Geocaching

The Organ Park Cache

What a strange cache! I was able to figure out some of the puzzle beforehand, but not all of it, so I went for the multi. Found the first and second locations ok, then I tried to find the cache location, but didn't see anything appropriate, so I went back to Sarah Wallis park to recheck my coordinates. I confirmed them and then walked back to the final location, looking in a few other spots along the way.

I get the title, but after 20 minutes of looking, I couldn't find the cache in the location described in the hint.

Olive 2 Pardee

Just as I approached this cache, some people stopped with a kid to play at the nearby play area. It might have been the same people that Chrissy and Blaze encoutered. I decided to leave and live to cache another day.

Garden Pardee

This spot was really cool and well-hidden. The cache was fit perfectly to its hiding spot. There were lots of jet-black squirrels running around. Pardee on!

The Forgotten Flying Redwoods

Came back again to try this one. The coordinates definitely seemed off. I found it by walking east from the cache, about 30 paces. The hint didn't really help, but it was definitely true. I was worried about how I would get the cache back if I dropped it. Luckily that did not happen. Thanks.

A Subtle Dig

I parked on El Camino. This section of the road seems to serve as a used car as well as a haven for vandals, judging by all the broken glass. Nice spot for the cache, found it easily.

Can't we all be winners? :)

Stanford Hospital Parking Lot

This was a very cool spot. I'm sure this freaks out a lot of people who aren't expecting animal sounds when they walk out of a parking lot. If it wasn't for the glass tiles, I might think this was a pratical joke. Thanks for bringing me here. Found the cache no problem. There could be some interesting multicaches here with all those slots.

Lyle Park Cache

I expected something tricky, and that's what I found. It was in the 3rd place I looked. The grass was very wet in the morning. Nice park. Thanks.

In the Greens

Wow, this is probably the most beautiful public park I've ever seen. Found the cache easily. TNLN. Spent a few extra minutes walking around and admiring the park. Thanks.

CalTrain - Atherton

After my run-in with the law at Hail Ceasar I was apprehensive about this cache. I got very dirty wandering around in the bushes, which was annoying so early in the morning. Luckily I had my patented Stick(TM) to brush through the ivy. Found it after 15 minutes or so. TNLNSL. The cache was in an easily described place and the current hint didn't help at all. Maybe the hint could be updated so people aren't wandering around aimlessly and being suspected by the police.

The caltrain workers were out in full force today, doing whatever they do.

Hoover

Easy find this morning. Lots of trash and clothing around. I'm glad I did this one in the daytime! TNLNSL. Thanks.

Does She Work Here?

Found this one in the third similar place I looked. The last log was "carmen" who apparently found it by accident. I really should go shopping here, but maybe some other day. Thanks.

A Day at the Races

Looked for a half-hour for this one, between dodging glances from park walkers and people watering their lawn.

The Long Stretch

I had a lot of trouble with this one, but persistence paid off.

My count at the first waypoint was off. At the second waypoint, I searched for about a half hour before I found the micro. It's very small and hard to see where it is. The coordinates at the third waypoint are about 200 feet off as previously noted, but I found the plaque.

When I got to the final location, the doggy play dates were in full swing and I couldn't get near the cache. I took the long walk back to the car, then decided to walk up to Just Around the Corner. I frustrated myself with that one for a while, then went back to the car and drove to final location.

By then the dogs were gone and there was only the occasional walker. It took me a little while to find it, but my third reach of the day got me the cache. Thanks.

Just Around the Corner

Another Ninja cache, another DNF. Searched from both sides and came up empty.

Time to Eat

There were too many people around when I first approached this one, so I went over to OSH and bought some magnetic micros. [:D]

The coast was clear when I got back and I found it pretty easily and had no trouble getting it out.

I didn't stop to eat because many years ago I made a new year's resolution for my health to stop eating at this chain and similar establishments in following years. I sure do miss it though!!

My Tribute

This was a nice cache. The gate was open when I when I started, but were locked soon after and some students were locked inside with me. I simply walked around to the fields to the the tennis courts and exited that way.

Growing up in a much colder climate, it's very strange to me to see schools where all the classrooms have doors to the outside and the lockers are outside too.

