buckyd's Geoblog

Apr 3, 2010

Talus Cave - Pinnacles NM

By: TerryDad2 - adopted by Mauison Difficulty: 1.5 Terrain: 3.0 Container: Not chosen

We brought far more gear than we needed for this one -- the water inside wasn't even up to the soles of my boots! I was glad for the flashlights, though. It was a little iffy getting through some of those spots with lil'brother on my back in the pack, but we managed okay. He can be a real trooper when novelty and a group of interesting faces are involved! I don't think I would have attempted this one without the support of the larger group and the help of Walruz with my slightly-off balance self on the way down. Thanks for the experience and the associated smiley!

Rhyolitic Breccia and Banded Rhyolite

By: TerryDad2 - adopted by Mauison Difficulty: 3.0 Terrain: 2.5 Container: Not chosen

Awesome day for the hike! We too saw three intrepid climbers doing their Machete ridge thing. Crazy stuff! The coords seemed to be about 350 feet off, so we had to backtrack from GZ to marker #11. Including some coords to help future earthcachers, or if the CO wants to update...

Split Volcano - Pinnacles NM West Earthcache

By: TerryDad2 - adopted by Mauison Difficulty: 1.5 Terrain: 1.5 Container: Not chosen

Out with the GBA group on a gorgeous day in Pinnacles. When we got to the coordinates, we were a little confused since there weren't any plaques there. We passed the ones at the trailhead and another one about halfway to the caves, so I'm thinking that the info to compare was the stuff on those plaques and sent the required info along. There are some great views of the High Peaks from this little valley. Thanks for the earthcache!

Jul 12, 2009

Turritella Snail Bed

By: TeamNulti2003 Difficulty: 1.5 Terrain: 2.0 Container: Not chosen

I figured I was pushing it a little with the uphill grade to the cache site from the suggested parking coords, but that's good for me, right? Anyhow, we found the place and read the info and enjoyed the short walk. Well, maybe Geo Baby didn't exactly enjoy it, but she liked doing the downhill on the way back... WalruZ has sent the email, and here's the photo that LeChuck took at the cache site.

Wind Caves

By: TeamNulti2003 Difficulty: 1.5 Terrain: 2.0 Container: Not chosen

WalruZ, LeChuck, Geo Baby and I were cruisin' Diablo today, ostensibly for a family outing that could also double as a cache maintenance run. I had a little time to do some research on the caches to determine which one's I could waddle my 8 month prepartum self to (and that the almost 4 year old would propel herself to), and it looked like Earthcaches were our best bet. We did a ring around the "wind"caves before finally settling on a (very busy) spot to examine the tafoni. WalruZ has sent the email for all of us, and here is our GPS photo... Thanks for the Earthcache!

Nov 26, 2008

The Wind Dunes of St. Peter

By: Team LightningBugs Difficulty: 1.5 Terrain: 2.5 Container: Not chosen

Hanging out in WI with the WalruZ side of the family, and so I was game to brave the dudes walking around in orange with rifles slung over their backs while complaining about seeing no tracks, in order to find a few caches in the snowy landscape. This one seemed like a relatively safe stop for us, what with the roadside nearby and all, so I grabbed my camera and we snapped a few pix. Thanks for the edu-tainment!

Jul 15, 2007

Sag Ponds on the San Andreas Fault

By: workerofwood adopted by Bootdisk Difficulty: 2.0 Terrain: 2.0 Container: Not chosen

Yessir, measured it I did, 43 feet. Of course the reading from the GPSr makes no sense given the EPE under trees and the total distance measured, and it is certainly not what I would consider experiment-worthy. Of course, in my line of work the equipment with which to measure the pond would be standardized across experimenters, and thus left in a nice little hiding place for each party to retrieve. And, you could put little markers for the sag pond measurement start and stop points. That way the only confounding issue in your experiment would be the human measurement error. As it is now, you've got multiple confounds in a temporal comparison between distance travelled via fault separation -- at least 3 that I can figure... WalruZ sent all our other answers, though.

