Geocaching

Gateway of Dreams II

6:25 pm - As I approached the area, I saw a suspicious-looking person hanging around about where I expected the cache would be. Ignored him while I went over to project the waypoint. Couldn't figure out how to do it with my GPSr, so I used CacheMate's excellent waypoint projection feature. That put me in the same spot that the person was standing, but he was gone. A few minutes later he returned and I introduced myself. It was batecher. We started searching in earnest, but not finding anything. Soon a homeless man came over to "explain" to us what that big green box did.

It took us a while longer of searching until just as I finished reading a crucial part of a previous finder's log that batecher produced the cache from the place I was just about to check more thoroughly. Nicely hidden. Thanks for the cache, take II.

Cheesy Cache

2nd waypoint is missing. Owner has not logged in since Wednesday, March 10, 2004. No response to emails.

Cacher Must Advertise

7:11 pm - Figured out the concept of this one with another cacher and then a few days later when I went to do the math, I realized I had forgotten the solution and lost the notes. So i asked for another copy. Somehow I lost those too. Finally I got a copy, managed to keep a hold of it and did the math with a little bit of perl to help out.

Finally headed out this evening to grab the the cache and found in between breaks in traffic. Thanks for the interesting yet quirky sequel!

The Grand View of Lawrence Expressway!

7:20 pm - Hmm, I was just here yesterday. Coincidence? Yes, at least according to the logs. They sure have been sprucing things up around here, adding some plants and those new benches. Their placement sure is a little strange though. What a great view!!!

Found the cache pretty quickly, TNLN and took off as I was late for golf. Thanks!

Covering Our Ends!

7:09 pm - As I approached this one, I saw another cacher searching, and a familar one at that. It was MRSquared who I had run into on Saturday at Pole Position. I returned the favor of him finding that one by finding this one just as he was about to give up and head for some food.

I took nothing, left Marky's Boot TB. Please leave it for Marky. Marky hasn't been to this cache yet, but I don't think that will be true for very long...

Between Dangers

3:55 pm - Anne was battling a bad case of the hiccups as we got close to this one, but still pointed out a spot that would be good for a cache. I normally don't trust people with hiccups, so I went with where my GPSr pointed. After that failed, I tried the hiccup spot and there it was. TNLNSL. Thanks for the cache.

BAB Picnic #2 Commemorative Cache

3:33 pm - We walked over from the park at X's and O's because it was close and we could avoid the parking fee. Great park here. The day was clear (though hot) and you could see the city and out to the bridges. Found the plaque OK, did the math, then stumbled around for a while until we found the cache. I've never seen this type of ammo box before. Had to be careful not to forget to close both sites.

Took nothing, left the moving cache TB. Thanks.

Flyway Reststop II

2:26 pm - It's sad that the first cache went missing. I had to make two trips out to find it!

My, that's one cache that's not going anywhere. Wow!

We couldn't fit the boot in the cache and it was just too cool anyway, so we grabbed it and will get it to Marky. Thanks.

Point of Light - Palo Alto Tower of Mystery

1:26 pm - When this cache came out, I suddenly remembered this tower. It's funny how you can see something many times, but often you don't think about what it is or why it's there until someone else points it out. We picked this one up just before "breakfast" at Hobee's. Yum. Nice camo job. I love these kinds of log sheets too. Thanks.

Hidden Gazebo I

11:51 am - "Just one more cache on my way home..." I actually stuck to it this time. Took a couple of looks, and then found it. Took a golf ball and left an alien. Thanks!

San Andreas Fault Cache (Stevens Creek Canyon)

11:18 am - I've been waiting to do this one for a looong time, so I was glad that it was finally reactivated. Our last attempt on it was a complete disaster. We couldn't get a signal, ended up getting lost and finally ended up on Skyline, missing a ton of caches on the way. This time I had a better signal, though I pulled over twice at possible spots to regain a signal. Easy find and well-secured cache. Took a beckerbuns pin and removed a business card inappropriate for kids.

After, I drove up the rest of the road to see where it it went. A dead end, that's where. Thanks, monty!

