Pacific Grove 2006

We had some time this afternoon during the retreat, so we first walked in Rip Van Winkle park to hunt for Cache Some Zzzzs. (2:40 PM) Boy, was it interesting/hard. First, we missed the bridge across the creek and had to walk a ways past the cache to a road, cross the creek, and then come back. Then, the final 100 ft into the cache location was off trail through small plants of poison oak. I couldn’t find a clear path, so finally just walked in on the PO.

In the same park, we couldn’t find Baseball Cache. The GPSr was inaccurate because of tree cover, it was starting to sprinkle, and there was enough PO around that I didn’t want to paw around in the plants.

I’m sure I looked for A Refuge By The Sea (3:30 PM) last year, but this year we found it.

Kashta’s Rock (4:13 PM) was a quick find, because we went during low tide. I also found A Crespi Hide (4:28 PM) quickly too. Good thing. Just as I got the log out it started to rain in earnest.

Asilomar

After arriving at Asilomar for the retreat, we took a quick walk between the rain drops to find The Old Tracks (5:22 PM). Never realized there was an old railroad through here that’s now been converted to a trail.

San Jose afternoon

Dan, Janet, and I took the afternoon to return to Milpitas and San Jose, and wonderfully, Karen felt up to coming along.

On the way south on 680, we pulled off at Milpitas to hunt a view caches. First up was Discover Water (1:06 PM), cleverly disguised, but sharp-eyed Janet got it.

Just a short walk away was Big Gate ( 1:15 PM), which we easily spotted.

Heading east, we got to Road to Adobe Closed (1:36 PM) which took a bit of searching, but I finally spotted it.

Horse Tail (1:44 PM) is a 3 difficulty, but we nailed it right away. Next up was A Cow’s Eye View (1:56 PM). Dan got this one before I got across the street.

Once a Road (2:02 PM) was an easy find, as was Once a Fence (2:13 PM).

Ben there, done that (2:39 PM)

Milpitas or San Jose? (2:59 PM) Took us a while. It’s hard to see.

Then we moved on to San Jose to find The Money Pit (aka The $100 Splinter Cache) (3:58 PM). Janet found it.

Nice Park (4:15 PM)

Semi-Secret Trailhead: STASCT (4:44 PM)

It’s Finally Open (4:50 PM)

My First "Multicache" (4:59 PM)

Murdock Park (5:05 PM)

Aaahchoo (5:41 PM). Boy, this was so much easier in daylight.

Laughlin Ranch, Again

Cache on the Rocks popped up in Brushy Peak on the Laughlin Ranch trail. I was just out there 4 days ago. This was an easy find. There’s an interesting story DavidT21 told Dan about finding two caches with 5 feet of each other at Laughlin Ranch 1. Obviously one of them was unactivated. I wonder if this was the one and it got moved?

Laughlin Ranch

On this President’s day holiday, Karen and I found time to take a short hike at Brushy Peak and look for the latest two of Dan’s caches. Both were on the Laughlin Ranch trail.

We found Laughlin Ranch 1 at 4:12 PM in a grove of eucalyptus trees and Laughlin Ranch 2 at 4:24 PM in a rocky area. There are some nice views of the Livermore valley from this trail. The area is so open that it was easy to take a more or less straight-line cross country hike back to the car.

Get a coffee, find a cache

Went to Peete’s to get coffee this afternoon, and as I was driving by a puzzle cache location that I have solved but not seriously hunted, I checked things out. No muggles, which is rare. Guess the showers keep them away. So, I made a quick find on Parks N’ Livermore at 2:09 PM.

San Jose again

After meeting this morning with Steve S., Keith, and Margaret, I drove Steve to the San Jose airport. After dropping him off, I looked for a few nearby caches.

I found JET SET at 11:47 AM. I didn’t park real close, but there was no muggle activity around the cache site. I looked for looky-looky, but didn’t find it. Probably wasn’t willing to get up close and personal with the area. Next time!

As it started to drizzle, I walked in the rose garden to find A rose... Logged it at 12:28 PM. Since it then started to rain, I headed for home.

San Jose with Dan and Janet

Dan and Janet wanted me to go with them for the afternoon to San Jose, and then in the evening hunt Venonium, which they had already found. We probably got on the road around 1 PM, and found our first cache at 1:46 PM. This one was Monsters Could Hide Here! Dan made the find, although we were all zeroing in on the area.

We found Cheap (First Cache) quickly at 2:11 PM. We were zeroed in on where to look on approach. 328 was at a bus stop, and after we found suitable parking and walked a short way to it, I found it fairly quickly at 2:33 PM.

Then we drove a couple of blocks to a park to hunt for Rincon Hump, which was a pedestrian bridge over San Tomas expressway. It just took a methodical search to locate this one at 2:44 PM. Along the De Anza Trail 3 - Campbell was a "blinker" nano-cache. Knowing what to look for, it didn’t take long. Dan spotted it at 2:56 PM.

