Sunol with Karen

We were mostly just out for a hike - along Little Yosemite and then up hill. Picked up Hallelujah Rock (12:56 PM), then tried for "W" Tree Tock Scramble, but decided there was too much water in the stream to try scrambling in the stream bed. Picked up End of the (Bike) Trail (2:22 PM) on the way down.

The 1K Find

IQ Test #2 was cache find number 1,000 today.

This puzzle cache stumped me about a year ago, although I didn’t pursue it very hard. I plotted the waypoints on a map, thought I saw the start of a pattern, but couldn’t figure it out. I never did try computing azimuth and distance between the waypoints--something that is mentioned in the description. That proved to be the key, and the solution to the puzzle became readily apparent.

I wasn’t sure I believed my answer though, because it was about 50 yards from another cache. I decided to go ahead and check and sure enough, found the cache.

Using "findstats" on all my cache logs, I get the following:

1000 unique caches.
1000 finds logged.
Centroid = N 37 35.844, W 121 33.780
Avg. Difficulty = 1.79
Avg. Terrain    = 1.78
Avg. Challenge  = 2.14
247 hard
caches (25%)
1 countries
4 US states
0 multiple finds (0%)
76 (7.6%) archived
First log:  09/23/2004
Last log:   03/21/2006
Most finds: 25 on 11/13/2005
Maximum one-day distance: 240.9 miles on 12/9/2004
From N 37 42.848, W 121 28.604 to N 37 42.629, W 125 52.446
Oldest cache: #121 (GC79)
Newest cache: #360360 (GCTWRE)

Difficulty: 
1.0:   255 (25.5%)
1.5:   275 (27.5%)
2.0:   281 (28.1%)
2.5:    82 ( 8.2%)
3.0:    66 ( 6.6%)
3.5:    20 ( 2.0%)
4.0:    17 ( 1.7%)
4.5:     2 ( 0.2%)
5.0:     2 ( 0.2%)

Terrain: 
1.0:   349 (34.9%)
1.5:   256 (25.6%)
2.0:   141 (14.1%)
2.5:    98 ( 9.8%)
3.0:    87 ( 8.7%)
3.5:    39 ( 3.9%)
4.0:    26 ( 2.6%)
4.5:     4 ( 0.4%)

  D   T  1.0  1.5  2.0  2.5  3.0  3.5  4.0  4.5  5.0
     +----------------------------------------------
 1.0 |   151   51   27   15    9    2   
 1.5 |    69  105   32   32   18   12    6    1     
 2.0 |    69   53   51   32   43   19   12    2    
 2.5 |    24   17   13   12   10    4    2   
 3.0 |    23   22   10    3    5    1    1    1     
 3.5 |     5    4    5    3    1    1    1          
 4.0 |     6    3    3    1              4          
 4.5 |     1                   1                    
 5.0 |     1    1                                   
You have found 53 out of 81 total Diff/Terr combinations.

Cache types:    1 ( 0.1%)  Earthcache
   5 ( 0.5%)  Event Cache
   1 ( 0.1%)  Letterbox Hybrid
   4 ( 0.4%)  Locationless (Reverse) Cache
  40 ( 4.0%)  Multi-cache
   1 ( 0.1%)  Project APE Cache
 870 (87.0%)  Traditional Cache
  53 ( 5.3%)  Unknown Cache
  24 ( 2.4%)  Virtual Cache
   1 ( 0.1%)  Webcam Cache

Containers: 
   6 ( 0.6%)  Large
 364 (36.4%)  Micro
  34 ( 3.4%)  Not chosen
  28 ( 2.8%)  Other
 388 (38.8%)  Regular
 155 (15.5%)  Small
  25 ( 2.5%)  Virtual

Countries: 
 996 in United States

US States: 
 968 in California
   3 in Idaho
  21 in Oregon
   4 in Washington

999

So here’s an auspicious milestone. I won’t get another consecutive alignment of 9’s for a very long time (if ever). This was Micro Park Micro (10:55 AM). Hard. Needed hint from owner.

Today is the day!

Second visit to 2299, View of Devil Mt. (9:05 AM). I sure thought I looked carefully exactly where I found it this time.

Greenridge cache (10:22 AM) is off Crow Canyon at Greenridge Park. This one was wedged right next to a PO plant.

Cacheridge (10:31 AM) was in the same park.

The push toward 1K

Wanted to make progress toward 1K today, even though it was sprinkling. First stop was in Dublin for Briar Hill (2:16 PM).

Stopped at the shopping center on east CV Blvd for Hash It All (2:39 PM). Found it pretty quickly.

Lakeridge CITO (2:59 PM) was easy to find, although the cache was sitting in a inch of water running off the hillside. Kind of muddy.

San Leandro with Dan

Dan drove Janet to OAK, and then I met him at the Castro Valley BART station. We made an attempt at Red Herring, but just could not search at the final because of muggles.

Stopped for Bart: San Leandro Station (2:21 PM). It was a pretty easy find, and Dan salvaged a disk drive from a discarded PC so he could get the magnets.

