livermore map I am using the MacGPS is different from what the GPSr uses, so there is a coordinate translation that occurs when the waypoints are downloaded to the GPSr. I’ve corrected the waypoints in the GPSr and will try again.

Passarella iliaca DNF (Pleasanton, CA)

Passarella iliaca (N 37° 39.687 W 121° 52.022) is named after a Fox Sparrow. This was the second time I’ve looked for it, and this time had Dan and Janet looking too. We couldn’t find it. Some of the log entries indicate people have spotted the cache from 20 feet away, and others have had a very difficult time finding it. I don’t know what to think. It’s been over a month since the last logged find.

Cache Cow (Pleasanton, CA)

Went out with Dan and Janet (Geodanimal) this afternoon to Shadow Cliffs. After they found Henry’s Hidden Box and C Monster, we headed for Cache Cow (N 37° 40.103 W 121° 50.776). I had looked for this one on two previous occasions. Dan handled the GPSr, which took him to exactly the same spot I’d been to before. Luckily, I was the one to make the find (within just a couple of minutes). I know I had been within inches of it previously, but it was well hidden.

Viewpoint DNF (Livermore, CA)

Viewpoint (N 37° 37.342 W 121° 46.288) is in one of the farthest corners of the park (and one of the highest elevations). It is truly a viewpoint. We spent 40 minutes looking, but failed to find it.

I spent far too much time trying to figure out how to get to a hole in the 15ft high cliff nearby. Finally made an approach where I could lay down and hang my head over, only to discover that the hole was empty. The last logged find was July 1. A return trip is definitely warranted.

Shady Grove Junction, Frosty Freeze (Livermore, CA)

Instead of a bike ride this morning, I talked Karen into hiking in Sycamore Grove to find 3 caches before the rain started.

Shady Grove Junction (N 37° 37.794 W 121° 46.618) is in an area well known to us, since we’ve often hiked there. The camo’d container fooled Karen, but in all fairness, this was her first geocaching expedition. Still, it didn’t take long to find it.

Frosty Freeze (N 37° 37.566 W 121° 46.712) was just a little farther along the trail. It was pretty easy to spot it, but retrieving it was a bit more of a challenge. Karen got a photo of me making the attempt, but I guess I’ll not show it.

Pleasure Island (Livermore, CA)

Pleasure Island (N 37° 40.403 W 121° 48.009) is a park with some very nice play equipment (7 or 8 slides). I had gone there earlier in the week but hit a large kid’s birthday party. I believe it is impossible to hunt for this one without stirring up the neighbor dogs, so between all the kids on the playthings and the yapping dogs I didn’t go searching where I should have.

Today I took Cortnie to play at this park. She had a ball. While not brave enough to try the tallest slides, she found a couple of favorites. "I wanna do it again!" After an hour or so, I gave her the GPSr and asked her to follow the arrow. She took me right to the yapping dogs again. But being down on her level, I quickly spotted the micro-cache. This was kind of a disappointment for her since there were no goodies in it.

Snips N’ Snails, Puppet Theater (Livermore, CA)

Both of these are in Sycamore Grove park. They are actually close together, but divided by the creek. Since I didn’t want to wade the creek, it was a bit of a hike to go back over the bridge.

Snips N’ Snails (N 37° 38.395 W 121° 46.559) is obviously a companion to Sugar N’ Spice (found previously), but I miscalculated when at Sugar N’ Spice and thought it was on the opposite side of the creek. Then after getting over to Puppet Theater, I realized that was wrong, but was out of time. It’s a pretty easy find, and a possibility for Cortnie since it’s got toy stuff in it.

Puppet Theater (N 37° 38.320 W 121° 46.566) is so named because of a huge Sycamore tree that has a hollow trunk with a ‘door’ on one side and a ‘window’ on the other. Along with Dan and Janet, I’d tried to find this cache last weekend, but we couldn’t. Seemed like we looked everywhere.

