What a drive to this one! Fortunately, there were very few cars on the winding, one-lane road up to this cache. I guess we were right to pick Christmas day to find this one.
We spent Christmas weekend in a rented cottage on the Russian River near Cazedero. The weather was pretty nice on Christmas day, so we went out to find some caches (after opening our presents).
What a drive to this one! Fortunately, there were very few cars on the winding, one-lane road up to this cache. I guess we were right to pick Christmas day to find this one.
We should have read more of the cache description before setting out. We headed downhill on the trail, not along the ridge line. When the GPS pointed directly to our left, we headed up the steep hill and quickly located the cache.
We removed some broken toys and a butane lighter. We left a Pluto figurine and a bag of plastic critters. The cache could use a good drying out at some point.
The overcast sky and light haze made for a wonderful view from the parking area.
We found the plaque, and we decoded the hint, but no dice. If the cache is there, it is extremely well hidden.
We had better luck with this one, but only after decoding the hint. Our GPS was putting us 50 feet away from the cache location. The tall trees and the overcast sky were conspiring to degrade our signal.
Once we found it (and waited for a group of muggles to pass), we left a note in the log and took a sheep (!). We left a #43 (Richard Petty) car.
The coordinates put us in a playground very close to Cazadero Highway. That location didn't seem to fit the description, especially with the "No Dogs" sign on the steps leading to it.
We poked around the playground equipment anyway, but we did not find any sort of cache.
We pulled off the highway on our way to Gualala to see some friends. We shared the parking area with a man and his daughter who were out for a motorcycle ride on this beautiful winter day.
Pretty easy find, especially since one of our caches is hidden in an identical fashion. We signed the log and took a couple of pictures of the surf.
First to find! That doesn't happen often. We got to the cache around 3:30 in the afternoon after a nice hike down from Skyline. We took a slinky-critter key chain (future travel bug?) and left a fish-shaped "magic towel" (in keeping with the bathroom theme).
A nice lunchtime walk for Dale during a work-at-home day.
We spent a week in North Carolina visiting Dale's parents. While they were gone for a day, we took advantage of the local batch of geocaches. Dale spent his first 8 years in this town before moving all the way to Northside (about 5 miles away). We got to some familiar places and some not so familiar.
This cache was well-camouflaged for its hiding place in the chimney of an old brick oven.
Dale remembers coming to scout meetings at the arena near the final cache, and his father used to work at John Umstead, which is one of the waypoints in this multicache. We found the cache with no real problem. We didn't take anything, because the container was a little bare. We left the Linda Lee Bee travel bug.
This may be our favorite cache hide so far. We never would have found, much less explored, this cool site unless there was a cache here. We searched long and thoroughly, but eventually found the cache.
Unfortunately, some young muggles had found it recently. They had removed all of the contents of the cache except the log book. We left a Pluto figurine (from Giants on Guard) and launched our Take me on a Sea Cruise travel bug. We hoped a fellow cacher would get the bug before more (or the same) muggles came back.
The log page left by the muggles was as follows:
10/14/04
Biggs, Wooten, & Combs
Biggs = easy find, kinda fun, scary
Wooten = We don't even know what geocatchers [sic] are, and we found it. You suck. Took red wolf pen.
Combs = Took ball out of mouse. Left recipt [sic]. Wooten scared as Hades.
------------------------------------
Took all. Left recipt [sic]. Not afiliated [sic] w/
That was it except for a July-dated receipt from a video game store in Wake Forest.
We went back to this location the next day, so Dale could get some photographs. We had contacted nctreker about the condition of the cache, and it turns out it wasn't even in the right place. In the picture on the right, the cache is the dark box leaning against the right side of the chimney opening. While we were in the area, we restocked the cache with items from the dollar store and moved it to its original location.
Dale had been to this area many times with his family and the Boy Scouts.
We almost gave up on this one. We ran across two snakes on the way from the road. We thought the first one might have been a copperhead, but further research shows it was just a gray rat snake. The other was a common black snake that was within 10 feet of the cache.
