Finishing off Nerfititi’s Pyramid (and others)

This was another day that I could completely give to caching, so I headed for Fremont through Niles Canyon. My first stop was Koopers Kaper, which was an easy find at 9:19 AM.

Next stop was to look for Ailurophobia. I had gained the coodinates for this cache back when I completed Star Puzzle. It’s along the creek in Niles Canyon. I cut my search short because I was followed by a guy (clearly purposefully following me) who was too friendly and just wanted to hang around. Even after talking for a while, and then saying I was going on, he followed. So... I got out of there, but he followed me back to the parking area. Because of this experience, I won’t be going back there alone again.

Back on the 23rd, Karen and I had done a few caches in Garin Dry Creek and started on Nefertiti’s Pyramid series (found two). Today I returned to complete the series.

Nefertiti’s Pyramid: Royal Gates was the first find at 10:30 AM at a lightly used trail gate.

Going through the gates leads to Nefertiti’s Pyramid: Offerings, even though it seems like it’s outside the park. This one was very hard for me to find, I think because the coords put about 30 ft too far south. As I was signing the log at 10:54 AM, another cacher surprised me--I hadn’t seen or heard him coming. It was geowal701--a friendly guy with 1400 finds.

After we talked for a while, I thought I could bushwhack over to the next one and geowal701 headed north for the caches I had already found. After I climbed a hill I realized the other side was too steep and brushy to try to descend. So, after backtracking I continued on south to find Nefertiti’s Pyramid: King Tut at 11:48 AM.

Next up was Nefertiti’s Pyramid: Viper which I found at 12:04 PM in a likely snake pit--down in a gully around some rocks and fallen trees.

Totally Toys was close by, but was really off in the brush so I had to watch carefully for poison oak. The weeds were over my head--nice tick territory. Found this old cache at 12:22 PM. As I walked out of the brush I surprised a pair of skunks--a mama and baby. Luckily, they weren’t too close, but they immediately flagged their tail and walked away. My camera was in the backpack, and I decided not to try to fumble around getting it in this situation.

I looked for Nefertiti’s Pyramid: Throne briefly, but it was at a corral that was in use. Two saddled horses were in the corral. A truck and horse trailer were parked just 6 feet from where I needed to look. I didn’t think clearly enough about this one and got frustrated and decided I might have enough info to find the final cache, so I went on to the coordinates I had and found the pyramid pieces and the location to build the pyramid. This gave me multiple options about where the final cache might be. Clearly Throne had a hint to narrow the possibilities. In retrospect, I should have found the final, but again, just didn’t think it through well enough. So, I went back for Throne, and as I approached realized where it must be hidden and found it immediately at 1:25 PM.

I went back, figured out the use of the pyramid better, and found the final cache, Nefertiti’s Pyramid, at 1:48 PM. For my efforts, I took an "I found Nefertiti’s Pyramid" token. This was a very nice series. Even though I did not like every cache location, overall it was one of my favorites.

After this, I trekked back out of the park and drove south on Mission, noting that Happy Birthday JoeSpaz #28 was just a couple of blocks away in a park. Found this micro at 2:52 PM.

I had hunted for Golden Spike (a multi-cache) before. I double checked the coordinates and they turned out the same. This time there weren’t so many people around, so I could search a bit more thouroughly, and found it at 3:26 PM.

BRIDGE TO SCHOOL is a bit north of 680 and just off Mission near a high school. Found it at 4:19 PM.

In Mission San Jose I looked unsuccessfully for Mission M&M cache and YOU’VE GOT MAIL. I’m not sure why someone hides a cache right outside a post office. I couldn’t find Mission M&M and didn’t try on YOU’VE GOT MAIL.

RED TAIL POWER is right under a high voltage tower that contains a red tailed hawk nest. Found it at 5:26 PM. The nest was not in use.

Last time I was in this area I could never figure out how to get access to Saint Joseph’s 36th Birthday Cake. This time I found a parking spot, gathered the data for this multi-cache (it’s in a cemetery) and easily found the cache at 5:47 PM.

For my 600th find, I scored on IT AIN’T MAIL at 5:56 PM. I had DNF’d on this one previously. I’m quite sure the cache was not as accessible before. There was nothing memorable about this cache--it’s just in some landscaping beside Mission Blvd.