Prove It! Golden Dragon test

Wow, great view from here. I didn't know this was here. It's kind of like hiking in Rancho San Antonio park, but without all the work. [:-)] Had some trouble finding the cache. I zeroed out at a stump that looked promising, but I actually found the cache 20 feet away. It was a lot larger than I expected. Thanks.

The Prospector

This was a cool path and a nicely-hidden large cache. TNLNSL. Thanks.

Coin Currency Exchange

Lots of cool coins in there; unfortunately I had none to trade. OK, who put the USA quarter in there?? :-)

The People Zone

I had some trouble with this one as the GPSr had me across the street. That was after I wandered through the school grounds. I looked for 15 minutes or so, and then decided to give up. I looked back as I was walking back to the car and I got a sign. Walked right up to the cache, found it, and it all made sense. Thanks!

X marks the spot

Didn't find this one, but there were too many people around to do a good search. It wasn't in the standard place. I'll come back again and hopefully there will be fewer people around.

Catching the news

I pretended to tie my shoes, read the auto trader and look like I was waiting for a friend. In between I looked for this cache, but couldn't find it. I even paid 50 cents to check another place, but I didn't find a thing.

Northwood Park

No problems finding this one, the park was almost empty. This was yet another cache I had to reach for today! The grass was very soggy on the way out. Thanks.

Qume

No luck finding this one. I did find a lot of shoes though for some reason. It's clear that this is a hangout, so I'm not surprised it's gone missing.

GeoTrashing

I wandered around for a bit before I found the right place to park for the cache. The coordinates had me in the middle of the parking lot. Finally I wandered over and saw something that looked like it could be a cache. I had to take a flying leap to knock it down. Nice container. I had a lot of trouble opening the container because I thought the green part was part of the lid. TNLNSL. Thanks.

SF Chronicle - South Bay

I figured this out a while ago, before the latest hint was added. I wasn't sure that I had figured it out, but I thought I would give the coordinates a try. They didn't look too promising from the map, but the actual location looked much better. Found the well-hidden cache after about 10 minutes of searching. Thanks.

This Landing is your Landing

The cache was still very wet! So wet, I'm not sure if I was actually able to sign the log. I tried ti air it out a bit. The park was nice. There were some people playing cricket in the ballfield when I left.

The Trees of Higuera Adobe Park

Yup, the coordinates are definitely 60' off. Found it with persistence, lots of good places to hide here. Thanks.

Therapy Cache #2

This one took me a while, only because after a solid morning of micros I wasn't expecting a regular-sized one. TNLNSL. Thanks.

Ugly Duckling Lakes

9:30 am - This was an easy find. No one around except a father and son collecting cans. TNLNSL. Thanks.

Off Abel

I was very thankful for the tunnel here. As usual, I parked on the wrong side. I looked in all the easy places, and then resigned to look in the place that looked more difficult and there it was. Thanks.

MMM - The Magic Movie Maze

Went to the park first then realized that was the wrong spot. Found the maze - where's the movie part? Got back to my car and then found that I had forgotten my GPSr in the maze.

Overlooking a Hidden Lake

There were lots of people out walking their dogs or themselves this morning. Found the cache location ok, but couldn't find the container. It's possible that it's too far in to reach. I think I checked all the locations that matched the hint. Nice spot though, so if someone else finds it, I'll be back.

Therapy Cache #1

That crab was weird. Found it after looking for a few minutes. A few ants were hanging around as well. TNLNSL.

CalTrain - South San Francisco

I was very grateful for the signs all the way from the highway to this station. It was quite the roundabout route. I saved Anne from another long train commute by picking her up here and picking up a find at the same time. A pretty good deal, I think.

It's certainly not the prettiest station, but the mural sure helps.

A Scanner Darkly

When this cache was first listed, my first thought was ''Finally, a use for that CueCat sitting in my drawer!'' I spent a half-hour installing the software and trying to get a good scan, but it didn't work. I kept getting the same string of numbers that clearly were not valid coordinates. So I started work on manully decoding bars. It helped a lot to enlarge the picture a bit. I came up with some coordinates that seemed to check out and made a note of them.

A few weeks later I finally made it over to the area of the coordinates, but it looked like I was in the wrong place. I didn't see any appropriate places for a cache driving by. I went on to other caches and figured I messed up the decoding somewhere.

I decoded the bars again two more times when I got home and got the same coordinates as before. Very perplexing.