We did find the box, though. We had left the last of our goodies at the plundered Forbidden Tower cache, so we took nothing, left nothing, and signed the log.
One of Dale's best childhood friends once lived across C street from this cache, but Dale was unaware of this place.
We had to use the clue to find the cache. Too many places to hide a bison tube!
Dubrovnik was one of our ports of call on 1-week cruise from Rome to Venice. We found the cache first thing, then walked the walls. What a neat city!
The Linda Lee Bee travel bug visited the cache with us.
We were here on a cruise. Dale found this micro-cache while Chris shopped. Nice hide! We walked past this place on our way to town without even thinking there could be a geocache hidden there!
Excellent hide. The cache was very full. We left the Plumbus Robertus travel bug. The only other bug in the cache was the e-mail bug. It didn't list California as a place it wanted to go, so we left it. We took a #1 keychain and a small bag of eraser toys. There was no log book, so we left a note on the back of one of the pieces of paper already in there.
It was pretty crowded around there this morning. Dale used his camera as cover, pretending to get close-up shots of the cache area, slipping it out of its hiding place and taking it about 15 feet away. There, with Dale's sister and brother-in-law for cover, we went through the contents, signed the log and put it back together. We had to wait for a tour group to move on before putting it back. Once again, the camera came in handy for cover.
This was our first find outside the United States!
Dale couldn't find this cache. The park was quiet, and he took his time looking in a number of likely places. [Note: This cache has since been declared missing.]
Dale rode his motorcycle to this trailhead this morning, braving the heavy mist that was falling. This trailhead was no secret to him. He has ridden past it many times, and we used it when we planted the Semiprecious Park cache.
GPS coverage was quite poor in the area. Dale found a likely spot and looked for the cache, but didn't find it there. He looked at the hint went right to it, about 20 feet from where the GPS had been pointing.
He left a plastic shrimp and took the Linda Lee Bee travel bug.
From this cache, Dale went on to check on our Semiprecious Park cache and then to find Saluting General. As he returned to the trailhead, this deer trotted across the trail in front of him. By the time he got the camera pointed at her, she had bolted. With the low light, this was the clearest shot he got of her.
The hike to this cache from the Semi-Secret Trailhead cache was tiring and chilling, as the trees dropped bits of the mist they had gathered on Dale as he hiked.
Dale launched our Houdini's Handcuffs TB here. It wants to go to difficult caches, and this sure qualifies. He also left a talking (well, shouting) Sharon Osborne doll. Dale took the Jeep travel bug. [Note: This cache disappeared after Dale put the Houdini's Handcuffs into it, and they appear to have disappeared along with it.]
On his way home from a dentist appointment, Dale stopped by this cache. It is a micro cache is hidden in a rather public part of a popular park. There was a group of mothers and babies in the picnic shelter, but they were too busy talking to each other to pay Dale much mind. He thinks he slipped in, found the cache, and put it back without doing anything they would have noticed.
While Chris played golf, Dale took advantage of a vacation day and hit seven caches during a bike ride.
My GPS was pointing me to the other side of the fence and into the parking lot of an apartment complex. I confess I had to use the hint. What a very clever hide!
I would love to describe this cache, but it's just too clever for me to give it away here. The description of the cache as "4 inches in diameter, and about an inch tall" was the give-away for me.
Another excellent hide. My GPS put me about 8 feet away from the cache. As I looked around to see where I would hide a cache, I saw a number of potential spots. Once I exhausted them, I realized there were a bunch more. My geocaching nose was working today, though, and I found it pretty quickly.
We looked for this one last month when there were too many people around. No one was around this morning, though. I found it in about the 10th place I looked. Very nice hiding spot!
I saw lots of possible hiding places in the area, but none as fine as the one the hider chose. Excellent!
There was light traffic on the trail today so finding it unseen was no problem. I took a "Mercury Sports Energy" lanyard and left a red frog from the "Frogstar (West)" geocache near Lee Vining, CA.
