Geocaching

Goose Meadow

5:03 pm - This one nearly stumped us. We were searching for awhile when Carl and his daughters (whom we ran into a few minutes at Secret Trailhead) started walking by. We asked for help and they pointed and waved. After more looking, they came over and tried to help us out. Finally, Anne had some inspiration and found it quickly. Thanks for the tricky one!

Secret Trailhead #9 - Vasona

4:49 pm - I was about to give up on this one when I decided to look in one more place that I had previously ignored because I misread the description. Nicely done. I grabbed it and was about to sign when I saw Carl and his daughters wandering up, whom we had seen looking for other caches in the park. I let him know that I had just found it but didn't want to spoil the fun, so they busied themselves elsewhere while I signed the log and replaced the cache. I said hello aftewards and wished them luck. I hope they found it!

State Quarter Trading Post

4:21 pm - I knew right where to look for this one and grabbed it during a break in traffic. Left a VA quarter and took nothing. Thanks.

Dryad

4:08 pm - This should have been a quick grab, but the GPSr was acting finicky and kept leading us in and out of the forest. Finally found it and took the Panda TB. Thanks.

Dark Overlook

2:06 pm - Great views from this spot today. It was very clear out and you could see all the way to San Francisco. We found the cache easily and took a bull ball and left a mini flashlight.

After this cache, we hustled back to our car, parked semi-legally at the top of Monte Bello road. When we got back we hadn't been ticketed, but I managed to back into a short wooden pole, making a nice dent in my rear bumper. Probably nothing a hair dryer and some effort won't fix though. Thanks!

View Seeker-Monte Bello

2 pm - We enjoyed this walk and the views from above. We left a CA geocoin token and a geocaching trading card. Took a golf ball. The inside of the cache was wet, but the log was ok. Thanks.

Noblest Pomelo

1:35 pm - We liked this short walk. Immediately after we parked, we were joined by a group of cyclists who had just finished the crazy ride all the way up. Impressive.

As we were leaving the car, we ran into another guy walking who warned us not to park at the top of Monte Bello road, because the rangers tend to ticket. We ran into him again on the way down to the cache on his return loop. Thankfully, there was no ticket when we got back, but we were conscious of the time while doing this and 2 other other caches in the area.

Just after after taking the turn off the main trail, we saw a coyote quietly waiting for some critter to come out of its hole. He seemeed completely unconcerned with us and we were shocked as he started walking closer to us. Soon he meandered up the hill and we were able to pass.

We found the cache easily and TLNL. I'm pretty sure I saw a geocaching note in the cache, so the note can be removed from the description. Thanks!

Hilltop Hideaway 2

12:27 pm - We had a nice walk over to this one. We found the cache easily, but it was all wet. The cache container needs to be replaced. The top of the container was cracked and it was letting lots of water in. The log was soaked, but I was kinda able to sign it. Took a bouncy ball and left a caltrain pass holder.

On the way back we stopped by the pond, which sounded a lot more picturesque than it was in reality. Oh well.

The Mt Eden Trail Cache

11:54 am - This was a nice quick hike. We found it without much trouble. TNLNSL. Thanks.

No Name (yet?) Park

10:26 am - Wow, a brand-spanking new park! The benches were so clean, you could lick them. (Not that I would!) Found the cache quickly and then it was time to head home. Thanks!

Worcester Cache II

9:58 am - I probably had more trouble finding appropriate parking than getting this cache. Saw a deer hanging out on the hillside. This was a nice short walk and I found the cache without difficulty, but a man who suddenly appeared behind me freaked me out. Took a few marbles and left some listerine pocket paks. Thanks for the nice big cache.

Fake Monkey Writing

9:40 am - After failing at another Kablooey puzzle cache earlier this morning, I was able to redeem myself on this one.

I solved the puzzle pretty easily a while back. I carefully copied down the required information, then solved it while on a flight to somewhere.

I parked in the wrong place to access the cache, but thankfully there was a path to where I needed to go. I got lucky and wasn't fooled by the camo. Thanks for the cache.

