buckyd's Geoblog

Mar 8, 2009

Got it, got it again, got eco-cache . . . ?

By: Albatrozz Difficulty: 2.5 Terrain: 2.0 Container: Regular

Geo Baby wanted to go on a walk today, and I could use all the exercise I can manage myself, so we set off to the flatlands to see what we could find. When WalruZ started reading about this easy walk, and there was very straightforward legal Sunday parking nearby, we decided that the Guadelupe trail was it. Enjoyed the area; thanks for the cache.

Sep 30, 2007

Bring Me the Pickled Head of Joaquin Murietta

By: Touchstone Difficulty: 3.0 Terrain: 4.5 Container: Regular

Of course, "Kealia's statement" is actually a quote from WalruZ, so he should've known what he was getting into when this was our target cache for the day! We hiked down from Intergarrison and picked up the caches that we could on the way here. There was some consternation from WalruZ as we walked by this one in favor of Big Wheels nearby, but I was Cruise Director today and I thought it best to get those pesky traditionals out of the way before undertaking an epic letterboxing adventure. When we got to the coords, there was much stomping around trying to figure out where to start the um, more animal, portion of our journey, and I must admit that I was a little skivved out that I might have been waltzing through a whole mess of poison oak sticks during that time. Anyhow, I wasn't skivved out about that after finding our first artifact -- took my mind right off poison oak. We follwed the instructions with varying degrees of ease until we arrived at the cache. Only a little blood was lost. Perhaps I should have brought gloves and worn my long-sleeved tshirt. When we explained the adventure later to LeChuck, he commented that there must be some really twisted cacher on the loose out there. I'm not prepared to disagree with him! Thanks!

Sep 1, 2007

Follow the Tags

By: The Un-cachers Difficulty: 2.0 Terrain: 2.0 Container: Small

WalruZ wasn't sure how much exploring for tags he wanted to do, with Geo Baby riding on his back at this point, but we managed to find what we needed to see between the four eyes that were open (another two were a bit droopy at this point). Thanks!

Jun 30, 2007

Embarcadero Bug Depot

By: OneAngryPuppy and Frivlas Difficulty: 1.5 Terrain: 1.5 Container: Regular

We decided to amble around Palo Alto today, and I don't know exactly what brought us around this way (WalruZ was driving, so it probably had something to do with some English class or something), but I was hungry and I remembered eating at a Hobee's here several years ago. So, it was off to Hobee's for lunch, and despite the throng of people hanging out outside the shop, they had a table available. Yay! I have always really liked Hobee's food, mostly because they serve unique things that you don't get at practically any other restaurant, and after living elsewhere for 14 years or so (Hobee's is sooooo peninsula/Bay Area-only!), I really appreciate having it around now. It is also nice to see that a Town and Country is still upright, mostly... After lunch, I headed this way while WalruZ and Geo Baby got things together to start the journey to the high school. I had forgotten it was a letterbox at first, and so was really puzzled when I headed across the street and my arrow was pointing back the other way! So, out comes the PDA and the n it all makes sense. Not. I got so confused reading all the parentheses that after getting through it on the nondescript cachemate page I didn't know what applied or what didn't. I was fairly confident that I was still looking for an ammo box, and that I wasn't going to be walking too far to do it.

So, I looked around.

This type of area is what I enjoy about Stanford. Not a lot of concrete, when you stop to think about it, and areas where there aren't a whole lot of people around too. Most Universities will eventually succumb to concrete in the name of progress, expansion, and more places for people to sit and do Important Things. This is particularly true of two of my former haunts, UCSF-Parnassus and Columbia, which, now sandwiched in between multi-level residential buildings in more urban settings, have a bit of a claustrophobic feel to them. Even UCSD has chopped down part of their eucalyptus grove to put up a mini-mall (okay, fine, it's a student center that looks like a food court). But, I digress, back to the cache... Hmmm, am I on the road less travelled, and if I am, am I turned the right direction for the heading/bearing? Who knows, but I see lots of prime cache hiding spots to examine... After a little while I started to become more discriminating about the spots I was examining. That was when I saw it. It was beautiful! The mix of mystery and opportunity and cover from noncachers. I went for it. I took the long way around it to prolong the suspense. I was not disappointed.

It was in great shape. There were a ton of travellers in there! I almost forgot that I was supposed to be catching u p to the stroller at the high school. I went through every TB and TC there -- most of which have no indication of where they've been or where they want to go. I couldn't decide. I hadn't brought any with me (because I don't have any in my possession at the moment), but I had to have one. But the re are so many here; I couldn't choose. I finally decided that two coins, the likes of which I've never before seen, and a duckie TB were The Ones. I don't know where their preferred destination is, but I guess I'll find out soon enough. They will be moving on before the week is out (assuming our upcoming mini-vacation plans aren't totally counter to their goals). I replaced the cache and quickly went on my way to meet up with the family. Thanks for the cache!