Traffic was light on the trail this morning, so it was easy to sneak the cache from it's hiding place. I took a shrimp and left a top with diodes that light up when you spin it.
We looked for this cache last month, but I was using the wrong cache sheet -- we were looking for a medium-sized cache. Today, it was a pretty easy find.
We visited Chris's parents in Kaukauna over the July 4th holiday. Dale took a break on Tuesday and found some caches.
This cache is the closest one to Chris's parents house. It is a non-virtual, cemetary-based multi-micro-cache. The clues were straightforward and the cache was pretty easy to find.
The path to this one was muddy in places, but it was a fun walk, anyway. I removed the sprinkler valve from the cache, but I think I left it on a log nearby. I left a green golf ball bottle opener.
No luck on this one. The coordinates led me down a path that looked right, but there were no trees that fit the cache description close by. I would have had to dive into very wet underbrush to be sure I was in the wrong place. Maybe I'll hit this one on another trip here.
This cache was quite challenging. Just finding a way to get to the island was the hardest part. The brush along the path leading to the cache was quite wet, and I ended up with soaked jeans and sneakers. It was fun nonetheless!
I didn't bring anything to put in the cache, taking the word "micro" too literaly, I suppose. I did, however, find a golf ball while looking in the bushes for the cache. I left that and signed the log.
Dale drove to the eastern Sierras for a photography workshop. During a break in the workshop, he did some geocaching.
I just missed meeting fossillady, the cache hider, at the saddle room. I did get to meet Rivergoat, another geocacher, in the parking lot when he heard me explaining geocaching to one of the other workshop participants. My pictures of Bodie are here.
This is a nice hide just off the dirt road that goes into Bodie. The GPS took me right to it. I left a slinky and a pocket comb. Took nothing.
Not really "on" the road, is it? My poor Civic has had a rough couple of days! I hit this cache right after Rivergoat found it. I left a Hershey's Kisses teeshirt keychain and took a travel bug dog tag. Was there supposed to be something on the TB's chain? (Note: 7/9/04: The travel bug had never been activated. I activated it and turned it into the Houdini's Handcuffs travel bug.)
This is a great place well off the beaten track. I'd love to come out earlier in the day and get some pictures of the creek sometime. On the way out, I found a great turnout where I'd like to come to get pictures at sunrise. It overlooks a gorgeous green valley and the east-facing slopes of the Sierras.
Dale drove to the eastern Sierras for a photography workshop. On the way, he stopped in Lee Vining to find some caches.
This micro cache is very well hidden in a very public place. It took a lot of looking to find it. The cache log was too wet to sign. To prove I found it, I took a picture of the cache, Woody, and the Plumbus Robertus travel bug, which I am escorting.
This is a virtual cache at the heart of Lee Vining. I ate breakfast at the restaurant next door in 2000. As I recall, it was pretty good. I took a picture of Plumbus Robertus travel bug at site.
This virtual cache is in a cemetary north of Mono Lake. It is a beautiful place. Several of the graves had been recently decorated for Father's Day.
Not hard to find once I was in the area, but getting there was nerve-wracking. My Civic made it over the roads just fine. Theywere packed and dry today. Wow, Hwy 167 is straight, huh. I took a green golf-ball bottle opener and left bubbles and the Mississippi Porsche travel bug.
Easy find, but I worried for my car on the road to it. No muggles around, just an Airstream trailer down next to the creek. I didn't have a frog, so I left a GREEN Matchbox car. I took a red frog. I also took a picture of the red frog and Plumbus Robertus travel bug at the frog.
Our GPS was pointing us all over the place, but Chris found it. We left a goblet from Splish splash find a cache and took the Mississippi Porsche travel bug. We also picked up lots of trash on our way out.
We had intended to find a bunch more caches in this area, but there were too many people around for an art fair, so we just found this one and went home to relax by the pool.
We took advantage of a beautiful day to hit the road on our bikes.
The name of this cache is the scientific name of the Northern Pipefish. The cache lives up to that theme all the way. We enjoyed the "Cache and Release"! We've had our eyes on this one for a while, since it's very close to our home. We finally caught it this morning.