As we drove through downtown SL, he let me hunt for Cora’s cache (2:33 PM) which he’d already found. I didn’t like the location--too many muggles (homeless). I used the hint which is very specific to make it quick.

The Wrong Spot (3:03 PM) was very nearly an ivy hide. After a lengthy search I finally spotted it.

I Hate Micros! Oh yea, hiking too. (3:21 PM) Up Fairview by the animal shelter. Dan found it.

Stanton Reservoir Overlook (3:38 PM) Did some hiking for these.

Missile View (4:05 PM)

A Walk to Remember II (4:27 PM)

Sunol with Mark

Since Mark wanted to go to Sunol on a photo shoot, I tagged along. Well, actually I suggested we go up Welch Creek road and hike around a small cache loop. He agreed because he didn’t have any preconceived ideas of where he wanted to take some photos.

Upper Maquire Peak Trail (8:28 PM)

Little Grassy Knoll (8:49 PM)

Post It (9:06 AM). Got an FTF with a nifty coin for prize. Version 2 ckayaks #34

A Grassy Knoll (9:25 AM) Another FTF, another coin prize. 7 Summits geocoin

Cannon Bore (10:31 AM)

Pic, Stik and Log (11:04 AM)

Lodi afternoon

I had grand ideas of driving to Lodi first thing in the morning for a full day a caching, but the pickup didn’t cooperate. It’s intermittent misfire problem hit with a vengeance and didn’t go away as it usually does. I got on the freeway, but got off again at Vasco because it was so bad. Came home and sat around for quite a while, then tried it again, and it ran fine. So I finally got to Lodi at 1 PM. Here’s what I found.

A Taste of Lodi (1:15 PM)

Katzakian Park #2 (1:26 PM)

These next several were all in and around Lodi Lake and the Mokelumne River.

Found Alive! (1:56 PM)

Lodi Lake Walk Up (2:22 PM)

Lodi Lake - Riverview (2:32 PM)

Lodi Lake (Parking Lot) (2:40 PM)

Lodi Lake Rest Area (2:53 PM)

On the Dry Side (3:08 PM)

Winding Stream (3:17 PM)

The Noisy Cricket (3:32 PM)

Triple Digit Heat! (3:44 PM)

The Monster of Pigs Lake (3:51 PM)

These rest were basically drive ups in small parks.

Glaves Park (4:49 PM)

The Hidden Path - Canal #3 (4:58 PM)

Another Lodi Park (5:12 PM)

Inside of Dogtown (5:20 PM)

March 11, Cacheing with Dan and Janet

Took this Saturday afternoon and went with Dan and Janet to San Leandro, starting by the marina.

First up was No Good Reason #3 (2:00 PM) which I’m pretty sure was out of position.

Next up was North of Marina Park - Northern Micro (2:18 PM). I was pretty sure how it was hidden, and said so, but Janet found it first. We had to carry this off right in front of a guy parked in a car.

Stay A-Weigh (Multi-cache) (2:37 PM) is a 2 stage multi, but we couldn’t find the first stage. Others couldn’t either. But given the name, we brute forced the final.

CITO Cache - San Leandro (2:44 PM) Found it quickly.

Marina Park - Northern Micro (2:51 PM) Janet found it.

South of Marina Park - Southern Micro (2:58 PM) Dan found it.

Cardiac Streatch (3:26 PM) After a bit of a walk, we had to use alternate coords to find this one. When we did, it was immediate find.

Mom, that’s where we saw the butterflies... (3:50 PM) Took us a while.

"Mom, what’s for dinner???" (3:56 PM) Quick find.

No Good Reason #1 (4:02 PM) And there wasn’t a good reason.

Prop. of NASA? (4:15 PM) What an interesting piece of junk. Janet finally found it where I thought I’d looked.

4UKC (4:25 PM) Hard to believe how crowded this shopping center parking lot was. Took us 10 minutes to find a parking space. The hiding spot was obvious, but we had to retrieve right in front of who knows how many people.

The End of The Road (4:40 PM) Wow, a well camouflaged large cache. I found it.

It’s the Real Thing (4:46 PM) A quick find, but a leaky lid meant the cache was completely full of water.

Bonaire (5:00 PM) A small park. I was looking in the wrong tree.

Bart: Bayfair Station (5:16 PM) An obvious location.

Bart: Castro Valley Station (5:29 PM) Dan found it.

Two Ps in a Pod (5:45 PM) Hard. I finally found it.

Miscellaneous in San Ramon

Today I picked up three in San Ramon, particularly one that’s eluded me for some time. Dan recently found Arch You Glad to be Married? and just hinted that now was a good time to hunt it because the vegetation had been trimmed. Aghhh! It’s an ivy hide (2:42 PM).

Then I went over to the library and hunted for a long time for the first stage of Libraries Rule #3. It wasn’t quite where I was expecting it. The second stage took a bit of hunting too (3:47 PM).

Finally, made a quick grab on Cigam Reserves a Room (4:06 PM).