Geocaching

Tue Zane

FTF (our first!). I wish all of The Rat's puzzles were this easy! Good thing we checked our calculations a few times. We almost missed a subtlety in the puzzle. Found the cache quickly. We still don't get the title, but I guess you didn't need to. Thanks!

Historic Palo Alto

Geez, that first plaque is old, at least for around here! Found the locations without difficulty and located the cache. Took a light-up ball and left a 1-hour free limo token and an Apple pin. Thanks for revealing a little bit of Palo Alto's history.

Leland's Curios

This was a nice tour of Stanford. There were lots of people out today taking tours of campus, especially at location #2. We ended up driving up to this barrier on one road when suddenly one of the poles sunk into the ground! We went through and ended up driving around this quad. Not sure if we should have done that, but we parked where another car was parked and did two of the locations. Luckily the magic pole moved again on the way out. Very strange.

Border Patrol #3

Busy day at the park today. There were lots of families hanging out and kids playing in the creek. Took us a little while, but we found all the plaques without the hint. With the final coordinates, we looked for quite a while but came up with nothing. There was a gathering in the area just beyond the cache area, so there was too many people coming through to search well. Some guy came by and jokingly asked us if we were stealing squirrels. We gave up looking for now, but we'll be back when there's fewer people around.

Redwood Preserve

Caches like this are exactly the reason I love Geocaching - a great spot right under your nose that you never would have noticed. Apparently the park is a completely a secret to anyone under the age of 60 as we were by far the youngest people there.

The GPSr got a signal where it counted and we found it quickly. Leaving the cache was a bit treacherous, but we made it! Took a happy face keychain and left something I can't recall.

Standing By

We really expected to be projecting quite a distance from the plaque. Turned out to be a lot closer! Anne's Mom made the find on this one. Thanks.

Trigger Happy

Started off our day with a quick visit here. Found it after a few minutes. These micros are getting smaller and smaller!

We can do it!

Easy find on this familiar trail. TNLNSL. Thanks.

Up a Creek

Of course I drive to the wrong side of 101 and got lost in East Palo Alto. Found the bridge eventually and hitsman took the picture for me. Hot day out there!

Resistance is Futile

I'm going to give up on this one, at least for now. Solved the puzzle long ago (confirmed by componenx), but can't find the cache container. I've been to this place about 10 times now. Several of those times we couldn't even look because it was just too busy. You'd think that anytime after dark would be ok - nope, the lights stay on until 10. And at 8:30 am on a Saturday, it's full of people.

I thought the puzzle was a bit obscure. Apparently the cache is more so!

Pardee Cache

Spent a lot of time looking for this one, but came up empty-handed. We were totally perplexed by the clue as well, even 0 feet from the coordinates. Oh well.

Tongue Radius: A LooneyTunes Puzzle Cache

[ Some interesting art here, for sure and a nice part of campus. ] Auguste Rodin was one talented guy. [ Thanks. ]

Valley of the Serpent

Plenty of parking on an early Saturday evening. Finding the cache was a little scary - we hoped we were finding the cache! Took a bouncy ball and left an angel. Thanks.

Historic Palo Alto 2

This one was pretty interesting and a nice walk around downtown PA. We messed up and did some of the clues in the wrong order. We managed to find the bonus cache. It was huge for that spot! I can't believe we walked right by it once. Took a bouncy ball and left a fan. Thanks.

Take a Gamble

Cool place. We couldn't figure out one of the clues because there was private event going on. We took a few guesses at the missing number and found it, but I managed to bump my head pretty well leaving the cache area. Ouch! TNLNSL. Thanks.

Goose, Goose, Duck!

Last time we wre in this area doing a cache, we stopped here because it was a cool place. Now there's a cache here and we had a reason to come back. Found without difficulty. Had more trouble getting the cache closed again. TNLNSL. Thanks.

Northern CA Solar System Model: Ganymede

Ok, we must get more organized with our caches. This was about our 10th time to this park! Easy find, TNLNSL. Thanks, looking forward to the rest of the series.

Gateway of Dreams

We figured out where this one was several weeks ago, but the cache location was occupied. We didn't actually do all the calculations - we just made our best guess and spotted the cache. We came back several times and each time someone was preventing access to the cache. Came by this morning and someone was there again. Staked out the spot for a half hour, waiting for the person to finish their coffee and leave. Lost patience and finally just sat down right next to them. Made a quick move for the cache and other to put it back and I was out of there.