We looked around briefly. The area was crawling with geomuggles, and we felt pretty conspicuous in our bike clothes. We'll be back when there isn't a Farmer's Market going on.
It took some looking, and we had to use the clue, but we found it. Very nice hide. We took a heart-shaped lock and left a miniature slinky.
While Dale signed the log, Chris looked inconspicuous by photographing a butterfly on a nearby buckeye.
Oops. Dale was reading from the wrong cache sheet when we got to this one, and we thought it was a regular-sized cache. It's actually a micro cache, so we didn't look in the right places. We'll try again with the correct information.
Just after we retrieved the cache, a large group of kids and adults on bikes came by. They chose that stretch of trail to stop and wait for others in their group to catch up.
We picked a moment when they were distracted and slipped the cache back into its hiding spot. Then we went further up the trail, turned around and rode back by it to make sure they weren't investigating the spot. They weren't and had all moved on.
We took a little plastic heart and a ring. We left a get-the-balls-in-the-holes game.
Clever hide. We misinterpreted the phrase "hidden well outside the property" (was it well outside or hidden well?) and looked in the wrong spot to start with. Finally the GPS settled down and Dale found the cache.
We took a plastic goblet (looks like a Holy Grail to us) and launched our Grand Canyon travel bug.
Last time we were at Cape Royal -- in July 2000 -- there was an electrical storm brewing, so we didn't stay very long. This time it was breezy and cool, but sunny. We not only went to Cape Royal Pt, but also out to Angel's Window.
At the cache site, our GPS gave us the rare thrill of seeing "0 ft" as the distance to cache. That was about 2 feet from the informational plaque where the original reading was probably taken.
We forgot to bring the GPS when we came out just after breakfast, so we made another (easy) trip out to get a picture of Chris at the sign with the GPSR.
Unlike the Cape Royal cache earlier today, we Couldn't get the GPS to tell us we were 0 feet from the cache -- it was pointing 42 feet into the gorge, and we didn't feel like risking the climb down to that point!
We were on our way to the Grand Canyon's North Rim from Las Vegas with Dale's parents. We stopped in St. George to find a couple of caches in one park. The GPS got us within about 12 feet of this cache, and a little looking pinpointed it quickly. We took 2 golf balls and left the SJSU Sparty travel bug.
Dale's mother accompanied us to this cache. It was a warm 1.4 mile hike from our parking place. As we left the paved trail, we saw a bunch of clothes strewn around a nearby rock. It looks like someone swiped a duffle bag and took it there to rifle through it.
We continued on to the cache location. The GPS was right on, hitting 0 feet about 3 feet from the cache itself. Even though it was that close, it took a couple of minutes of looking before Dale spotted the hiding place. We took a golf ball. Left a key chain in the shape of a Hershey's Tee Shirt -- it was from Oakdale, CA, where there is a Hershey factory.
Dale and Chris ended a drought of geocaching with this six-cache flood in a beautiful little park close to home.
It was a perfect day for the hike. (scratch, scratch) We're not sure what we were supposed to pay (scratch) attention to. We did "pay" the cache, though. This is a micro-cache, and, in addition to signing the log, we left a "fiver" from Crazy Pete's Money Cache.
Actually, the name refers to all of the poison oak along the trail. It's everywhere!
This is a tough find -- very well hidden. Chris didn't want to leave the trail, because we had seen a lot of poison oak. Dale kept an eye out for it as he searched, and only saw a bit of it. As Dale was searching, a family with two children hiked up to the lookout. They saw him searching in the bushes and the little girl asked "What are you doing?" Dale said he was "looking for something" and kept searching. When he finally found it, he figured the best thing was to take it back to the trail and explain himself. Thus, we introduced this family to geocaching. They have a GPS and said they might try it.
When we opened the box, the girl, age 7, asked if she could have the bubbles. We traded a small stuffed bear (from Forecast) for the bubbles.