Stevens Creek Cache

10:54 am - Tried a couple of access points before I found the right one on this one. Had to be quick as I didn't pay the fee! TNLNSL. Thanks for bringing me back to this park. Watch out for poison oak!

deer trail trek

10:04 am - Wow, what an adventure! This was one of those caches that's been staring at me for a while, but I didn't have an excuse to go down there. Finally a few more caches popped up in the neigborhood, so I took a trip down.

I started at the familiar suggested parking spot and started my trek up. Really up. Nearly vertical up. It was a very hot day and I felt it. I was quickly dripping in sweat. You sure gain a lot of elevation quickly on this 'trail'. Soon I was rewarded with an impressive view on a very clear day.

OK, now what? The hint was helpful, but I followed it too much and soon I realized that I had to backtrack. I don't like backtracking. It's boring. Instead I took the hard way up, doing a ridiculous scramble. After that it was pretty easy though the heat was wearing on me.

Dodged some poison oak at the cache site, then found it. I'm gonna go out on a limb here (or even a cliff) and say this cache isn't likely to ever get muggled. Took a fuzzy ball which I first thought was a dead animal and left a mini flashlight.

I didn't see any deer on the trail today, but I did notice that they might have drinking problem as there empty beer bottles all over the place. Lots of other wildlife was scurrying around in the bushes here and there.

I never did find an 'easier' approach to this one. Maybe I went the easy way? It took me about 1 hour there and back, but that was a tough hour. After I got back to the car, I spent a few minutes driving around trying to find an easier spot, but failed.

Thanks for the great workout!

Love

9:21 am - Actully I found 'love' a long time ago, but today I found the cache. Nice simple concept on the puzzle and appropriate hide. As I was signing the log, I listened to a group of people performing some kind of exercise that involved periodically shouting in unison.

Thanks for the cache. I loved it!

Catch Mike Chosco

9:07 am - This one had me perplexed at first because the story was so tightly detailed, but pulling at a few strings I got the picture. I actually did most of the hard work before I figured out the theme.

I headed out this morning to claim a bunch of puzzles. After reading the logs, I was wary of the hide, but it took me no longer than a minute to find it. Thanks for nice puzzle and good hide.

Historical Mystery Tour is Going to Take You Away

8:54 am - Solved this one without difficulty once I found the right reference material. I always thought these would make good locationless caches. Hello, MotorBug?

Nice hide too. I appreciated the tips to keep me out of trouble. (Even though 'trouble' is an anagram of my name!) TNLNSL. Thanks!

POP #2

8:30 pm - I've been anxious to get this one for the last couple of days - ever since I solved it and realized it was less than a half-mile from home. I even had a pretty good guess at where it would be, visualizing the area from memory.
Today as I was driving by I just couldn't stand not grabbing it. It was just where I thought it would be. Thanks for the puzzle. Now stop putting them so close to my house! :-)

"I See Dead People . . . "

7:41 pm - The sign I saw on the way in (see bthomas' log) got me really excited. Exploding cattle? Cool!

The cache was slightly less action-packed, but also interesting. All I can say about this place is "mistakes happen".

Dodged lots of poison oak to and around the cache, and then finally found it, nicely tucked away. TNLNSL. Thanks.

YOU’VE GOT MAIL

7:15 pm - Hmm, not quite ivy, but close. Looks like the bushes are getting pretty beat up around here. Found it without too much trouble. TNLNSL. Thanks for the quick one.

Secret Treehouse #2

7:08 pm - This was a 2-Uturn cache. One because I thought I would park on the closer side of the street and another when I realized you couldn't park on that side of the street. Didn't see a quick access point, so I forget through some thicket to get there. Of course once I got to the cache, I saw the easy way. Found the cache easily. Thanks for the tip on getting it out! TNLNSL. Thanks.

Happy Birthday JoeSpaz #23

6:57 pm - Yet another park in Fremont. Before this series, I didn't realize that Fremont was this big. Thanks.

Happy Birthday JoeSpaz #33

6:45 pm - Searched for about 45 minutes on this one and couldn't find it. I sure wish the hint was more specific than just the general area. You certainly could hide something larger than a film canister here.

"Rock Bottom"

5:56 pm - I liked the theme on this one and it was well-executed. Found it pretty quickly and TNLNSL. Thanks.