OakHill PlayLot

9:14 am - Second attempt at this one. At this early hour there were no little ones around to hinder my search. Found it without too much trouble and TLNLSL. Thanks.

Evergreen / Silver Creek cache

Looks like this one has been missing for a while.

Vince's Roots

4:49 pm - Our last cache of the day. This one was very easy, found in the first place we looked once we parked in the right place. There was absolutely no one in the park, except for a pile of wilting ex-chistmas trees. TNLNSL. Thanks.

Waterfront

4:38 pm - This one was pretty easy to spot, but there was a guy sitting in his car not far away with his headlights on and his door open. We had no idea what he was doing there, but he wasn't going anywhere. Anne tried to block his view while I grabbed the cache. I like those stickers on the outside of the container. :-)

Left an American Flag sticker and took a fish ball. Once again we played block and dash to replace the cache. Thanks.

SandLots

4 pm - Wheeeee! We had a lot of fun jumping around in the dunes. There were some paragliders "hanging out" nearby too. We found the cache pretty quickly with the hint. The log is completely full. Thanks.

Ransom

3:41 pm - Fun cache! We followed the clues and grabbed the kidnapper! Well, not really, but we can pretend. One of the clues convinced us we did something wrong, but everything came out just fine.

We enjoyed trolloping around on the dunes and were surprised to find very hard wind-blown sand in places.

Took the Mickey Mouse Traveller and left the SpongeBob TB.

I'm not sure what the deal is with the parking lot near the cache, but there was some suspicious activity going on. People were driving up, sitting in their cars, then suddenly tearing off. Lots of different cars, all doing the same thing. Strange.

Once again, I'm 1 away from completing all of The Rat's caches. I just need to make the hike up to Undecimal.

Ghost Track's

2:47 pm - We weren't sure if this one would be good to do in our limited time in this area, but we decided to give it a try. We didn't regret it.

We tried approaching from the opposite end of the bridge, but we didn't really want to wander through the strange mobile home park. We ended up finding parking pretty close and followed some trails up to the tracks.

Rule #76 of Geocaching: If you don't think you need to bring your backpack, you will definitely need it. Once we got to the cache area I saw the benchmark and wanted to take a picture of it, so I ran back to the car to get my camera. In the meantime Anne was looking for the cache and by the time I got back, she had found it. We took some pictures and headed off. Thanks for the cool cache!

Pelican Brief

1:56 pm - Woo hoo, #500!

Didn't see any pelicans, but we did find the cache. We didn't take the right turn to get this one, so we ended up backtracking up the road and then down again, but it was a nice drive.

A group of bird watchers were out in full force with their clipboards and reference books. We blazed by them in search of the cache. We took a wrong turn again onto the 'old' path when we should have gone for the bridge. Doubled back and found it quickly once we made it there.

Took Mr. Toast and signed the log. Thanks!

Pajaro Cache at Palm Beach

1:11 pm - We searched for quite a while on this one and came up empty. We looked where the spoiler picture indicated and it was definitely not there. Lots of evidence of some late-night revelers to boot. Nice beach, though!

Cobalt Blue Vier

Searched high and low for this one for about 45 minutes with no luck. GPSr reception was good and it pointed us at a place which looked likely, but it wasn't there. After climbing up and down and up again, we decided to call it when the plants started fighting back, giving us gashes on our arms. Enjoyed the beach, wish we could have found the cache. Luckily the rest of our day was more successful.

Little Big Bird

12:47 pm - Woo, cool birds. I wonder if they're being used for eggs or meat.

We looked around for quite a while and couldn't find this thing. The GPSr was acting funky, so a batter change and reset made it all happy and we found it quickly.

Took a neon ball, left a shell gem. Thanks!

Den 8 No #1

12:08 pm - Nice easy find on this one. There were some people playing with RC cars nearby, but otherwise the place was empty while camping was not in season. TNLNSL. Thanks.

BADGES #1

8 pm - squints, bpsnake and the two of us decided to try this cache. When we got there, we found a few others wandering around looking for it. I saw something a little strange, picked it up and almost put it back when I decided to look a little bit further and there it was. It was passed around quickly and hastily replaced before the next round of caches approached. Evil! Thanks.

