OC and Bakersfield

Before checking out of the motel, we looked for a nice place to walk (and find a cache or two). Stopped at a park and found "Take me out to the ball game!" and looked for a way to get down into the Trabuco arroyo. It wasn’t accessible from where we were. We drove on farther, and when we passed Lake Mission Viejo we stopped and walked along the sidewalks for about an hour.

After driving back to Wasco, I decided to do some caching in Bakersfield while Karen visited with her Mom. Found Higher Class, probably so named because it’s on the location of the officer’s quarters of the old Minter Field. The cache was easy to find, but a little harder to retrieve. Next, I looked for Welcome to Bakersfield! and found it this time. A year ago I was not successful.

Drove south on Coffee Road and made a quick grab of Block Rivera. Then got Back of your Shoe. Surprisingly, it was a quick find too.

I blew it!

FIrst thing we did was hike a bit of the upper Serrano Creek trail and found STAR 142. I needed the hint because the GPSr wasn’t working well in the underpass. Google maps puts it right in the south bound lane of 241. Then I made a quick grab of Rock Nursery which was pretty straightforward even though there were a lot of rocks. After that we walked across the street to Tully’s for coffee.

We drove out Santiago Canyon to Modjeska where I wanted to do a fairly long hike in the isolated canyon and pick up several caches. Unfortunately, I didn’t prepare well and when we got there I chose what I thought was the right trail head, only to find it marked Permit Required. We were told we could hike the Harding Trail, but I didn’t think there was much there. Turns out that was the right trail. It was a pretty wasted morning for caching. I did find Forest of Arden, although I didn’t collect the info in it for a different puzzle cache.

Dana Point

After walking the beach and bluff trail in Laguna Beach, we drove down to Dana Point and walked along the harbor. After that we drove up Crown Valley Parkway to Camino Del Avion and hunted a couple of caches in the Salt Creek Corridor.

First up was I’ve Been Canned. It was just a short walk and then a search around some desert type bushes (like a creosote bush). The cache was indeed a rusty can that we found at 11:40 AM. A little farther on, off on some bunny trails we found Orange Crush at 11:49 AM.

We drove to nearby Ocean Breeze Park for a quick find of Ocean Breeze. It was pretty obvious. We got this one at 12:20 PM. Another short drive took us to It’s a Parasitic Cache. Looked for a while, but found no parasites, so I used the hint and found it in short order at 12:35 PM.

We parked at the Clubhouse Plaza on Niguel Road and hiked along the Salt Creek Corridor to get a few more caches. The first was The Color Purple. It’s a good sized triangular tube and we found it at 2:05 PM. Frog Serenade was a little harder to find, but we finally got it at 2:22 PM.

Little Bud was tough. Karen found it--not sure I would have. I was quite misdirected on what to look for. Hunter was another hidden in similar style. Karen also noticed this one.

I found Stuck on You relatively quickly. It was obviously stuck on. The final cache for the day was The "Love" Cache. I went right to an obvious spot and found the cache, although it wasn’t what I expected.

Lake Forest late afternoon

We drove down to Lake Forest today for a stay at the Comfort Inn Suites. This is an isolated motel, but that tends to keep it quiet and relaxing. In the late afternoon we went walking on the nearby Serrano Creek trail and found a few caches.

We first looked for This Old Oak, but came up with a DNF. I’m pretty sure we were on the wrong side of the creek and I was searching the wrong oak tree. Shoulda been on the other trail.

Then we found Dry Creek Cache which was near a nice picnic area (3:37 PM). We continued on down the creek trail to a bridge crossing and hunted for a bit for Serrano Creek Cache. This was a cool hide of an ammo can very close to a busy trail. Found it at 3:53 PM.

Farther down the creek we found Shed a Little Light on It, a clever 2 stage multi-cache. We found it at 4:19 PM, although Karen was pretty convinced I was tampering with someone’s equipment.

We drove a short ways to a homeowner’s association park (posted for residents only) which overlooked Serrano Creek. We immediately found Meadowlark in the farthest corner at 4:49 PM.

Christmas day

Surprisingly, there were no family dinners this day. All the family get togethers happened yesterday. So towards the end of the day I headed out to look for Wasco’s War Ghosts.

I was surprised at the number of people visiting the Wasco Cemetery on Christmas. There were at least 4 cars when I arrived, and more came while I was there. It was very difficult to unobtrusively hunt for the cache. Finally, I parked the car so that it blocked the sight line for most of the visitors, got out my flashlight, and started looking. Finally saw the black film cannister.

Sunday afternoon with Dan

Dan called, wondering if there were any quick caches we could go find. After thinking a bit, I suggested Asco, CA and Ailurophobia.

We first drove to Niles Canyon to hunt down Ailurophobia. I had been here before, but left because of an encounter with a guy that made me uncomfortable. I’m glad Dan was along to retrieve it. I could have, but it was easier and safer for him.

As we were leaving the parking area, I suggested grabbing a few in Mission San Jose, especially ones I had DNF’d.

I quickly found Mission M&M cache. I’m convinced it was gone when I previously looked. We had to look for a while for YOU’VE GOT MAIL, but at least it was not busy today like it was the day I checked out the area. Janet finally found it.

I used the Honda navigation system to easily get to Palm Overcross. I found it after a methodical search.

Dan found McPark&Ride, spotting it while searching another area.

We came back through Pleasanton, where I quickly found Asco, CA. This was in the middle of an old railroad bed and there wasn’t much to hide it in.