Jun 5, 2007

Hayward Fault at Fremont's Central Park

By: avtanski Difficulty: 1.5 Terrain: 1.0 Container: Not chosen

I had a great time visiting this earthcache! We drove to the first waypoint and found the required info right away, but I wanted to take a closer look at the evidence of fault activity, so I piled Geo Baby out of the car and we went to check it out. Instead of dealing with the street (and thus having to make the trip into a production with getting the stroller out, etc), we drove to Stage 2 and parked there to walk unaided to the rest of the waypoints. We had a good time walking to and sitting at each stage -- there were things for Geo Baby to discover and talk about, and there was the fault progression for me to enjoy (I like that sort of stuff and have the USGS recent earthquake page bookmarked in my browser, even). On the way to stage 3, we walked past some geese that derailed our progress a bit, and then a few groups of tai chi-ers with which Geo Baby was entranced. On the way to stage 4 we met a dog named Bob that was really nice and well-behaved. Geo Baby was excited to meet and pet Bob. On the way to stage 5 we saw a city truck drive over what seemed like the grass to Geo Baby, but was really a long driveway into the maintenance yard. Then we lost a shoe, but quickly found it and put it back on. I think, earthcache-wise, stage 4 was the most impressive but only because stage 5 looks like it was built that way!

I mostly t ook photos of Geo Baby, which are in her log, but I'll include here a self portrait of the two of us when we were on our way back to the car...

Mar 31, 2007

Round Top

By: Alamogul Difficulty: 2.0 Terrain: 2.0 Container: Not chosen

Neat place, I had never been to Sibley before. Geo Baby was a little under the weather today, so I was looking for a nice short loop hike we could do in about 2 hours to get her out in the fresh air without pushing her too hard. Up until an inopportune DNF search on a subsequent cache, I think she really had a great time!

Mar 25, 2006

Sampling of Rocks in Pinnacles NM Earthcache

By: TerryDad2 - adopted by Mauison Difficulty: 3.0 Terrain: 3.5 Container: Not chosen

We were running late to the geoevent due to baby issues, so off we went to do our own little 5 mile loop hike through Pinnacles. I still don't think I would want to try pronouncing most of those names, but they sure made a set of pretty colors!

Split Volcano - Pinnacles NM East Earthcache

By: TerryDad2 - adopted by Mauison Difficulty: 1.0 Terrain: 1.0 Container: Not chosen

What a fabulous day to be hiking Pinnacles! We strapped on the baby and enjoyed the views! Here are Geo Baby and I in front of the visitor center. We asked about logging in at the desk, but they're waiting for new pages or something...

Chalone Creek Fault ? Precursor to the San Andreas

By: TerryDad2 - adopted by Mauison Difficulty: 3.0 Terrain: 3.5 Container: Not chosen

I've always been interested in faultlines and earthquakes, so it was nice to see the example of the fault "in green" as it were. I was also glad to get to this point, because it was my turn to hand the baby over and walk without the extra weight! WalruZ got a better shot of it with me and the baby than I did with him! The Hermit's caching quest geological landmark (big split in the mountain would be something native americans would have used to describe a navigation route) requirement fit this cache well!

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Recently Updated Geoblogs

Apr 3, 2010

Talus Cave - Pinnacles NM

Rhyolitic Breccia and Banded Rhyolite

Split Volcano - Pinnacles NM West Earthcache

Jul 12, 2009

Turritella Snail Bed

Wind Caves

Nov 26, 2008

The Wind Dunes of St. Peter

Jul 15, 2007

Sag Ponds on the San Andreas Fault

Jun 5, 2007

Hayward Fault at Fremont's Central Park

Mar 31, 2007

Round Top

Mar 25, 2006

Sampling of Rocks in Pinnacles NM Earthcache

Split Volcano - Pinnacles NM East Earthcache

Chalone Creek Fault ? Precursor to the San Andreas