BADGES January Geocaching Dinner

6:50 pm - First, I thought it started at 6:30, not 6, so we were late. As we were making the very short drive from our house to the event, we passed by a Round Table Pizza. "Wow, that's strange that there would be two so close to each other. The one we're going to is on El Camino though". So we drove up and down El Camino for a while, trying to find this pizza place that didn't exist.

For some reason we didn't bring the GPS either, so we couldn't look it up. After a few more U-turns, I looked up the description on the web. Old San Francisco Road, not El Camino! We drove right by it! Of course we saw the sign, but had some trouble finding the restaurant. Even after that we had trouble finding parking, so around we went.

In other words, it was just like every other cache we've ever done.

Once we finally got there, we had a lot of fun. Reacqainted with some old friends including The Fellowship and put some old names to new faces. Thanks for organizing this fun event!

Miriam and Christopher Moss

Added some text to the description to note that S changed, since some people hadn't noticed the log I made. Also removed the Members Only status as I think all the bugs have been worked out. I upped the difficulty to 4 based on feedback I've been hearing.

Apostrophe

9:38 am - Well, you always learn something from The Rat's caches. That's for sure.

Found this one surprisingly easily without being able to see it.

From GCGC7Z on Jan 14, 2004:

"Aloha. Returned to drop the Connecticut travel bug and complete it's first mission. Placed a Connecticut quarter in it's courier container."

Little House at the Park

9:06 am - Last time I parked a ways away and had to walk to try for this one. Once I got there I saw there was a parking lot, but I couldn't tell how to get to it, at least in the dark. Today after a few laps around the block I was able to find the parking lot and park right in front of it. Thanks for replacing this one. This time it was right where it should be.

Lyle Park Cache Lives!

8:57 am - I had found the previous incarnation of this cache, so I knew where to look this time. Parked 10 feet away. One - nope, Two - nope, Three - bingo! Thanks.

LaAvenida Trail Head Cache

8:29 am - Oh boy, I had a lot of trouble finding a way to get at this one. First I thought there would be an entrace from Moffett, so I drover around in there for a while. No luck, so I decided to approach it from the other side. The entrance ramp to 101N was close for some reason, so I had to go down to Middlefield and back up Shoreline. I drove around in there for a while trying to find access and ended up wandering through a mobile home park. From there I could see a ranger walking on the trail, but no way to get there. Driving around in a few more circles, I finally found a tech company parking lot with access to the trail. From there it was an easy 1/3 mile walk and an easy find. TNLNSL. Thanks!

Computer History Anyone?

8:07 am - Didn't even turn off the car for this one. Found in the second place I looked. Thanks.

Secret Walkway #1 - Short & Shady

5:39 pm - This was the last cache of my 9 hour cache marathon and it was just in time as it was almost dark. Found the spot quickly and signed the log in the dark. I have no idea if it's legible. TNLN. I struggled to get the cache back in the right place, until I realized it was putting it in the wrong way. I guess I'd seen too many ammo boxes today. Thanks.

Mum's the Word

5:19 pm - Circled the park a few times before I settled on a parking spot. Had to avoid some people and their dogs, but found the cache after a short hunt. TNLNSL.

OakHill PlayLot

5 pm - Kid and parent were here when I arrived. I waited a while for them to leave, but it didn't look like they were going to be done playing for a while, so I walked to Black Gold and back. When I returned the kid was still there and anothe family was approaching, so I decided to go for other caches in the fading daylight.

I'll come back again, probably armed with a hint.

Black Gold?

4:54 pm - Wow, this was unexpected! I'm surprised the gate is unlocked. As soon as I grabbed the cache, I knew I'd have trouble remembering where to put it back. I signed the log and left the Tweety Mini-TB. I think I got the placement right. Thanks!

Secret Walkway #2 - Gato de Callejón

4:39 pm - This was attempt number two one this one. Last time I couldn't figure out how to get it, but ended up driving right by it.

OK, this was definitely a placement I hadn't seen before and probably one I'll never see again! Thanks for the quick one.