Curtner Coppice was an easy find at 6:16 PM off Paseo Padre. Then I found Happy Birthday JoeSpaz #34 at 6:34 PM.

By this time I was pretty hungry, so I headed for home and stopped at MacDonald’s at Mission and 680. Lo and behold, there were two micros there. I found Waiting for WalruZ at 6:56 PM. Presumeably, this was the hardest of the two. It’s a blinker nano-cache. After eating something, I looked for McPark&Ride, but couldn’t find it.

And thus, at the end of two long days of caching, I was beat.

Frustrating day

What a day! I planned a full day of caching north on 680 in the Danville, Walnut Creek, and Pleasant Hill areas. I left home about 9:30 AM and got home at 8:30 PM and found four--count them--four caches. I don’t know how many DNFs--I lost count. Most were micros, and many (luck of the draw) were difficult. Just wasn’t my day.

My first find didn’t come until 4:46 PM at MaLarkey in Walnut Creek (west). This was a NUGUNSLINGER hide, and I’ve always found his difficult (or missing). I had to hunt for a while, but finally found it. Many searchers note the clue didn’t make any sense, but I think it did, and helped confirm for me where the GPSr was indicating.

Close by, in the same park complex, I hunted First Crossing, a 2 stage multi-cache. The coords seemed to me quite a ways off for the first stage, but the hint gave me a clue. Hope I didn’t disturb the tennis players too much. I couldn’t find the second stage the first time I looked, but when I returned from finding MaLarkey I followed a different approach, and the GPSr took me right to it. Got it at 5:02 PM.

There are three caches at Diablo Valley College. DVC 123 #1 is probably in bushes, and I couldn’t find it despite crawling around on my knees. DVC 123 #2 was a pretty easy find at 6:16 PM. DVC 123 #3 was right in front of the campus police building, and while there was no one obvious around, I decided to pass.

On the way home, I stopped in Danville to hunt Que La Paz Prevaleca. I was stumped by this one some months ago. The hint is different now, but perhaps the hide is the same. In any event, I found it after a bit of contemplation at 7:16 PM. Of note, today I noticed for the first time that there is another marker like the one referred to in the cache name by the Danville train station/museum.

Morning in Danville

This morning I headed up to Danville for a leisurely look for just a few caches. My first stop was at Diablo Vista Park. Unfortunately, this multi is placed in the playground equipment area. I was the only adult male around with a crowd of moms and kids. Didn’t seem like a good idea to hang around and poke at the playground equipment.

Red Willow Crossing, which I had looked for a few days ago, was just a short walk along a pleasant trail. Along the way I got a couple of ideas for hiding a cache. This time I had a good description and the right coordinates and found it at 11:00 AM.

Then I went to check out It took long enough, and wandered around trying to find access to the park for far too long. When I did, it seemed to busy to me, so I just moved on.

I found the Iron Horse Trail crossing closest to Nuts to all these Iron Horse Caches. As I walked down the trail, I could see that the cache was going to be in the vegetation on the west side. Just as I started to leave the trail and head over, I saw a dog peering out at me. Rather than challenge the dog and/or the dog owner, I continued on down the trail for another 100 yards. An obvious geocacher emerged, but I didn’t know him (although it seemed like I had seen him at an event). As he drove away, I made the quick find at 11:52 AM. The log indicated it was SnoWake and thus the dog was Dingo.

I was curious about Eagle Pride, a cache placed with permission at a school. Even with no one in the office (since school’s out), I felt far too conspicuous searching around the front of a school. The neighbors don’t know the school has given permission, so what would happen if one of the neighbors called the police?

To hunt for Iron This One, I parked at the Park and Ride at Sycamore Valley and 680 and walked a little ways up the Iron Horse Trail. As I neared the cache, I noticed an SUV parked nearby that looked like the one I had seen SnoWake drive away previously. Sure enough, he emerged carrying a bag of trash. After introductions, he went back with me to search for it, since he hadn’t found it. I checked all sorts of likely looking stuff, which SnoWake had already checked. After another lengthy search, he called Team Alamo for a hint. We got one that narrowed the area substantially, and he started looking at one side and I on the other. He got to the cache first at 12:53 PM. A very difficult, misleading cache of a type I’ve never seen before.