Perhaps I’ve been watching too many CSI reruns, but my geocaching kit now includes gloves and a flashlight. Putting them to use enabled me to fairly quickly find the cache today.

Oh, and I found part 1 of Fisherwoman’s Reprise (N 37° 38.670 W 121° 46.844), but the next stage is at the far end of the park off Arroyo Road.

Kid’s Cache 3 (Livermore, CA)

You have to know where to park when you go after Kid’s Cache 3 (N 37° 42.795 W 121° 43.292) or you’ll end up on the wrong side of a chain link fence. Luckily, I chose the right place to start. Still, I poked around for quite a while before I located the cache.

Bushwacked Again (Pleasanton, CA)

A few days ago I made an attempt to get to this location from the south, off of Vineyard. The maps, and visual inspection, made it look like I could cross country to the cache location. This was not true. In addition to gravel pits, there is a creek with running water, steep sides, and dense undergrowth.

Today I still entered through the Vinyard Road gate, but took regular trails to get to the bridge across the creek and then walked the levee trail to the cache location. Bushwacked Again (N 37° 39.978 W 121° 50.219) is near the edge of one of the gravel pit ponds. For a while I was led astray by a number of use trails in the area (maybe all made by other cache hunters), but finally spotted it.

By the way, the title is misspelled (should be bushwhacked) unless it is intentionally this way to indicate wackiness.

I also made another attempt for Cache Cow, but again came away frustrated.

Sugar N’ Spice (Livermore, CA)

Made this jaunt out to Sycamore Grove with Dan and Janet. They had already found Sugar N’ Spice (N 37° 38.512 W 121° 46.658), so they just watched me make the attempt. It was pretty quick.

On the way out, we picked up the first part of Fisherwoman’s Reprise. This is a multi-cache, which means you must go to multiple locations. However, I didn’t note the coordinates--will have to pick them up another time.

Cache Cow DNF (Pleasanton, CA)

Made an attempt to find Cache Cow (N 37° 40.103 W 121° 50.776). No luck. It’s an area of jumbled brush and trees and a thick carpet of fallen leaves.

C Monster, Henry’s Hidden Box (Pleasanton, CA)

C Monster (N 37° 40.037 W 121° 50.652) is in Shadow Cliffs park. Turns out there is a little known access point off of Vineyard Avenue (room for about 3 cars to park free). It’s just a short walk to these caches.

Henry’s Hidden Box (N 37° 40.009 W 121° 50.587) is a kid friendly cache, easy to get to and easy to find.

The trail skirts the edge of dense growth around the water, sort of reminding me of a California jungle.

Saturn, Titan, and Sweet Baboo (Livermore, CA)

Dan (Geodanimal at geocaching.com) called today and wanted to go cache hunting.

We headed off for Northern CA Solar System Model: Planet Saturn (N 37° 40.782 W 121° 47.748) and Northern CA Solar System Model: Titan (N 37° 40.877 W 121° 47.753). Since the Sun is centered in San Jose, we figured these two had to be close together to stay in scale. The GPSr led us to a trail that Karen and I often use on our morning bike rides. Finding the cache proved a bit harder. We looked all over the place and even had a jogger stop and ask us if we were looking for crawdads like the kids were the day before. Finally, Dan found Titan, which gave us the clue as to where Saturn must be, and Janet being a bit more agile than me, immediately found it.

Next, we headed across town to find Sweet Baboo’s Home Run (N 37° 40.179 W 121° 45.126). This led us to a sport’s park and I thought the GPSr was going to lead to the score board. But, it didn’t. This one didn’t take long to find.

Nuts N’ Bolts DNF (Livermore, CA)

Nuts N’Bolts (N 37° 40.268 W 121° 46.008) really stumped me. The location is easy enough to find--you don’t even need a GPSr. I walk there occasionally. We even parked there while taking Cortnie to the creek. And I looked and looked and saw nothing.

I came back a second time, and looked some more. Even after reading all the comments in the geocaching.com log for this cache, I couldn’t find it.