Today I went for another look, reading some of the other comments. On my first drive by, I still didn't see a place. I drove over to the next parallel street for one last try and this time I spotted the location.

I'm not sure what was harder - finding the general area of the cache or the cache itself! Thanks for the the fun.

Julia's Jewels

FTF. This one was less than a half-mile from home, but we had to walk over a mile to get to it. We found it after looking for about 10 minutes. We were expecting some other FTF-crazed cacher to show up, but none appeared. There's no reason to get all dirty and sticky like I did looking through the bushes. When you get close enough to this one it's easy to see. I had some trouble removing it from it's hiding place. TNLNSL. Thanks for the cache and the history.

The Forgotten Flying Redwoods

Couldn't find this one. Maybe it has gone missing.

Junior Cache

The trees were definitely not helping here. Found it with the hint. I'll have to come back here some day when I have kids! Thanks.

Mr. Ranger's 1

Back here again! The GPSr was acting wacky and I was looking in the wrong place for a while. Nice big cache! I remember the last one being smaller and jammed with so much stuff it was hard to close. Took nothing, left the Beach Travel Bug.

Saw a ranger drive by on the way in - maybe it was Mr. Ranger?

Rhino Eels 2

This time I didn't bother parking where you're supposed to park - I drove right into the Inuit parking lot and climbed up the hill. I was looking for a regular-sized cache since the last one was regular, so it took me a while before I found it. Once I realized it was a micro, I found it quickly. Thanks.

Hail Ceasar

DNF - Was accosted by Santa Clara County Sheriff.

I "solved" this puzzle a while back. When I was solving it, I thought it would be neat if the decrypted text also had the coordinates in it somehow. I didn't see anything obvious though, so I figured I'd simply go to the location and look around based on the decrypted text. Of course, this was before the hint that the coordinates were in the puzzle.

I found the parking spot no problem, and headed to an area that looked like a likely spot for the cache. I looked in all the appropriate places a few times and was about to give up when a sheriff's car stopped across the street. I decided it was now time to give up the search and as I started heading back for the car, the sheriff's car appeared to back up and turn on another street. In the middle of the 280 overpass, he caught up with me.

"What are you doing?"

"Oh just looking at the trees."

"You look pretty suspicious and when I stopped, you didn't wave and looked like you were trying to hide. What were you doing?"

"Just looking at the trees."

"Do you have an ID? Do you have any warrants out for your arrest?"

I handed over my ID and decided I should try to explain geocaching. I showed him my GPS and described the sport. He called me in anyway and confirmed I wasn't a fugitive.

We got to talking and he pointed at the GPS V he had mounted in his squad car. Then he asked me where I lived, where I worked, if I was married, had any kids. It was clear by this point that I wasn't in any trouble, but he filled out a card anyway to record that he had talked to me and sent me on my way. I told him that lots of people were getting into geocaching and he should expect to run into more suspicous-looking people.

He drove over to the parking lot where I had my car to confirm I was leaving. I decided I was done caching for the day and went home. Next time I hope to return with real coordinates and fewer cops.

Carol Ann

I nearly tried to drive to this one from The Little Easy, then I realized I didn't have to. Found the spot easily, but there was a lot of traffic at this time. I sat down next to the cache only to find the surface completely wet. Oops. Thanks.

The Little Easy

Nice park. Got all dirty wandering around in the bushes when I didn't have to. Thanks.

Wind in the Willows

I thought I got going pretty early this morning, but apparently not early as marwagsalot. Nice spot. Thanks.

San Jose Public Library - Alviso Branch

Lots of people wandering around the library and the park here tonight. Had to look like I was lost or something until I found an opportunity to go for the cache. It's pretty easy to see once you get reasonably close. I hope it lasts!

SONY Log Hop

Thought this one would take a while to find, but found it surprisingly quickly. Took the pedometer, left a digital car thermometer. Thanks!

Father's Day

The coordinates were right on for this one, but it was pretty hard to spot. I wasn't even sure if I could reach it. Thanks.

Electric Kiss

We probably looked for this one for 10 minutes before I found it. And even when I found it, I wasn't sure I found it. I'll add this to my list of places I don't want be during an earthquake.