Happy Birthday JoeSpaz #34

5:46 pm - Baseball game going on. I approached anyway to see if I could spot anything obvious but no luck. I was kinda glad to leave anyway; the pitcher was getting shelled and it was hard to watch.

7:55 pm - Returned on my way back home. The game was over, but there was a lone guy standing right near where the cache should be talking on a cell phone. I thought at first that he must be a geocacher pretending to be talking on a cell phone, but he as I walked by he was obviously a "real" person talking on a "real" cell phone. Bizarre. I waited him out and after a few minutes he left. A few minutes of searching and I had it. Yeah, you sure couldn't get this one during a game. Thanks.

Happy Birthday JoeSpaz #35

5:38 pm - Boy this park is kinda barren. Checked one place but didn't find the cache. Then I went to where the coordinates sent me and picked it right up. Lots of creepy crawlies in there today. Thanks for another one.

Leftover Birthday Cake #1

5:31 pm - Ahh, Fremont. Land of many parks. I swear there's got to be a park for every 2 people living here. Today the smell of BBQ was in the air.

I followed the geocacher trail to the right spot and found the cache quickly. Thanks.

Leftover Birthday Cake #2

5:25 pm - This one almost had me convinced that I parked on the wrong side of the street. But then I checked "one more place" and there it was. Party on!

Foul

5:09 pm - This was a very nicely done cache. I followed the geocacher trail right to it and wasn't decieved. Thanks.

Too Weird, Man

4:39 pm - I've been trying to get out here since this cache came out because I can practically spit to this place from work. I never seem to be able to find the time to jump out at lunch time. Today required a dump run, so it worked out perfectly.

Just to be safe, I didn't bring my wallet in. The dump would close soon.

I was here a few weeks ago trying to drop off some old macs, but they would charge me to take them. If anyone could use some circa 1994 Macs, let me know.

Thanks!

Native Americans

3:33 pm - Lots of caches popping up on skyline these days. Just a few weeks ago I had done them all. We were kinda passing by on the way home, so we went for this one. Found close parking and called one of my "only a quarter mile!" Poison oak was indeed all over the place, even jumping out into the trail in places. We found the bowls and the cache soon after. I wook a "limited edition" workerofwood button, and then he dropped in another! We tried to get out of there quickly as mosquitoes were getting fiesty. Thanks for the cache.

Forecast

2:43 pm - We were on the way back from big basin and decided to give this one a try. Said hello to a ranger We took the wrong road to the cache, but the hill wasn't too bad. The cache was very well-stocked, but I TNLN. Thanks for the caceh and the story.

The GeoROCKS! 500 - Pole Position

12:32 pm - I tagged along with Workerofwood and friends to finish up this cache today. The trail was steep in parts, but Nostrada and I kept ourselves interested by racing each other up the hills. That was a quick way to get really winded.

As we got close to the cache we became a bit perplexed as to how to get to it. We went up and down the trail a bit, until we resigned ourselves to the fact that the terrain was going to be more challenging than we thought. I also heard something strange down the hill which sounded like a large animal moving through the brush. Of course it could be human, but what would a human be doing down there? As we looked at our target area, I pointed out to workerofwood that there was some people down there. Animals don't wear white t-shirts.

Half way down, I shouted "Are you guys geocaching?" They responded yes. It was MRsquared and a friend. What a strange coincidence running into them here! They tried to escape, but we found them before they got a chance. It sure saved us a lot of searching. It was also great to meet some other caches. Snatched the just-placed rare MRSquared coin.

Thanks for the challenge.

Spur of the Moment 1

10:01 am - I'll claim at least partial liability for starting everybody searching on the wrong side of the road. I saw the notes about the coordinates being off, but I had though the owner had corrected the coordinates. Once we started using good coordinates and the hint, it made a lot more sense and it was a quick find. Thanks, but please update the coordinates.

Trout Fishing

9:23 am - I guess I'm the last one to log the fact that I got #800. It was a little embarrassing as everyone made a big deal of it and watched me while I tried to find it. MotorBug actually found it first, but pretended he didn't. What a nice guy. TNLNSL. Thanks!

Hollydaze in August

9:10 am - This was the start of a group caching event in Big Basin. We got to the spot and starting looking all around, trying to avoid the poison oak. Nostrada found it and then tried to hide it from the rest of us while we looked around stupidly. Bad nostrada. TNLNSL. Thanks.

