85,000 Words

If a picture is worth 1,000 words, then the 85 pictures that I've posted to the geocaching website is obviously worth 85,000 words. Not that I'll write that much, but I'm just preparing you for what lies ahead.

The past couple of weeks have been absolutely amazing. The Tadpole and I ended up camping for 2 days near Point Reyes National Seashore in Marin County, CA north of San Francisco and then for another 4 and a half days in Del Norte Redwoods State Park which is part of Redwoods National Park. Then, we met with a friend of mine in Oregon and finally with my dad up at his place in Idaho. I left the Tadpole with my Dad in Idaho and brought my other son, the Runner, home with me with a stop in Santa Cruz for his freshman orientation at UC Santa Cruz - home of the Banana Slugs. Over the next week or so, I will attempt to chronicle our trip in terms of caching, waymarking and other GPS games. Hopefully it will be interesting to everyone concerned. It's good to be home.

Picture was taken at or near the following geocache:
Point Reyes EarthQuake Trail - by forman

Keeping a positive attitude

A long time ago, I used to golf. My wife used to say she could tell what kind of round I'd had by the way the garage door went up. Needless to say, I really didn't have the temperament for golf back then. One day on the course, I was golfing by myself and I'd just finished up nine holes and thought to myself that I wasn't having any fun. So I went home. That was back in the summer of 1989. In the fall of 1989, my wife and I made the decision that she would stay home with our daughter. Taking more than a 50% pay cut meant many changes in our lifestyle back then, one of which was entertainment. My mind set had been changing toward golf and I had just decided around the same time that I'd like to take it up again, but that went out the window with the other decision. I still have my golf clubs. They're out in the garage. I seriously doubt that I will ever use them again and I really should give them away to a charity, but they are a reminder of where I was and where I want to be, so I keep them there where I can see them when I come into the garage every day.

I bring this up because I could have had one of "those" days while geocaching today. The first geocache that I attempted today I couldn't find. I'd worked on it last year at this time. For whatever reason, the cache has eluded me and it's rated as a regular. I haven't had the cache page either time I've looked for it either due to some error transferring the data from the computer to the PDA. Next time I look for it, I'll have the cache page in hand.

The next cache I attempted today was behind a sign stating Trespassing forbidden. I'm hoping that there's another way into that cache but I'm not so certain of it. One more DNF followed due to a high muggle quotient in the area. After looking at the cache page, it appears to be a very tricky hide as well. I don't usually do so well on those kinds without extra pairs of eyes with me in the form of friends. I finally found a cache further down the trail, then followed that up with two more DNFs due to muggles again. In one respect, it was a frustrating day, but in many other respects it was anything but.

Along the hike, which followed along the river bank, there was quite a show. First thing I ended up seeing were several orb spiders waiting patiently for some unsuspecting bug to fly into their trap. It was cool and cloudy, but I did find one that was working on a new web. The park where this spider was working was pretty amazing, having lots of the standard jungle gym but also something that looked like rock climbing walls for kids. There were several families having a great time there this morning.

I also took a walk out on the bike/walking path alongside the river because I needed to get over to the other of the road to get one more DNF. Not that I wanted that DNF, but that was the way the day was going for me. While walking under the bridge, I noticed a beautiful mural painted on the bridge abutments. As you can see, it's nicely done. A couple more paces and I spotted a young egret fishing for breakfast. I was fortunate enough to catch him with a small minnow in his mouth just before he decided to partake in breakfast.

So, let's see what happened caching today. Five DNFs, one easy find, a great walk in a nicely laid out suburban park while watching nature at its best. Had I had my golfing attitude from before, I might not have noticed these gems waiting for me to discover. It's all about attitude and if it's positive, it's so much better.

Pictures were taken at or near the following geocaches:
Just Keep Walking... - by Team O-Zone
Sycamore Creek Trail #4 - by Team O-Zone

Bits & Pieces, Odds & Ends

I was looking over some of the travel bug pictures I've taken recently and I've noticed I've fallen into a similar trap about which I've previously written. It's either I don't have the energy, or don't have the imagination to come up with a good picture for every traveler that I grab. I have noticed that it's easier to take pictures of travel bugs as opposed to geocoins. So I'll do what I can, when I can.

Of the recent pictures, I particularly like the one I took of two similar travel bugs, Sgt. Ducky and Frankenduck. Both ducks/travel bugs were found this summer while caching and both went north on our aborted camping trip. I was able this past week to deposit Sgt. Ducky in my latest cache, 360. Frankenduck will end up in a cache, hopefully, this weekend. The ammo can they're sitting on is planned to be a hybrid letterbox cache in the near future.