Licau

This one was quite the adventure! We came via the Seeq cache and walked around and around. We considered trying to wade across, but getting to the water wasn't easy and it looked too deep. It turned out to be closer than I thought though and it was a nice walk. The final bushwack was fun. TNLNSL. It took us about an hour to get to the cache and an hour to get back. We took the street back to the car, and took off our shoes to walk on the grass. Then we stopped and soaked our tired feet in a fountain along the the way. Bikes would have definitely helped speed this up and wearing fully covered shoes (not sandals) and pants is a good idea for the last part. Thanks for all the fun.

Seeq Technologies

Lots of dirty birds at the first stage, but a nice walk for the second stage and it was conveiently on the way to 2 other caches. Found it easily. TNLNSL. Thanks.

Honor Roll

Got to the train station too early, so I had time for a quick cache. Had to look for a few minutes and I'm sure that the people walking by thought I was just really into this stuff. After I saw it, I wondered why it took me so long to find!

"The gates to Squaw Valley"

Had fun finding this one on the way out after a day at Squaw. Left listerine pocket paks, took bouncy ball. Grabbed traditional post-caching slurpees on the way back to the cabin. Thanks.

Uncle Joe Memorial Cache 1- Chopped Stump

Fun scramble up to this cache. I felt bad that I didn't have anything good to trade for such a big nearly empty cache. TNLNSL. Thanks.

Shirley Enough

We took the alternate route to this one. We spent some time at high camp and then decided to do some hiking. After going up to Emerald Peak, we went down the service road to the cache. Instead of trying to cross the neck of the lake, I walked all the way around. Took silver dollar, left listerine pocket paks and key chain holder. Tried to take the trail back up, but ended up on the service road again which was steep and tough. Fun cache though.

Dial-a-Bus

This place was completely empty when we arrived late in the afternoon, so we didn't have a problem searching. Unfortunately the cache is no longer. We found the magnet that used to be attached to the cache with the rounded glue still stuck to it. We looked on the ground for the cache, but couldn't find it.

Broken Tree

This one was a lot of fun. On the way in a guy in a truck followed us and parked right behind us but headed to the other side of the road with a small case. Soon after, we heard him apparently firing at will which needless to say hastened our hunt. I can see how crossing the stream could be a lot more challenging in the spring. TNLNSL. Thanks.

The King's Beach

Another nice Tahoe beach. Wanderered around a bit and we stopped by the grocery store before heading back to our cabin. Thanks.

You've Come A Long Way, Baby!

Nice beach stop on our way around Lake Tahoe. Took a bouncy ball and the beach travel bug and left a mini umbrella. Came back a few days later to do some jet skiing. Thanks.

Lily Lake

That crazy one-lane road made me pretty nervous. A couple of times all the traffic stopped in both directions to let cars squeeze by each other. Very nice lake though. Found the cache without too much trouble. Took a stretchy frog and left a sunshine. Thanks.

TJFMC

Nice placement on this one. I'm glad it was flexible, otherwise we couldn't gave gotten to it! There was lots of traffic on this road for some reason today. Took spider, left 20 cents. The log book is full. Thanks.

Iva-Kay Each-Bay

We had a nice walk along the beach looking for this one, even if the cache isn't really near the beach! Took an M+M-like guy and left a golf ball. Thanks.

Lucky Baldwin Virtual Cache

We were heading for the other nearby cache but ended up doing this one first instead. Nice houses and beach. Thanks for pointing this one out!

Santa's Sleigh Crash Cache

Nice lake! Very busy today.
Took donald duck, dollar bill and Byron travel bug. Left garlic festival magnet and some army men. Twisted my ankle on the way down - ouch!

Emerald Bay Picnic

Nice hike up to this point and great view. Lots of people around so parking was tough. Did not like trying to parallel park on highway.

Inspiration Point

Nice spot and a nice view. Came back and did the eagle falls hike the next day. Definitely come in the early morning or late afternoon as parking was pretty scarce. Thanks!

Tahoe Cottages

People were checking in to the cottage in front of the cache, so we had to be stealthy as we accessed it. It was pretty obvious though I'd definitely consider this a cache 'that solicits', especially finding the business cards in the cache. Took a bouncy ball and left some listerine pocket paks and a keychain holder for them. Thanks.

Tahoma Trove

This was a quick hunt with the hint. Took a golf marker, left listerine pocket paks. Thanks.