Garin Dry Creek

Karen and I had some time to walk and cache today, so we went to Garin Dry Creek Regional Park in Hayward. We parked at the Tamarack trail head and immediately found Tamarack Gate at 10:19 AM. It wasn’t attached correctly and had more or less fallen into plain sight.

After a false start up a wrong trail, we got going on the way to Nerfertiti’s Pyramid: Shrine. While some have found this one difficult, I made a quick find of it at 10:38 AM. Rather than try to write down the info for the final cache in the series, I just took a picture of it.

Nefertiti’s Pyramid: Underworld wasn’t very far away on the same trail, and I spotted its hiding place easily at 10:53 AM.

I had mixed feelings about going on to hunt for Igor, but we decided to do it. The last 100 feet are pretty steep with nasty thistles and then some brush including PO. I thought I was looking for a 3 gallon tupperware container, but finally spotted some tell tale signs of a cache and found a 1 gallon jar container. Turns out this very old cache (from 2000) had just recently been replaced by Walruz. Got this one at 11:21 AM.

The rest of the hike was a loop up and around the hill with no caching. We covered about 3.5 miles.

Just foolin’ around

Before going to work I decided to make another try for Romeo is gone. Since it’s right next to a busy intersection, it’s a hide I dislike. This time I read the description carefully (it’s a micro magnetic), and found it almost immediately at 8:55 AM.

In talking with Wacka at the pizza event last Friday, he mentioned Green Acher’s Code Cache and I said I was stumped. He promptly gave me a nudge which immediately gave me an idea. Sure enough, got the coordinates after I got home. So, I drove on over to find it today. Despite the tree cover, I zeroed in on it quickly at 9:11 AM.

When I left work at noon, I decided to drove over to Dublin to look for Blue iis Grand. I had to walk by a playground and drew the attention of one of the mom’s--she definitely kept an eye on me. I spotted what I thought would be the cache, but didn’t think I could retrieve it since I was being watched.

So, I left and drove out Dougherty Road to look for Red Willow Crossing. I drove around quite a bit trying to find the right road. The cache is near a footbridge, and I spent a lot of time hunting. According to the hint, it should have been there. Unfortunately, since this was spur of the moment, my coordinates were 4 days stale and the cache had been relocated.

Headed down Sycamore Valley Blvd and looked for the multi Sycamore Park Pond. Gathered the required info from the placque near the pond, and quickly found the cache at 2:03 PM.

Then I drove to the Danville park on Brookside and hunted It took long enough. I’m stumped. It’s supposed to be visible, but not to me today.

Finally, I returned to Blue iis Grand and confirmed what I saw was definitely the cache, but I couldn’t figure out where the log was. Turns out something was just too tight, so a little more force exposed the log. This was a very clever cache, but I think it is far too high maintenance. Found it at 3:06 PM.

Six FTF’s in Pleasanton Ridge

I’m tired! Justifiably so after a 14 mile, 7.5 hour hike in Pleasanton Ridge, but there were 6 new caches up on the North Ridge trail that hadn’t been logged yet. Dan (geodanimal) planted these last Tuesday, and they were approved Thursday night. I really wanted to be first to find on these, and could have gone up alone yesterday, but since Dan wanted to go (again!) I waited until today. Clearly it wasn’t a problem. I guess it takes a while to plan and mount an expedition up there.

We started hiking from the Long View trailhead before 10 AM, heading for the first cache. After getting to the top of the ridge, we hiked along the Ridgeline trail and came across the carcass of a buck a few yards off the trail. The hind quarters had been chewed off. I think it was about a day old, and could well have been a mountain lion kill. If I had been alone, I would have had serious concerns.

Because of private property boundaries, we had to hike down to Sinbad Creek, then along the creek until the junction of Shady Creek trail, and then climb back up to the ridge. As I approached Geodanimal’s Shady Creek Cache I saw a likely location, but my GPSr put me about 20 feet south in open grass. Knowing that was unlikely I started searching around the downed tree and shortly after found it at 11:40 AM.