Higher Than You Think: Hardcore Hiker #1

We were staying at Sada Spring for the night, so we were already 1/4 way up the ridiculous incline from Coyote Creek and decided it might be fun to try for this cache. After dumping our backpacks, we grabbed some water and headed up again. What an incline!

We were quite surprised when soon after we started up, some guy (not a ranger) in a truck rumbled by. Once we got to The Bench, it was mostly flat and pretty easy. I even ran some of it. Near the cache we took one of two roads and got close, but the cache appeared to be too far away, so I headed back to the other trail. That turned out to be worse, so I doubled back, went down the first trail some more, headed off the trail a little bit, and found it pretty easily. Had to take the Simpsons watch. All I had of value was some TP, so I left that. Maybe someone will really need it up there! Nearly forgot my GPS there.

The hike down was even more painful. After over 3000 feet of elevation change, we slept well that night!

Doc's Geo Cache V

We were on our way from the park HQ to Sada Spring for the night. This one was right off the trail on the way. Took a little while to find it. Took the swiss army knife to replace the one I forgot in my bag one trip and was confiscated at LAX. Left a rubberized flashlight. Thanks.

Eschew Obfuscation

DNF. Looked around for quite a while at all the levels, but didn't find a thing. Lots of good places to hide. Maybe that's the problem - there were too many places to hide a micro here. We were surpised by the lack of security people around, though we did smile at the cameras a few times. We had a great rule all ready, too. Well, all isn't for naught. After this one and other earlier today, I think I have a good idea where The Rat makes his nest and toils for his cheese. Maybe we'll stalk him for a better hint

Sly Dog's---Mary Gomez spots George

Stopped by today but there were about 50 people having a 30th birthday party for someone right near the area of the cache. We'll have to come back some time again. Nice park and pool though.

Urban Assault #11

#7 of 13 today; We of course started out at the wrong spot here. Read the hint and we were much closer. Very tricky maneuver getting the cache out. TNLNSL. Thanks for the quick one.

Border Patrol #2

#2 of 13 today; We parked in the wrong place (as usual), but had a nice walk to the cache. When we got there, the cache was occupied by bykenut. We took another short walk while she finished up, then met quickly before she took off with her dog. The cache was easy to find and well hidden. Took a koosh ball guy and left an M+M guy. We had to wait a while until the coast was clear to replace cache, then we were on our way. Thanks!

OTAN

Woo hoo, #2!

I was pretty lucky on this one that the language was the only one I know reasonably well besides English, though again my memory from high school was tested. I like the numerous hints about the language and trying to figure out the phonetics. Geocaching has definitely made me looney; this one qualified me even more with hours of mumbling words to myself. I guessed most of the words incorrectly at least once. The digit sum check definitely helped make sure we weren't hopelessly wardering around people's backyards. I didn't find a dictionary very helpful. A spelling correction tool however did help.

We tried to get into the cache the back way, but couldn't find the entrance. At the cache it was obvious the back way was a lot shorter to the cache. Easy find once we got there - already some very distinctive trampling. Thanks for the interesting cache!

CalTrain-Sunnyvale

Since we come here 10 times a week, it was nice to do something else here besides commuting. We were a bit perplexed for a bit - we were supposedly 2 feet from the cache but it was no where in site. A second read of the description gave us the info we needed. We've watched this place be rebuilt over the last several months. It was nice to take a few minutes and look at the result of all the mess.

Cipher Sites

Geez, it's been a while since someone finished this one. We solved all of the ciphers a few weeks ago, but then finally had time to visit the waypoints this weekend. This was one of the more time-consuming caches, but you also learn a lot. Now we're ready to take on Cipher Creek, the last holdout on our first page... Thanks.

Heritage Oaks Park

Second time was a charm here. There were still lots of people here, but none immediately next to the cache. We made a lucky grab and came up with it. Thanks.

European Highways

Thanks to the logs, we knew to work out this one before our second trip back to a nearby cache. The slope was a bit steep, but short. We nearly tumbled into the stream, though I don't think at this time of the year there was much threat of drowning, only getting a little soggy. Took a koosh ball guy and left an anti-poaching sticker we picked up in Idaho. Thanks.

Getting to know yahoo

Stopped by to check on the cache, read the logs and drop off the WTC Rivet Bug. If you walk west on to the campus from the cache about 200 feet there is a small memorial of the Sept. 11 attacks, though if security sees you and you are not an employee, you may be politely asked to leave. Took the soccer ball.