Have a Ball

Yes, this would be a very good place to watch airshow. People sit on lawns up and down Mathilda during the show, but this would be better.

POP #2

Hey, where's the option for 'coke'?
(visit link)

Old St. Hilary's

5:43 pm - Parking wasn't a problem for us. I made a quick dash out in the rain while the girls stayed in the car with the engine running. I couldn't have been gone five minutes. Thanks for the quick one and interesting history!

Itsy Bitsy

4:13 pm - Aaarrgh! Nearly bumped my head in fright when I saw it. After that, I began to laugh at myself. Cool cache. I'm not sure how it sticks up there, but it seemed to stay OK. Thanks. Now how do I get that song out of my head?

bell weather boat

4:05 pm - Found the cache in short order; finding my wife was a bit more difficult. She kept going on the trail and didn't realize she was just behind the hill from a couple really large buildings. Took the geocoin and signed the log. Thanks.

Angel out in the field

3:51 pm - I took the hard way up to this one and headed through some tall grass until I found myself in the right area. Cute log book! I took the recently reincarnated Moving Cache TB. Thanks.

Two if By Sea

3:19 pm - This was a nice hidden beach. It was an easy find. I took a took a ball and left a mini-flashlight.

As I finished signing, a huge freighter steamed by.

It would be a good idea to check for ticks after finding this cache. I found two on my jeans after and one on my leg a few hours later.

Thanks for placing a cache here.

Island 3: Angel Island

2:02 pm - This was our first cache during a great day on Angel Island. We went up to Mt. Livermore first, then headed down to this one. It drizzled all day, but not bad enough that you really got wet.

It took some searching to find the cache, but I eventually did amongst all these rocks that looked really fake. There was quite a bit of poison oak in the area including some growing a few inches above the cache. I think I was able to avoid it all, but who knows. After I signed the cute fuzzy log, I looked around for a better spot with less PO, but didn't find any closeby that would offer the same cover, so I put it back.

Thanks for the cache!

Nike - Last ditch air defense

I was totally suprised to see this one unclaimed, especially since some notable cachers were just here last weekend. But here we are at the Nike missile site on Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay. Great views from here. There's even a picture of it with the missles poised to fire. Scary!

Not Basketball? Midnight!

6:05 pm - So I'm looking for this cache, examining nearby objects very carefully when some girls start screaming at me from the across the street. "Are you looking for the GPS?" I nod yes. "It's over there! Over there!" I dumbly start stumbling over to where they were pointing and before I know it, they're across the street, showing me where it is. Thanks, girls! They sure seemed to enjoy it. Apparently they saw Marky place it, and claimed the FTF! I asked them to keep it a secret so it won't get taken and they seemed to be cool about it.

This cache didn't seem to be particularly rain-proof though, so I worry about what will come of the log in wet weather.

Thanks for the very cool cache, I was thankful for the local help!

San José Public Library - Vineland Branch

5:51 pm - Quite a spiffy library we have here. I didn't have time to go inside, but it looked nice from the parking lot for sure. Parked within 20 feet and then I just had to wait until the coast was clear - grabbed! Thanks!

Grape Ape, or "Louis, Stop the Presses!"

5:41 pm - Wow, this is really nice park. I buzzed by it at first because I thought it wouldn't be in this development, but there it was. Found it in short order after a tour of the gardens. Cute title. Thanks.

21 More Cache

5:24 pm - Alright, how about this. I had already done 21 caches so far today, so I thought to myself, how about just one more. And this one was on the way. Of course I did several more, but that's how it goes.

I think I found this one in 21 seconds as well. Spotting it and getting it into my hands were two very different difficulties though, especially for me. Thanks!

Guadalupe Oak View

5:09 pm - I'm gonna say that the terrain rating on this one is a little low. That hill deserves at least a 2. Found it OK. TNLNSL. It was nice to see some real oak for once instead of the poison variety, though there was plenty of that in this park too. Thanks.

Blue Oak Hill

4:42 pm - Oh boy, this was a toughie. MotorBug and I looked all around for this one. At one point I took a tumble on the wet grass. Ouch. Finally I looked in the right spot and spied the cache. Nice hide. TNLNSL. The log book is full.