The Harry Surprise

4:22 pm - Finally picked this one up after ouor hike a couple of weeks ago. Wasn't sure if I should go north or south from where I parked, so I went south for a while, then asked someone who was walking and intermittenly running which way the bridge was. She turned me around and I quickly saw the bridge. I got to the cache area, but had some trouble finding it. Finally looked in the right place and found the sparse container. Thanks for the quiz, we were waiting for one of these!

More Digits

3:53 pm - This was a cool puzzle. I solved the first digits puzzle with a program and it didn't make it obvious where I found get the second set of coordinates in the way it provided the output. With a little hint I was able to revise my program, let it run for 10 hours again and I had the coordinates.

Today I went for the cache, but was apprehensive about going for it because there were a bunch of bikes, foam bats and people's bags right near where the cache should have been. So I went over and did another nearby cache and came back. No sign of the people, so I went for the cache, hoping they didn't suddenly return and think I was trying to steal their stuff.

I found the cache quickly, thankfully. If the cache was still in its original position, it would have been right underneath someone's pocketbook! Nice camo.

Thanks for the interesting puzzle. It could have been a lot harder!

BB - Day Cache

3:45 pm - Well, there used to be a cache in this park, but it was archived. And there's another one here too, but I'm not telling where. :-)

Found the cache quickly and signed it. Took the tweety mini-TB bug. Thanks!

My Kind Of Town - Campbell

3:32 pm - My favorite part of Campbell is that eye-shaped traffic pattern that runs through downtown. Who thought of that? I got lucky and parked in just the right spot. I found it quickly and it was in good shape. Thanks!

Maverix Mystery Tour

3:14 pm - I've been here and done the Garden tour, but this time I had to pay attention. :-)

I guess I got all the answers right, as I found the cache quickly. Took the Spongebob TB because it was taking up all the room in the cache. Thanks for the great tour!

Kelley Park

2:29 pm - This is a nice park that I've to once before for a much more difficult cache. I managed to avoid paying for parking, but it's nice that this cache is accessible at all hours. I had to look twice before I saw it, even with the hint. Nice hiding spot; the cache seems to defy gravity! TNLNSL. Thanks.

The Little Pictures

1:48 pm - This was attempt #2 at this one. I had since received a good hint from Kablooey at finding the second picture and I found the (unhelpful) steganographic message. I found #2 quickly enough, then quickly became lost. I walked around and around, cursing Kablooey, and thinking of giving up again when I stumbled across picture #3. OK, now we're getting somewhere. I then found #4, or what I guessed would be #4 at night.

Wandering around aimlessly again, I found something that could have passed for #5, but then again a lot of places could have matched that picture.

By this time, I figured that each of the pictures were about a block or less away from each other. After some more random wandering I happened upon picture #11. OK, that's fine.

Continuing on in the direction I thought I was supposed to go, I eventually found #14, but I couldn't find anything that resembled the final picture.

Frustrated, I went to find Abby Normal, and then returned.

I circled the block a few times, resolved to forget this cache, but then I found #14. The problem was that nothing seemed to fit between #11 and and #14. A few more blocks later, I was really getting tired and cursing Kablooey seemed like the only reasonable thing to do.

I was heading back to my car when I turned around to try just one more time. I checked a few other possible places and headed for one spot I had missed before. There was a guy standing there, so I had to look busy for a minute while he gathered his stuff to leave. As he did that I looked over and saw a match #15. It looked a little different than I expected, but that was definitely it. The guy left soon after and I grabbed the cache. Wow! I was in complete disbelief that I actually found it. Signed it and headed back to my car, finally, after walking what I guess was a few miles over a couple of hours.

On the way out, I found #10, but that was it. If there is a pattern in these pictures, I still don't get it, but apparently it's not necessary to find the cache.

Abby Normal?

1:02 pm - Taking a break from The Little Pictures, I thought I might have more success with this new one. I found the first waypoint quickly, though the coordinates seemed a little off. It wasn't clear what was the coorrect date, but I took a guess.

A made the quick walk over to the final location where there lots of people waiting around for the building to open. The coordinates didn't seem to get me anywhere that made sense, but after checking a few likely spots I found it. Thanks!