Starting with Secret Trailhead #20 - Campbell (found at 3:07 PM) we thought we find a few on the Los Gatos Creek Trail. We did get M&J Geobeads #3 - Signal the Frog at 3:16 PM, but then wasted some time hiking west, only to find the cache we were heading toward was on the other side of the creek. We moved the car to another trailhead, but along the way stopped to get VTA Downtown Campbell Station at 3:48 PM. Then at the trailhead, Dan got Campbell Park Troll before I could get under the bridge. Logged it at 4:03 PM. A little ways west along the Los Gatos Creek Trail we got Billys Box at 4:09 PM. Then we headed east along the trail, under highway 17, and I found F.A.M.E. #2 - Los Gatos Creek Trail at 4:32 PM. On the walk back we came through the nearby shopping center and found Romantic Rendezvous 1 - NEM at 4:46 PM.

From here we headed south toward WoW’s neighborhood and the general area of Venonium. We stopped at a park on the way on found Along the De Anza Trail 6 - Tequila Mockingbird at 5:18 PM and Not Basketball? Midnight! which had cool camo, but Janet got it at 5:25 PM. At another little park, we found this multi--Huerta Post at 5:41 PM. On the way to the pizza place for dinner, we stopped and found Little Cache of Horrors. Tricky camo, but I finally saw it at 5:55 PM.

After pizza, I began the hunt for Venonium 263. Stage 1 was right at the entrance to the parking lot. I had to look for a long time, but finally caught sight of the clue I needed. I think it was hidden a bit more than it should have been.

Before heading for stage 2, I went to the other corner of the parking lot and found "An Irate Vet" at 7:20 PM. At stage 2 I had quite a hunt. I could easily find the clue that told me I was close, but couldn’t find the actually coords. Finally, I got oriented the right way and found it. As we walked to stage 3, we came to Alien Mother Ship and logged it at 7:41 PM.

Stage 3 was a straight-forward find. This was where Dan found centipedes that glowed under UV light, but we didn’t find any tonight. Stage 4 could have been tough, but I managed to get it quickly. Stage 5 had me going for a while, but I finally recognized it. Stage 6 required proper planning/thinking to approach. I think it would be a lot harder on a dark night, but we had a full moon tonight. I was thrown off at the final for a while by a yellow tennis ball that I couldn’t quite get to. I finally got past that diversion and found the cache. Logged this one at 8:20 PM. What a great cache!

While we had thought about trying to do Touch The Twilight at Mission Peak on the way home, we decided we didn’t have enough time, so we hunted for a few more in the area. I found Flash of Inspiration (Dan and Janet already had) at 8:39 PM. We tried for Achoo, but came up with nothing. May be too hard to do at night. Then we found Little Cache of Horrors III at 9:13 PM. Clever disguise.

Next we parked in front of Worker of Wood’s house to look for Lost in the Woods. It’s right in his front yard, and despite the fact that he knows folks look there, I was uncomfortable. Dan stuck with it and found it while Janet and I were back sitting in the car. Logged it at 9:28 PM. Then we went to WoW!, which I found at 9:41 PM.

Quite an interesting day. I found 23. On the way home we stopped for me to look for Buzzy Kaboom (I’ve solved the puzzle), but I was too tired to give it much effort. It’s at a parking structure, so there’s several possibilities.

Sunol

At lunch today I decided to head to Sunol. I knew there was a cache along Highway 84, but when I got there I found I didn’t have the waypoint. The PQ that was loaded in my GPSr was an old one. No matter. I recalled where the Google Map satellite view placed it and found Morning Drink With a View right away at 11:52 AM.

Hydration Station had been on my radar for quite a while. The first time I had gone I must not have let my GPSr settle, and I was getting pointed into a buch of brush. The second time I was completely thrown off by new landscaping that was in the process of being installed. Today, I finally found it, and probably should have been able to find it all the other times too. Logged it at 12:21 PM.

Stroller Friendly #3: A Bouncy Ride was in the same Sunol park as a previous find (now archived). This was a several stage multi-cache, and the last two stages were a bit challenging. I completed it at 1:06 PM.

Finally, I found Kooper’s Kaper 2, the sequel at 1:23 PM. The first Kooper’s Kaper was destroyed in a fire.

A walk with Karen

Karen wanted to walk somewhere, so we drove to Callippe in Pleasanton, parked at the club-house, and hiked out to get Callippe’s Under Side. I found it fairly quickly (2:12 PM). We saw several deer (actually quite curious) and flushed a golden eagle that must have been lunching on a squirrel just down the hillside from the trail. It was an enjoyable outing.

Hemme trailhead--Danville

Dan and I made a nice hike today into Las Trampas from the Hemme Avenue trailhead and came up with 11 finds.

Cams or Cogs was named for the old gearbox or pump assembly abandoned between the creek and the trail. We had to search a long time, even though our area of search was confined to a small space. Dan finally found it at 12:21 PM.