While we were searching, these two women walked by walking some dogs - except for one dog who was being carried in a front-facing baby carrier. Very strange. I've seen lots of mounting devices in my day, but never a dog mount!

Patheticache #1

4:18 pm - Joined up again (accidentally) with MotorBug to find this one. Nice little cache there in a great park. Thanks.

Squigams

4:01 pm - After a bunch of hikes with MotorBug in QuickSilver, he decided he was too tired to do more urban caching "on the way home". So we split up.

I took all the wrong ways to get here and ended up wandering through fields when I didn't have to. Easy find once I got in the right place.

Imagine my surprise when I opened up the log book on this one and saw his name signed 20 minutes ago. That's OK, I ran into him again at another nearby park soon after. He was feeling better. :-)

TNLNSL. Thanks for the cache.

Blend-in-tree

3:45 pm - Interesting tree. Found it without any problems and took of for some more caches. Thanks.

Bicycle Primes

3:36 pm - I just couldn't find the right approach to this one. I drove all around the neighborhood, but apparently I was on the wrong side of creek and coudn't cross over. So I had to drive back a few miles to get on Camden Ave where I should have gone in the first place. That's OK, by the time I found my way to parking, the rain had stopped and the sun began to come out.

I looked all around for the cache and started to get frustrated when I suddenly saw it. A nice collection of stuff in here, but TNLN. Thanks.

Tree Surgeon

2:58 pm - MotorBug and I searched for suitible parking, but ended up down my the creek trail. It took us a while to find it even though I've seen this kind of hide before. I think the hint throw us off. Interesting spot. Thanks for the cache.

My pet "____________"

2:40 pm - It wasn't until we got pretty close to this one when MotorBug realized why it wasn't in his GPSr - he had found it long ago! Lots of signs about mountain lion sightings in the area. I was glad that wasn't the pet!

Found the cache ok, and I gave it some attention. The bag is ripped in a way that makes it hard to open the ziploc. TNLNSL. Thanks.

Micro Cache

2:19 pm - After 10+ miles of hiking, MotorBug and I headed back to find "just a few caches" "on the way home". Just a few turned out to be about 15. This was one of them. A quick find in an appropriate location. Thanks.

Missing Limb

2:07 pm - I found the first stage months ago. I was finally in the area to grab the second today. Interesting area and even more interesting neighborhood. MotorBug came along to revel in his FTF on this one. :-) Thanks.

Stuck on the dam

1:57 pm - Made a quick dash for this one while MotorBug waited for me. Found it in the first place I looked. I bet it used to be a nice place to swim, but there are certainly lots of signs that say not to do that now! Thanks.

Shady Vista

1:07 pm - We had just parted ways with Nostrada and Mum to finish up the southern section of this park when it started to rain. We spotted a guy hunkering under a tree from a distance who turned out to be Team Nazgul. We said hello, grabbed the log and parted ways. Took a face ball and left some play $1000 bills. On the way back it really started to pour and we got soaked. Oh well, all for the good of the sport, right?

Love

Ok, I think I've solved the puzzle, but I haven't actually gone out to find it. However, I'm loving these watchlist notifications though.

"kablooey found Love"
"mmp found Love"

Such a matchmaker you are, Rat!

The Amazing Race

Don't Order Me Around

We were out with Nostrada and some others in a park where I knew one of the stages was. On our way from cache to cache we came across this stage, counted what we needed to count and made a note of it. I did some quick math and realized I didn't have enough information to figure out where the next stage was, so we went on.

Later in the day, I found myself at the first stage on the second sheet and got the information there. When I got home I realized I should have done them in order because I now need to go back to where I just was. Oh well.

Deep Gulch

12:23 pm - MotorBug and I took a side trip away from Nostrada and Mum and did quick trip up and down the hill. We started looking in the wrong place at first, but then when put myself in Marky's head, I found it right away. Thanks.

Rocky Start

12:11 pm - I really like this park. Not too hard, but lots of great views and interesting stuff to look at. In the midsts of a bunch of other caches, we went over and grabbed this one. The cache was very well secured. TNLNSL. Thanks.

English Camp

11:55 am - This was a cool area. We took some shelter for a bit to escape the rain which quickly subsided. Motorbug found cache, but gladly handed it over to me since I had kidnapped his pen. Thanks.