CalTrain - Tamien

And another week! :-)

Camo Cache#1 (Mission One)

How are the repairs coming on this one?

Tea for Four

11:32 am - This one has been taunting me from my front page for a long time and it was time for it to go. The GPSr signal was bad here and the clue didn't really help because I misinterpreted it. Anyway, after looking for about 10 minutes, I found it almost by accident. Didn't have time for tea, but thanks for the cache!

Ransom Note

11:01 am - This was a good puzzle and I appreciate all the hard work that must have gone into it! Solved it a long time ago and today finally found myself in the neighborhood. Quite the steep road! Checked a few places first, then found it. The cache was completely soaked and I had trouble signing it. Some TLC is definitely in order. Thanks!

Helium, Neon, Argon, Krypton and Radon

10:45 am - I was thankful I didn't have to poke around in this spot to find it. TNLNSL. Thanks.

San José Public Library - Berryessa Branch

10:39 am - I've had terrible luck with these library caches and this was another one I was unable to find. Bummer.

Wildlife Center

10:25 am - Quick cache in this nice park. The lined part of the log sheets are almost full, but the blank backsides are clean. Thanks.

CalSkate Cache

10:09 am - I was about a quarter of a mile away from this cache when I was transported back in time to 1933. Or at least that's what I felt like when I ran into a gathering of the Santa Clara Model A Ford Club. I checked out the cars for a little while and then went for the cache.

No wonder no one knows about this place - I couldn't find a sign for it anywhere as I entered the parking lot. Not sure where everyone was this morning, but the place was empty. I found the cache easily.

OK, as I entered the highway I saw the sign the for arena. Thanks for the cache.

Laguna Cache

9:36 am - I already for my parking pass for Second Hand Rose, but I didn't really need it here. I had the whole park to myself, not even a ranger around. I couldn't find the trail to the cache, so I ended up walking up the wet grass. Found the cache without much trouble, left a squirt gun, and took a disney magnet.

On the way out I ran into a family of deer, apparently also on a morning geocaching hunt. I recycled out a 40 oz Budweiser bottle. I didn't know they came that big.

Thanks for the cache!

Second Hand Rose

9:01 am - Hey, this was a nice park! Wandered around a bit before I found it. Took a water ball and left a candle. What happened to the log book? Everyone seemed to be signing the back of the Geocaching note.

On the way out I found some animal's nest who seemed have recently had a pigeon for dinner. Mmmm.... pigeon.

Ugly Ducking Lakes 2

8:39 am - As I approached the cache, I upset a lot of seagulls who were hanging out right in my path. I found the cache quickly, left a die game and took a ball. I appreciate that the pencil came with a pencil sharpener! I surprised the seagulls again as I returned to may car. Thanks!

Starlite Horseshoes

8:28 am - This was my first cache in what turned out to be 9 hours of continuous caching! I'm tired.

Anyway, this one was nice and easy. I took MotorBug's advice and did it without a GPSr. Nobody was in the park except for a woman racing her dog. Thanks!

Return of the King

4:56 pm - Wow, what an amazing day. The fellowship reunited once more to complete our task. With a head start, we gathered for a hearty breakfast, as there wouldn't be time for second breakfast, tea, onesies, or twosies today.

We headed out for our first hike, coordinating our various vehicles. We arrived at the trailhead, but couldn't find parking, so we had to add another 1/2 mile to our journey. The hike was nice as the cache was found without much trouble by nostrada.

One of the new members of the Fellowship, workerofwood, solved the puzzle almost instantly. After much obsessive mapping and coordinating, we set out for our next challenge.

After a long journey, we started up on this more challenging hike. The wildebeasts didn't cause us much trouble, but their droppings required some careful footing. It was misty today and there wasn't much of a view. Once again nostrada found the cache.

We collected our rings (9 of them, maybe we're the kings?) and sat down to work on the puzzle. Working together and using our various magics we found almost all the answers. One the way down, the last answer revealed itself and we were ready for the final challenge.