Mar 18, 2006

Illuminati

By: Touchstone Difficulty: 2.0 Terrain: 3.0 Container: Regular

Revisited with the WalruZ. This hike wasn't nearly as steep as the last few we've attempted here [;)] Cache is still in good condition, and it was a great night to be out at Huckleberry Hill.

Down the Rabbit Hole

By: The Architect Difficulty: 2.0 Terrain: 3.0 Container: Regular

Whew. I didn't know if I could handle coming out here (a park I love to hike in when I'm vacationing down at "Camp Grandma") another time if I didn't get this cache again! From our previous mistakes, we knew the trails we needed to take and so didn't even take our GPSrs or the trailmaps. It became ju st a matter of following the tacks. With the exception of the "no parking sunset to sunrise" signs (these have to be a new installation, I don't remember them the previous visits) at the posted coords, the entire evening went rather smoothly. We ended up parking in a residential area and walking in , since the park hours still appear to be until 10pm.

The evening was crisp and quite pleasant for a night hike, with a bit of wind to make it nice and clear. I took advantage of the cool weather to try and push myself up the hills a bit faster, which ruffled the WalruZ a bit. We had a little tro uble finding the cache at the apparent cache site, but I think that was more because I was looking for Illuminati-style markers. Just a bit of patience and I had the cache in hand. It felt a little light, so I added some swag and a TB.

I can now say that I took the red pill. TFTC.

Nov 24, 2005

Illuminati

By: Touchstone Difficulty: 2.0 Terrain: 3.0 Container: Regular

Not a single reflector to be seen tonight from Brer Rabbit's lair... Of course, we only had waypoints, a headlamp, three flashlights, and the memory of the two cache pages that we read before starting our post-Turkey-dinner journey. We'll have to do more research and try again some other night. Edit: {cough}{choke}{chortle} Ahem, well, I guess I did find it and I signed the log and all, and then went crashing through the forest looking for it. Gee, I wonder why we didn't see a reflector from there... {Doh} So, I thought I'd go ahead and add the log from my pseudo-find of DTRH here:

I had actually wanted to go with the group last week to do these caches {which now seems like it would have been a better choice than crashing through Huckleberry Hill *two* weeks in a row}, but not only do I not have the go-ahead from the doctor to do terrain like this, I also had never left Geo Baby with a non-parent. So I decided to make some preparations for both of those issues and wait the week and a half to the holiday weekend. It was great weather for this tonight, not too cold and not too hot, with just a touch of fog to make it a little spooky. I've done a night cache before, so we wer e reasonably prepared for the hike, but somehow had zapped the Palm with our normal caching information earlier in the day {which apparently wouldn't have helped us in the comedy of errors that occurred}. That meant that we could only write down scraps of information from looking at the webpage befo re we left, and go on waypoints in the GPSr (and my knowledge of the park itself from several previous --daytime-- hiking trips here). We lost the tacks a few times, but nothing too upsetting {phhhhht, giggle, snort}. We saw a pair of eyes at about raccoon or possum-level staring at us at one point. We made our way up and down the path, and came upon the cache. It wasn't more terrain than I could handle, but then came the search for Illuminati {insert snicker from future here}...

Thanks for the nighttime walk in the woods. I'm going to submit my find as satisfying the "forest" requirement for the Coin Quest. Thanks a bunch!

Down the Rabbit Hole

By: The Architect Difficulty: 2.0 Terrain: 3.0 Container: Regular

Edit: Oooops. I need to pay more attention to those tacks and what's written in the log!! Not only did not find this cache, but I thought I found it when I had really followed tacks to the other one (don't ask me how that happened, I really don't know). So, this logging thing gets more confusing when the coin quest requirements get factored in... {sigh}

Feb 27, 2005

Walk Like a Duck

By: workerofwood Difficulty: 1.5 Terrain: 1.5 Container: Regular

Oh yeah, totally almost busted. I saw the ranger zoom by and s/he must have noticed us walking towards an area we probably shouldn't have been, because s/he stopped the truck right at a turn where we couldn't see it proceed or stopped. Its like it disappeared. Not wanting to get in a conversation with the ranger, WalruZ and I casually turned around and pretended to loiter back at the car. This prompted the ranger to get on their way. We decided to come at the cache the "legal" way, and really enjoyed our walk (the last dry walk to a cache today). I'm getting pretty good at spotting this cammo now, after the 45 part multi! Thanks!

Aug 12, 2004

Columba

By: bthomas Difficulty: 2.0 Terrain: 1.5 Container: Micro

I don't think I have any words to describe my visit to this cache. I was awed and impressed. I stayed a long time. TFTC.

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Recently Updated Geoblogs

Mar 8, 2009

Got it, got it again, got eco-cache . . . ?

Sep 30, 2007

Bring Me the Pickled Head of Joaquin Murietta

Sep 1, 2007

Follow the Tags

Jun 30, 2007

Embarcadero Bug Depot

Mar 18, 2006

Illuminati

Down the Rabbit Hole

Nov 24, 2005

Illuminati

Down the Rabbit Hole

Feb 27, 2005

Walk Like a Duck

Aug 12, 2004

Columba