The girl wanted to see where Dale put the cache when he re-hid it, but her parents, understanding the game, kept her on the trail and headed back down.
We caught up to the family down the hill, and the girl insted on walking with us. She decided that Dale must be a detective, since he found the "treasure". From that point on, she called him "Uncle Detective".
We finally let them walk on as we approached the next cache on our list, and they were well out of sight by the time we found it.
The trees around this cache made GPS reception pretty poor. There were two likely hiding spots about 30 feet apart, but with about 100 yards of trail between them. Fortunately we picked the right one to try first, and found the cache pretty quickly. This cache has a shell theme, but there were a couple of non-shell-related items in the cache. We cleaned it up a bit, taking a rubber rabbit (eraser?), a small slinky, and a nickel. We left a gift bag with sea-shells tied to it.
The trees around this cache played with the accuracy of the GPS, so we had serveral places to look, again. This time, it was in the second one we tried. It is a micro-cache, so we just signed the log.
There were a number of people around, but we managed to find the cache, sneak it out, and sneak it back in without anyone taking notice. We couldn't resist the SJ Sparty travel bug, so we took that, leaving a rubber duck and a yo-yo.
Our last find was no real trouble, even though it was well hidden from geomuggles. We coudn't resist taking the travel bug (Plumbus Robertus). We left a kissing lips whistle and a heart pin (in keeping with the Luuuuv theme).
We rode the motorcycle up to Big Basin today. We had intended to park on China Grade Road and hike to this cache, but when we got there, we saw a large branch blocking it. We just pulled off the road behind the park sign and hoofed it to the cache. It only added about another 1/10 mile. to the hike. It was an easy find, and a short hike.
We extended the hike by continuing on to the gate at Lodge Road for a total of 2.9 miles with lots of climbing and desending. We stopped near the cache on the way back, too, and ate a picnic lunch.
We left a Cat Mitten we retrieved from a previous cache and took a stuffed bear.
Dale went out for another lunchtime hunt with co-worker bobluben. They searched for quite some time, consulted the clue, and determined they were looking in the right place. Bob kept looking while Dale used his Treo phone to go on line to see if there were any other clues in the recent cache logs. About time Dale got to the cache page, Bob said "Here it is!" That's the second one in a row he's found it before Dale. And Dale's supposed to be the seasoned cacher!
Anyway, they both signed the log.
They really enjoyed the location. During the summer Dale bikes past here twice a week and has never noticed this sculpture. He will certainly notice it from now on.
Dale's co-worker bobluben has been talking about trying geocaching for a long time. He finally brought in his vintage (circa 1998) GPS to see if it would serve. Dale and bobluben went out at lunch time on this day to find a couple of caches. This was the first, and -- by far -- the easiest. It was a very short walk through the parking lot of their company (and that of another company) to the cache site. After just a bit of looking, Dale spotted the cache and pointed it out to bobluben. We both signed the log and replaced the cache. Then it was on to...
This cache was much harder to spot than Shoemaker-Levy. Dale and bobluben looked around for about 10 or 15 minutes. They were about to give up and go get lunch when bobluben called out "Found it!" He had his first find, and now he is hooked. Dale left a Zombie Otto figurine from Burger King and took a Woody the Cowboy figure in trade.
When Dale got to work this morning, there was an e-mail from co-worker and fellow geocacher, JeeperDad. It seems that there is a travel bug with a mission in JeeperDad's honor. It was in a cache less than half a mile from Dale's office, and JeeperDad wanted him to go get it. Fortunately, Dale had his GPS with him, and a cancelled 9:30am meeting. He took his chances with the weather (the rain had stopped, but was still threatening) and went looking for the cache.
He found it quickly enough, dropped off a Bart Simpson PEZ dispenser and grabbed the Signature Jeep #120 travel bug. JeeperDad will be in town next Tuesday and will grab it then.