After some quick bodily refueling, we traveled to a meeting spot to drive the last few miles together. We chose a more Southernly route to Mordor and the path was forgiving after a long day. Gollum led us down false paths and even confused our minds so we would not find it, but soon we saw the Eye of Sauron and approached Mt. Doom.

Fingers trembling, we dropped our rings into the fire, defeating Sauron. Hooray! I took and left nothing.

The most satisfying part of this cache was that for the first time in the series, we all completed together. In fact, we eneded up plus one member. workerofwood bore a son over the course of the journey!

By the time we reached our cars again, the sun had set, so we knew we had completed the day's task. We enjoyed this hunt immensely, thanks to the organization of Nostrada and the efforts and companionship of everyone.

Miriam and Christopher Moss

Updated S to remote any ambiguity.

John W. Christian Greenbelt

Stopped by this evening to replace the log. It looks like some of the trinkets inside were weighing it down and caused it to flip over and allow water to seep in. The insides were dry except for the log sheet.

I'm happy to report that the log sheet exactly matched up with the logs on the website, except for HitsMan, who never logged it. :-)

Salt Ponds

The owner told me that the cache has been removed by a park ranger, so it should be archived.

The Sentence

7:38 pm - Boy, this was a toughy! I stared and stared at this one and couldn't make any numbers appear out of it. With a little nudge I was able to find the pattern and the solution. I guess what makes it tough is making the leap to finding the numbers. Well executed though and I enjoyed the story.

Found the cache with no problems on this dark and muggly night. Left the Cinderella Princess TB (briefly). Thanks!

Built for 3

7:13 pm - Last of the evening with HitsMan. Coordinates seemed off, but the hint took care of that. Cool bike. Thanks.

Klein Park

6:58 pm - Oh boy, this one was quite the fiasco. HitsMan and I went out for a little night caching and this one was close.

We went to the zero coordinates, but they led us to a place that couldn't hide a cache. We quickly started looking in the common spots, but couldn't find it in the dark, even with a flashlight. We then began to scour the area, finding all kinds of interesting places up and down but finding nothing but snails.

Luckily there was no one around except for some people playing basketball in the dark. No wait, who's that coming? It's thebigdp! He helped us look in all the same places, then we started getting creative on this 1/1 and looking in all kinds of weird spots, flashlights blazing. I hoped that no cops would drive by.

HitsMan had the smarts to look up the latest logs and saw that MotorBug (from The Fellowship) had found it a few hours ago. Not having MotorBug's number, I gave a call to nostrada. Junior Cacher answered the phone, which is always interesting. Hello? Hello?? nostrada graciously offered me MotorBug's number, but I couldn't find my phone to write down the number in. We started looking all around for my phone, but finally figured I must have left it in the car or something and HitsMan wrote it down. It wasn't until after that HitsMan noticed that my phone was in my hand and I was talking on it. Yes, that's how swift we were this evening.

MotorBug graciously offered a hint to look right where we looking before and suddenly thebigdp found it. I swear we checked there several times, but couldn't see it. When we replaced it, we couldn't understand how we couldn't have found it before! Oh well.

Coordinates seemed to be off, but they seemed off on all the caches we did tonight, so maybe it was my GPSr. Then again thebigdp had the same problem.

Thanks for the fiasco! :-)

Big Lady

5:59 pm - FTF! This one popped up and HitsMan was in town so we headed out to try for the FTF. Some event was getting out, so we had to park a little ways away. We found it pretty quickly - a bit easier than the last big lady cache, but then again that was one of our first caches.

Coords were a little off, but we'll forgive nostrada. This cache is a big improvement over the last one, not the least because it's actually there! Thanks.

Indian Montage

5:36 pm - There are certain cache series that define the hider. TeamJiffy's Bay Area Solar System. Stacy and Jerry's Light Rails. mhop's Bay Area Multiple Hills. Ruprex's Urban Assaults. For us this was GeoWomyn's master work.

We biked over 21 miles over 5 hours (ok, we didn't set any speed records) and pass through some of the most beautiful scenery in the bay area. Best of all, we didn't even know it was here until these caches brought us here.