Continuing on, we climbed some more up Shady Creek trail to Geodanimal’s Shady Creek Hill. Now this one gave me a bit of a problem. It was under a massive oak tree and the GPSr didn’t work so well. The container is described a a Dcon container and that caused me to look in particular locations, but I couldn’t find it. After a while, I decided to use the hint, which made it pretty obvious, and Janet quickly made the find, because she got there first, at 12:02 PM.

On top of the ridge is a tall, dual-tower antenna. Geodanimal’s Valley View is hidden in a tree close to the base of the tower. This would have been an extremely quick find if I had read the full description. As it was, I went in circles for a little bit. Found it at 12:25 PM. We sat here on the trail to eat lunch while taking in the view of the valley spread out below us.

At this point we had to take the North Ridge trail, which is single track, and obviously gets very little use. To get to Geodanimal’s Loop Trail Cache we had to descend a ways down the Loop Trail (duh!). This one was very easy to find, especially since something had uncovered the plastic jar. (Well, actually, even if the jar was covered it would have been obvious). Found at 1:02 PM.

We then backtracked back up to the North Ridge trail and headed off to Geodanimal’s Diablo Vista. This one was also quick. Not many places where it could be (a Dcon container). Found at 1:27 PM.

Geodanimal’s Have a Seat is in the extreme north-east corner of the park. The ammo can was easy to find. While it’s under dense tree cover, the title narrows the hiding place down. Found this one at 1:48 PM.

To get back to the car, we headed down the Mariposa trail to Sinbad Creek and then retraced our steps back over the ridge, which seemed tougher now that we were over 10 miles into the hike.

On the way back we stopped so Dan could find Tour de Tank (he was 3rd to find, right after me).

East Bay Gab

Because of various conflicts in our schedules, we had our Father’s day family dinner tonight, but when it was over, Dan and I ran over to Danville to the East Bay Gab and Gorge event. Didn’t stay long, but I did get to talk with some folks we hadn’t met before (Team Alamo, Bear N Grinit, wacka). It took us forever to come home on 580. Traffic was still stacked up because of a fatal accident on the Altamont at 5:30 PM.

Antioch

I spent the morning looking in the Brentwood and Antioch area.

Concrete Evidence was along a paved trail beside a stream/canal in Brentwood. I found it fairly quickly at 8:45 AM.

Oasis Trachea is next to a shopping center off of Hiway 4 bypass (a new road to me). Found it quickly at 9:05 AM. I think it’s cleverly named.

I had to climb a small hill in Antioch to get My First Cache at 9:25 AM. The view clearly shows all the development nearby with a good view of Mt. Diablo in the distance. This was an obvious hide.

I Knew It Was Coming! is a nice, large sculpture in Antioch. Looked around a bit before realizing there was an obvious hiding spot and then found it at 9:48 AM.

I found Out in the open 2 at 10:15 AM. Not exactly out in the open, in my mind, but it was clearly visible from the right angle.

I parked at the Prewett Family Park and walked to the rest of the caches. There is a paved walking and biking trail running along an open space under some high voltage lines. I found them in this order:

• Country Hills Bike Trail #1 at 11:00 AM
• Country Hills Bike Trail #2 at 11:08 AM
• Country Hills Bike Trail #3 at 11:16 AM
• Rock Jam at 11:41 AM
• Out in the open 1 at 12:10 PM
• The Prewett Family Park Micro at 12:42 PM

I couldn’t find Ranch Living or The Dollar Tree.

Unsuccessful try for FTF

Tour de Tank has been active for a couple of days, so after Karen left for the morning I gathered up my hiking stuff and went after it on Pleasanton Ridge. I used the Longview trail head which unfortunately means a steep hike up Longview just to get to the trailhead. I was on the trail by about 8:30 AM and found it at 9:55, but SARCRZY had got there at 8:30 AM.

On the way back, I went after Park Anywhere, but couldn’t find it. Turns out it’s right at the trail head parking in Castlewood, and its hard to get there if you aren’t a Pleasanton resident.

Nevertheless, it was all a nice hike of about 5.5 miles.

Instead of taking the direct route home, I went back to hunt Tassajara Road, going up... This time finding step 3 was a snap, and the next two stages were OK. It’s all foliage hides, and I find that kind of hide tough. Wrapped it up at 12:29 PM.