Dale woke up this morning and checked for nearby, unfound caches. This one popped up as being about 6 miles away. It's a puzzle cache -- you have to solve a puzzle on the cache page in order to find the exact location. Dale solved the puzzle, located the cache on a map, and took off. All before breakfast. The fast work paid off. He was first to find the cache. In addition to the magnetic key holder that is the actual cache, there was a "First To Find" prize attached to it -- a $10 gift certificate from Trader Joes, a local niche grocery chain.
We were ready for a nice hike and some geocaching, so we went after two caches along a 4-mile round-trip trail in this park. The begining of the trail was very steep, but in good condition. The winter rains had the creeks flowing, but the ground was mainly dry.
We drove to the entrance of the park that is at the end of Sanborn Road, an easy, pretty short drive from home. The GPS was able to lock onto half-a-dozen satellites right overhead, so it gave us a pretty good fix as long as we weren't in a crevice (see "Wet Tree Cache" below).
Away from the Pond
This was our first cache in this park for the day. We looked for this one over a year ago (2/2/03) but couldn't find it. Today, it took us about 30 minutes of looking. The GPS was pointing us all over the place. We were about to give up again, when Dale spotted something that might have to do with the clue, and looked around. He finally found it, guarded by a fierce dragon (actually a pretty timid Pacific Crest Newt).
We left a miniature Etch-a-Sketch and took the "Fire Drill" book.
Wet Tree Cache
Our second cache was more adventurous. The terrain for this one is rated at 3 stars out of 5 for difficulty. With the creek flowing, it earned every point on each of those stars! Chris didn't feel safe climbing up the cascade, but Dale was still game. The GPS wasn't getting much signal, so he stopped and decoded the hint, then realized he was within 10 feet of the cache.
He took a rubber ducky (Future travel bug? Stay tuned!) and left the Follow the Gourd! travel bug and a Hot Wheels Ford Panel Van.
Dale went for a hike in this park to find some caches and place one, too.
I found this one after a disappointing hunt for the Coprolite cache. The GPS reception was pretty poor as I approached, but the name of the cache was the only clue I needed. I walked right to it, retreived the cache container and took it back to the trail to look through it. I took a gourd key chain ("Follow the gourd!") and a golf ball and left a top that lights up in neat patterns when you spin it.
This cache has an olive-oil theme, but I didn't have any cache trinkets that fit that theme. I just signed the log. I had to use the hint, as my GPS was pointing me about 20 feet away from the cache, and there were lots of potential hiding places.
This is not an alien-themed cache. The name is an anagram of "Pleasanton Ridge". The cache is in an ammo box and has some pretty nice stuff in it.
I hid this cache at the place where I stopped to eat my lunch of sardines, cheese crackers, and Fig Newtons. As I munched, I watched some huge predator birds riding the thermals. It was very peaceful, and no other hikers came by the whole time I was there.
This is a series of micro caches that are related to another multi-cache. The first stage was an easy find. It contained the coordinates for the second stage and a clue about where to look for it. When my GPS said I was at the second cache, I looked around and didn't see anything like what was mentioned in the clue. I stumbled around on that rocky hillside for about 15 minutes with no luck. Just as I was about to give up and leave, I looked around one more time. This time, I saw something about 50 feet from the coordinates that might be the right object. It was. The second cache simply had a password that may help me find the Black Diamond Tennis Bracelet cache, if I ever look for it.
This was supposed to be the first cache I found today, but it was the last. I looked for it this morning on my way to the other caches, and I just couldn't find it.
On my way back out, I decided to try again. This time, I ended up in the right place, looking in the right direction, and seeing something that looks a little like coprolite. It was the cache: a small plastic container embedded in a lump of rock-colored foam.
We went out for a New-Years-Day stroll and ended up walking neary 6.5 miles. Along the way, we stopped to look for this cache. We found it as the staff at Harpoon Harry's bar was cleaning up from the New Year's Eve festivities. It took us a long time to locate the cache, because we were trying to be (at least a little bit) inconspicuous. There was a couple sitting at one of those outdoor tables that must have been puzzled by what we were doing.
We did eventually find the cache, though, and signed the log.