We started and ended the day with the Indian Montage series. Finding the last one was very satisfying as the sun was setting and the air turned crisp. We were tired, dehydrated and our batteries were almost dead. But as we climbed up that one last hill, we knew we had accomplished something on this day.

The cache was easily found and we rejoiced at the bounty within. We took a gray matter ball and left a mini flashlight. I messed up on picture #9 (sorry), but I think we got a good one with picture #8. It was getting so dark, we had to use the flash.

This series was very enjoyable, from the great scenery to the nice paths and all the easily found caches along the way. We headed home, pretty exhausted, but satisfied. Thanks for a memorable experience!

Indian Mini-Montage 3

5:09 pm - This was the most difficult find in the series. Looked all around before I finally spotted it. At this point we were completely frantic and did everything as quickly as possible. We had some final coordinates that made sense though, so we headed off to see if we'd actually finish this thing.

Indian Mini-Montage 6

4:57 pm - Tick, tick, one hour before the park closes. It's getting cold and dark. Once I read the description, I found it quickly. Got our piece and then raced off to grab the last one!

Indian Mini-Montage 2

4:47 pm - Well, this was our 4th cache of the series, not our second, but where's the fun in doing things in the right order?

Made a quick dash up the hill to sign the log, grab the puzzle piece and continue on to finish the series.

Indian Mini-Montage 1

4:32 pm - 4 hours of biking later, we resumed the Indian Mini-Montage series. We took a few "side trips" down the Shoreline trail all the way to the Dumbarton Bridge and picked up a few caches on the way back.

This was a short but tough hill, especially with 18 miles behind us. The cache was easily found and we continued on, racing against the sun and the park closing to finish the series. TNLNSL. Thanks!

Hawk view Cache

4:11 pm - Found on our bike tour of Coyote Hills. Nice cache and not hard to find. We had to go down then come back up to get to it though. Took 49ers Antenna Jack and left a mini flashlight and the Beep Beep travel bug. Thanks!

Bay Area Multiple Hills - 4

3:41 pm - We did this one the hard way - we biked to it from the west side, then lugged our bikes up the steep hill. Oy! Panting, we made our way along the rest of the ridge to the cache which was easy to find. This was our first in the series. TNLNSL. On the way back we found the nice, paved ROAD which made things a lot easier. Thanks.

San Andreas Fault Cache (Stevens Creek Canyon)

I'm looking forward to doing this cache. When might it be replaced?

Salt Ponds

We were in the neighborhood of this cache and hoped maybe it just wandered a bit and wasn't actually missing. We found a spot which looked like a likely spot and reading the logs now, it appears it was correct. We spent some time looking all around anyway, but didn't find it.

Quarry Cache

Query for a Quarry? Stumbled across the Dumbarton Quarry while biking around Coyote Hills Regional Park in Newark, CA, right near the Dumbarton Bridge.

Ohlone Sanctuary

Yet another example of why reading the description is important. We found all the waypoints except one - #6, which we couldn't find a path to. Now I know why. We ran out of time finishing up Indian Montage and decided we couldnt finish this one. Well, we have the final coordinates now and as I look back on our tracks, we went right by it. Doh!

Oh well, there are worse things than having an excuse to come back to this park. Thanks!

Indian Mini-Montage 4

12:39 pm - A quick hike up from the visitor center found us this one. Nice ammo can. Left a mini flashlight and cactus jack TB, and took a nerf water ball. After this one we were ready to start our big bike ride. Much fun to come!

Indian Mini-Montage 1

12:25 pm - This was our first Indian Mini because we parked pretty close to it. Found it easily, but then my pen died so I had run back to the car for another. We were all fresh and ready to go on this one for a day of biking in Coyote Hills.

Indian Mini-Montage 5

12:25 pm - This was the our first of the Indian Montage series and a quick find, but then my pen died and I had to run back to the car to get another. Fun!

See Sign?

5:07 pm - I stared and stared at this for many hours on planes, in airports and in boring meetings. I had a bunch of theories, but all of them turned out wrong. (I did get some ideas for evil puzzle caches though. :-)) An email to Sgt. Stitches confirmed that I was way off.