In the Jungle is a fun multi-cache that is slightly related to Wait Until Dark. The first stage was used on a Central Valley Cachers group excursion (I tagged along, although I had already found Wait Until Dark). Stage 2 had a great view of the Wait Until Dark meadow. Given where the coordinates placed us, we were pretty sure of the camouflage, but we could not find the cache. Finally, we decided where it belonged, and since it wasn’t there, we gave up. As we walked away, I happened to spot the container, some 80 feet away. Critters had chewed it open, although stuff was still in it, and the log was dry. There was no camouflage that we could find. After we signed the log (at 1:04 PM), we put it back where it belonged and covered it as best we could.

We made a quick find on Moo Cache at 1:25 PM and then moved on to Selinka & Pistol Lost Their Marbles in Las Trampas which we found at 1:36 PM. We got Geo Bliss at 1:54 PM. Next up was Not After Midnight at 2:12 PM.

Lofty Achievements was another in this series of Team Alamo hides. We got it at 2:32 PM. At 2:46 PM we found This Guy’s Got Wheels!. Then we really had to work for Thanks Moerfi #1, but Dan spotted it at 3:07 PM. Unfortunately, the container is not water-tight, but the hole collects water. There was a bunch of yucky brown water inside the cache.

We had found Two Hundred Year Old Acorn on the way up the hill, but the log was so sopping wet we couldn’t sign it. We spread the log out in the sun to dry, and signed it on the way back to the trail head. I signed at 3:30 PM.

Fremont and Alviso

This afternoon Dan, Janet, and I made a run down to the Fremont, Milpitas, Alviso area. Had a lot of fun.

We started with Fremont Falls which is surprisingly close to 680 and Washington Blvd. We knew from the logs the coords were a bit off, and we found it right away at 1:19 PM. On the same trail was Buckeye Walkup. Unfortunately, we walked right into the middle of an airsoft game and one team was camped right on top of the cache. We talked for a bit and then they left. We grabbed the cache at 1:34 PM.

We drove a bit farther into Fremont, off of Auto Mall Parkway for A Pacific Island - In Fremont? which took us a while to locate. Dan found it at 2:08 PM. Next was Scooct, an anagram for Costco. What a zoo. Grid lock in the parking lot. We couldn’t find an empty spot and finally parked across the street in another business lot. The cache was an obvious, quick find, but very, very public. We did it anyway and logged it at 2:24 PM. A couple of blocks away, we quickly found We Bad! at 2:33 PM.

South Span and North Span were at each end of a bridge over a salt marsh. Parking was a bit of an issue--we parked in the LAM Research lot. We found them at 2:46 PM and 2:55 PM, respectively. From the same area we took a short trail out toward the bay and found is it in you? at 3:09 PM.

We decided to drive over to Alviso, but on the way stopped for LaQuinta Nano Cache 5, which Dan found at 3:20 PM.

On the way into Alviso, we stopped for High Voltage, so named because of the interesting high voltage tower that transitions from overhead lines to underground. I found it pretty quickly at 3:37 PM.

The first cache we looked for in Alviso was the Two Wades. There was a ground level historical marker in front of a couple of dilapidated buildings. Dan found it at 3:45 PM. Then we walked over to a bridge and found Fork in the River at 3:53 PM.

Outdoor Warning was hard for us to find--had extremely good camo. We kept looking right at it and ignoring it. Janet finally got it at 4:10 PM.

We easily found Guadalupe River: Port of Alviso at 4:20 PM. Then found the first stage of Operation Futari (a lot more to do there), and then got Wind in the Cattails after a little bit of searching (4:36 PM).

We wound up the day in Alviso by completing all the stages of Alviso Marina Nature and History Walk, completing it at 5:15 PM.

On the drive home, we stopped and found Take a Brake on the Sunol Grade at 5:52 PM.

On the way to Amador City

Bryan Hammond kicked off a show of his paintings with an open house this evening at the Howard Rees Gallery in Amador City. We decided to go and make a day of it after Karen’s radiation treatment.

While Karen was getting her treatment I drove over to the Concord BART station and hunted for Bart: Concord Station. This one fooled me for a while, but I finally got it at 10:15 AM.

Before we ate lunch at the Korean barbecue place in Concord we like, we had a little time to kill, so we drove east toward Clayton until we passed a cache. That was Concord Big Tree (used to be trees). I didn’t look long before using the hint, and then quickly found it 10:37 AM.

From there we drove over to The Other End! This was a simple film cannister micro that I found at 10:53 AM.

After this, we headed east on Highway 4 toward Jackson, with a little detour to Ione. There I got a virtual, San Simeon? at 2:13 PM as well as Pioneer Cemetery Series #8 at 2:37 PM. We could have gone across the street for another cemetery cache, but we were running short on time.

Lone Pine in Livermore

Dan called me for info when he was making the FTF on this cache (Lone Pine) right after it was published. I checked it out on Google maps and it was a familiar area. Today I was driving by without my GPSr and decided to give it a shot. It didn’t take long.