Victoria Shaft

11:26 am - Yes, there be much PO here. I hope that isn't my GPSr's lanyard that Nostrada is dangling in the Poison Oak. Cool area though.

San Cristobal Mine Cache

11:03 am - This was very cool. I've never been to a real mine before. I put on my headlamp and explored for a bit until we realized the cache was not in there. :-) TNLNSL. Thanks.

Say Hello To The Pigs

10:51 am - No pigs here today. :-( MotorBug ventured through the poison oak to grab this one for us. Took a tennis ball yoyo, and left a stack of play $1000 bills. Thanks.

SILVER CACHE

10:35 am - Great views from this spot. Ran into the same group of women we had been following around the park. TNLNSL. Thanks.

Split Rock

10:20 am - Nostrada identified the likely spot for this one when we were 500 feet away, and a foot race to the cache ensued. We both got tired before we reached the cache. :-) No problem finding it. As we were signing the log, a group of women hiking walked by and just after being surprised by a snake in the trail, pointed to me and said "look, a human!"

Army ReTIRED

9:29 am - A well-themed cache! Took a geocaching patch, left a mini-flashlight. Thanks!

Go With The Flow

6:50 pm - I have been to this park before for a another cache, but not this part of it. I didn't know about the cool fountains. Lots of people walking around the ponds. There were some kids dressed in all black in the parking lot, playing some kind of game that seemed like baseball with a hacky sack except the bases were in a line. Found the cache easily. Boy these WeBeDnD containers are looking familiar. As I was pulling out, Marky and Joani were pulling in and I graciously donated my parking spot to them. Thanks for another nice one!

POP #1

6:19 pm - Darn you WeBeDnD for placing another puzzle cache within a mile of my house!

I'm gonna say the difficulty on this one is underrated considering some of the trickery. But it turned out to be something like another puzzle I had trouble with once.

I ran into WeBeDnD yesterday at another one of their caches and conveyed my woes on this one. I mentioned that I considered calling the "phone numbers". Maybe that's why they added the note to the page!

Anyway, after some more thought last night, it made sense, but I was too comfy on my couch to go out and get it. Instead I grabbed it "on the way home" from work.

Thanks for the fun.

The Point

6:31 - Grr, another puzzle a mile from my house. It must be found! I struggled with this one for quite a while, following a lot of dead ends.

This afternoon I pinged the puzzlemaster mmp expecting that he'd be able to provide some hints. Suprisingly he hadn't solved it yet. We chatted for a bit and built on some ideas until we had one that worked. I think he actually solved the puzzle, but I think he thinks I did. Whatever.

Appropriate location. Geez, wasn't I just here?

Not My Fault

7:25 pm - After running into WeBeDnD at one of their nearby caches, I came over to claim their other one close by. I have been here before, but I didn't guess where it was from the map. I identified a number of hiding places, but saw one that showed a lot of promise. I took something apart that I thought might be where the cache was, but it turned out not to be, so I had to put it back together. After a while of searching, I decided to look with my fingers and not with my eyes and nabbed it. Thanks for another nice hide.

Hawaiian Language Lesson #3

7:07 pm - This was one of the stranger caching experiences I had. I DNF'd it a few weeks, searching through this random parking lot. An email to WeBeDnD showed me the error of my ways.

Tonight I decided to go claim it. As I arrived, I saw one very obvious and appropriate spot. I searched there for a while, but couldn't find anything. So I began searching around other places. After a while I decided that the first place must have been right, so I turned to cross the street when I suddenly see WeBeDnD standing there, peeking in at the cache to check that it's still there! They were about as surprised at me to look up and see me standing there. We chatted for a bit (not in Pidgin) and then I went over to where they were looking and saw it immediately.

Thanks for the puzzle DnD and nice seeing you again!

Stevens Creek Cache

Too bad she spells her name with an 'e'. :-)

UV in the Park

8:33 pm - Very cool cache. I didn't research the archived cache, but I did stop by "Don't get caught" on the way in. I was amazed that I remembered where it was and that it was still there. No UV light in there though. It turns out that mine worked just fine though.

For some reason, this park smelled like beer tonight.