Then the other day I thought to try something I usually try automatically on puzzle caches. That revealed the key and the rest was easy. Had an opportunity to grab it this afternoon so I headed off.

Gee, I wonder where Sgt. Stiches works. :-) Found the cache after a few minutes and it was still soaking wet. I tried to open it up, but the paper just tore, so I "signed" (more like made some slight indentations) the top of the log knowing that the owner should be replacing it soon. Thanks!

Folie à DeuX

1:57 pm - Ahh, I love the feel of a virgin logsheet. :-)

I saw this new one pop up this morning and after a few minutes of poking around I was clearly on to something, so I hunkered down to do the math to find the coordinates.

After collecting all the evidence, I found a method that produced some reasonable numbers, but I had some questions about some of them. Once I had something nearly complete, I sent it off to WeBeDnD for confirmation. I was just about head out the door when they responded and noted some problems in my coordinates. Oops! I fixed the problems and we made our way to the cache, not too far way.

The cache area was nice, and not a place we had seen before. For some reason Miss San Jose 2003 was there too, but she didn't appear to be geocaching. :-) Found the cache with a bit of physical effort knowing where it must be from the multiple clues in the puzzle.

This could have been one of The Rat's puzzles. It's very intriciate and complete in its theme. There are clearly some parts that I still don't get, but apparently they're not necessary to find the cache.

Thanks for the interestion puzzle. I'm definitely afflicted!

BADGES January Geocaching Dinner

Both of us will be there.

Geez, is this place gonna be big enough for all these cachers?

Hidden in Plain Sight

Yikes, this one has been gone for 6 months!

4 guys and a gal

12:58 pm - We caught an early flight from Kauai to Honolulu and found ourselves with 5 hours to kill before our flight home. We got on a shuttle to Waikiki and asked the driver to drop us off "anywhere". So he dropped us off near the beach and we went off walking, exploring the very crowded beach and the streets. What a change from a week in Kauai!

This cache was a great way to see the area and we found all 5 waypoints easily. I guess if you're doing a loop, it's good to do them in the posted order, but we were sorry we didn't put in all the waypoints first as we had to backtrack quite a bit to get the last one. This filled up our time nicely and as soon as we were done we jumped in a cab back to the airport. Thanks!

Shell Game

12:49 pm - This was the near the end of our walk along Waikiki beach. It sure was busy today. Walked around the puddle to the first waypoint, then found the cache easily. Thanks.

Polihale

12:09 pm - This was our last cache in Kauai and a very appropriate end to our vacation. Beautiful beach (probably the best we've seen) and a Kauai signature bumpy dirt road out to boot. As it was our last day we were pretty used to these roads and it wasn't as bad as it could have been on this mostly dry day.

We enjoyed the walk along the beach to the cache and the scramble at the end. Rob found it, even without the GPSr. We took the Jamba Juice strawberry and left a quarter and a pen. Thanks for the fun and memories!

Limahuli Lookout

2:52 pm - We read the description that the gardens charge admission, but we drove in anyway to see if the cache might be in the parking lot or something. I got out and started wandering a bit until I found myself in the middle of the gardens - oops! That's ok, I wasn't looking at the plants. After a good hike up, I found the cache and the lookout. The plant hint really helped. Made a quick dash down to the car and we were off! Thanks.

Beyond the Land Called Hanalei

12:02 pm - It was a pretty nice day out, but despite that the trail was pretty muddy. Poor reception at the cache site made the hint a lot of help. Took the film canister of pills (not good if a child were to find this) and left a mini-flashlight. I tossed the pills which I later discovered to be apsirin and the film canister will probably become a micro cache. :-)

We proceeded on to the beach were there were a lot of people and feral cats(!). This was a pretty rough hike with all the stepping up and down and around the mud puddles, but we had fun. Thanks.

Wedding Bells

6:07 pm - After a ass-kicking 10 mile hike up to the swamps, I was grateful for a quick cache on the way out of the canyon. Nice view from this spot. Found it after a few minutes, took a rubber ball and a citrus peeler and left a mini-flashlight. Thanks!