San Ramon and surroundings

I had some time today so I headed over towards San Ramon to check several new caches hidden since last I had been there. These were all pretty much in parks or suburban trails. In my mind they had few distinguishing characteristics--but maybe I just wasn’t in the greatest mood.

Beyond the Bench (found at 10:43 AM) was indeed just beyond a sitting bench.

Where’s the Cashe? was a quick find at 10:59 AM. It was a common type of hide, but a novel container.

Quiet Moment, found it at 11:13 AM. Seemed like I got some looks from a nearby lawn mowin’ guy when I parked, but it was a quick and easy find.

Gallery Gosh! (found at 11:30 AM) was in a model home parking lot. Took a minute or so to locate the film cannister.

I started the Tassajara Road, going up... multi-cache and found step 2 (the nano-cache, and supposedly the hardest), but couldn’t find step 3 (film cannister size). Somebody else logged it the same day, so probably I was looking in the wrong area by about 15 feet.

The Road to Mom’s House 2 is another multi-cache. Step 1 was an ammo can (easy). Step 2 was peanut butter jar sized (also easy). Step 3 was hard. The problem was I was not methodical and thorough, so I missed it when I first searched the location. The last was a nano, but I got it pretty quick (found at 1:48 PM). At this last stage there were thousands of bugs, including a tick I brushed from my pants leg.

The Road to Mom’s House, part 1 was hard to find. I knew approximately where it had to be, but I couldn’t see it for the longest time. Finally got it at 2:17 PM.

Last one in the carpool’s a rotten egg! is in a park and ride lot. It can be busy at times. Found it at 2:30 PM.

Valley View Hoo was really hard. I didn’t find it until 3:28 PM.

San Jose and Little Shop of Horrors event

I had hoped to get over to San Jose early for a full day of caching before going to the Little Shop of Horrors event. However, there were too many things to do around the house, so I didn’t leave until noon.

I had a general idea of where to go (Camden Avenue near Blossom Hill) but I haven’t been in that area for 30 years when we used to go see Chris Christopherson. So, I wandered around a bit before I settled on a parking lot that seemed like it must be close to the Alamitos Creek trail. I parked and got on the bike and headed for the closest cache, which was about 0.25 miles away since its a cache dense area.

I started out on a bike path in a long, skinny park under power lines, and the first find was an easy one called Dollar Tree, which I found at 12:55 PM.

Next, I found 101 TFTs -- One Pair at 1:24 PM, but when I started to log it noticed that it had some prerequisites. In other words, it’s not really a regular cache.

In between the first and second find, I had searched for a while for Trapped by Victor, but couldn’t come up with it. On the way back, I stopped again, read the description, and realized immediately where the cache was, and found it at 1:34 PM.

Blinker is a nano-cache hidden by Marky and Joani. Once the GPSr really settled down, it wasn’t too hard to spot (1:50 PM).

Oak Trail Kid’s Cache was off a trail in a grove of oaks. Easy find at 2:01 PM.

Duck Blind was finally along the Alamitos Creek trail, where I wanted to go in the first place. Found this one at 2:30 PM.

Further along the trail was Treasure Chest, a small, tin chest. Found at 2:49 PM.

Next up on the trail was Creekside Trunk Cache at 3:03 PM.

Pfeiffer Stone House was near the location of an old stone quarry. The cache itself is well commoed, but I found it at 3:17 PM.

Blend-in-tree was one I almost didn’t want to get. A PO branch was growing next to and over the coffee can container. I carefully grabbed it at 3:30 PM.

Bicycle Primes was tough--finally found it at 3:59 PM.

I found The Cache with the ReallyReallyReally Long Name at 4:08 PM.

I couldn’t find The Big Fat Cache. Perhaps it’s missing, or I searched on the wrong side of the tree.

Carrabelle Cache was in a park near picnic tables. Found at 4:21 PM.

Quickwood Microwood was quickly found at 4:50 PM. This was where I decided to turn around and retrace my path on the Alamitos Creek trail.

Just before getting back to the truck I found Ultimate Battleship: Shrinking Battlefield at 5:20 PM.

After all this I went to the Little Shop of Horrors: the Sequel event at Worker of Wood’s house. Met lots of friendly people with familiar geocaching names, but only a couple had I ever seen before. WoW had a drawing to give away a number 2005 Jeep travelbugs, but I didn’t score one.