The second picture in this article is of Nurtz. I picked up Nurtz down in San Diego County in late July and put slightly more than 700 miles on it, but really didn't get it much closer to its goal. That's sometimes the way it is with travel bugs. He also came with me north on the camping trip, but I wasn't able to drop him off in a cache up there, so back he came and I ended up placing him in a fairly large cache out in the Antelope Valley just north of me. It looks like the cacher who just picked him up will be taking him closer to his goal, so that's a good thing.

I need to order some more decon containers. I have plans to set up my second multi-cache near 360. Cachers will have to "explore their technology" a little bit, utilizing various features of their GPSr they might not have tried in the past. I think it will be a fun little cache to solve and find.

Last, but certainly not least, the plans are to go caching this weekend on two of the three days. Chaosmanor and I will be caching up in the local mountains, hopefully to escape some of the heat that we've been getting as summer does its typical heat up in late August and early September in Southern California. It shouldn't be as hot at altitude as it is down in the semi-desert which will be a good thing.

I'm hoping the Tadpole wants to go caching on Monday. There are some caches that I'd like to look for down near the beach in Orange County. Monday also happens to be his 13th birthday, so I'll play a wait and see game on that. If he wants to do other things, then that's what will happen that day. It's his day after all. I can remember when he was born thinking that when he became a teenager, I would be the father of three teenagers all at the same time and shuddered to think about what that might entail. It was easy to brush off at that time, since it was so far in the future. Well, the future is here. It's amazing how quickly the time passes.

Pictures were taken at or near the following geocaches:
360 - by Webfoot
Christmas Cookies? - by Searching Gentiles
Spirit In The Sky (AKA Grievous Angel) - by FunHog

Friendly quirks

Living in Southern California, I’ve had the great fortune of caching with some very interesting and entertaining people, some of whom, I’ve developed very good friendships with that will probably last the rest of my life. One such person is 3blackcats.

I met 3blackcats after I goaded her into finding my Size Matters … Especially in California cache. It was a multi-cache that had a little bit of a twist and she and her sister had been out another time already to find the cache and couldn’t find the first waypoint. Trash talking ensued and that was probably enough to get her back out on the trail to find this one, which she did. For some reason, I had given her my phone number in case she needed a lifeline on it, but instead she called to brag and a friendship developed. A couple of days later, she, her sister 1bigdodgerfan, another cacher Lostlad, and I went out to conquer a well conceived mystery cache entitled Curiouser and Curiouser. We found it and 19 other caches that day and the next thing I knew, 3blackcats and I were caching together on a regular basis.

As you get to know people, you learn more and more of their personality, their quirks and what makes them tick. One of 3blackcats’ quirks is she doesn’t like to show her face when getting her picture taken. Well, not really, but it seems like that’s the case. I heard her tell it once that it was because of a witness protection program that had gone sour, but I’m not sure I believe that one.

It actually started out as a joke when she and Lostlad were caching near the Devil’s Punchbowl and she ended up getting one of her milestone caches out there. Lostlad wanted to take a picture, so she posed for the picture, with just her hand sticking out from behind a huge boulder. Her next milestone cache, I happened to be present and the traditional picture was taken, from behind her, looking over her shoulder at the view from the cache site. A legend was born.

As you can see from some of the pictures posted, she will go to great lengths to make sure she’s unidentifiable in the picture. Her sister, 1bigdodgerfan even got involved with this as well. The event picture was the best in my opinion. I didn’t even realize that she’d turned her head to make it look like she was reading the menu until after I got home and downloaded the picture to my computer. I busted a gut laughing at that one.

We’ve actually started making a game of it. How many clues can we reveal about 3blackcats before we finally show everyone who she really is? It’s just one of those diversions that keeps us entertained on the trail when we’re trudging along a steep part, or when we’ve ended up sort of bleary eyed from one too many lamp post caches. The last time I cached with her was right after Christmas, on a 4x4 trail up in the Cajon Pass. The wind chill that day was close to 20 degrees and most of the day was spent in a heated car as we bumped along a dirt road. Once we got near ground zero, we didn’t mess around taking pictures, but worked on finding the cache and moving along. It was that cold.

Our latest plans are to go out on next Monday afternoon. We may end up in an area that is ripe for another picture, but then again we may not. The one thing that I do know is, we’ll have fun.

Pictures were taken at or near the following geocaches:

Chelsea & Ginger's Favorite Walk #1 - by Chelsea & Ginger
Devil's Punchbowl by Yosemite John and Debbie
Crossroads - by fontanabill
Cache Addicts Meet & Greet #10 - by CacheAddicts.org