I wasn't sure what I was looking for, so I took a very methodical approach to finding the numbers. When I got close, they jumped right out. A guy walking by on the other side of the fence looked at us very suspiciously, but passed by.

We headed over to the coordinates and I grabbed the cache right away. I've clearly been doing this too long when I go right for the least obvious object. Of course, I forgot a pen, so I had to run back to the car to grab one.

Thanks for more justification on my UV light purchase!

Happy Birthday JoeSpaz #3

6:13 pm - The hint really helped on this one as my coordinates were putting me in a different place.

A suggestion on these birthday caches - could you put the information specific to the individual cache at the top? I'd rather not scroll all the way through the standard stuff everytime. Thanks.

Happy Birthday JoeSpaz #4

6:04 pm - I knew right where it should be and sure enough there it was. I tried to cover it a bit better. Chugging along through this birthday series, but I've still go a lot to go. Thanks.

Happy Birthday JoeSpaz #12

5:55 pm - It's rare that I have to parallel park next to suburban park, but I guess some people in the neighborhoold were having a big Easter dinner. Found the cache quickly. Thanks.

Happy Birthday JoeSpaz #2

5:46 pm - DNF. As soon as I got close to the cache area, a dog on the other side of the fence would start barking, which would cause the dog next door to start barking and the other dog across the path to start as well.

Needless to say, I couldn't search very discreetly, so I gave up after looking in a few typical places.

Happy Birthday JoeSpaz #5

5:31 pm - I looked in this kind of place for another cache, but couldn't find it. I had to grab a tool to get it out. Thanks for another!

Happy Birthday JoeSpaz #8

5:18 pm - I've looked for caches in these locations many times before, but never have actually seen one there until now. I hope it stays. Thanks.

Happy Birthday JoeSpaz #7

5 pm - Searched for this one for about half hour but couldn't find it. I tried both sets of coordinates. I didn't find either of the hints.

Happy Birthday JoeSpaz #6

4:39 pm - I checked the right area first, but couldn't find it. I headed over to a different place to read the logs and then came back to find it in a well-concealed location. Nice.

Happy Birthday JoeSpaz #9

4:21 pm - Grabbed this one quickly just as an ice cream truck began to circle the neighborhood. I kept seeing the same ice cream truck at other parks as I roamed around Fremont.

Is it just me or do other people find ice cream trucks creepy? This guy drives around slowly in a van, playing music to try to lure kids to him and give them candy while stealing their allowance.

Anyway, thanks for the cache.

Happy Birthday JoeSpaz #10

4:14 pm - Some people were playing tennis very close by. After hanging out for a little while, I decided they didn't care about me and I went for the cache. Thanks.

Eucalyptus Among Us

3:55 pm - Drove through the parking lot from Caching Break 3 to get to this one. Crunch, crunch, crunch through the eucalyptus leaves I went. Nice camo job. TNLNSL. Thanks.

Caching Break 3

3:47 pm - I looked around in the generally correct area until I decided I must be off and then went and pretended to "wait for a friend" while I searched some other places. That didn't pan out, so I took a look again in the original area and spotted it. I don't know how you find these places.

It seemed that the harder I tried to get it out, the more difficult it became to retreive it. I went back to my car to see if I had any tools to help the situation. I came up with a few, but they didn't work. Finally I was able to wiggle it out. Nicely done.

Happy Birthday JoeSpaz #11

3:22 pm - This was my first find in the birthday series. It took me a little while and the hint could be a little more specific, but eventually I found the well-obscured cache. Thanks.

Santos

12:44 pm - After a long weekend of backpacking in Point Reyes, we stopped by this one on the way home. Even the short walk was challenging for our aching legs. Found it quickly with the hint and then rushed back to the car to get warm again. The log was kinda wet and should be replaced. Thanks.

Geom

10:25 am - We hiked up from Coast Camp to summit Mt. Wittenberg on our way back to Bear Valley. We were a bit wet when we reached the cache from all the dripping trees. Found the location OK.

We'll have to take your word on the view; it was nothing but fog this morning. Thanks.

Coast Campers' Cache

4:33 pm - We came in from Bear Valley via Arch Rock and by the time we reached campsite seven, we were dog tired. After dumping our stuff and setting up camp, we headed right over here to pick this one up. Found it easily and added a fresh log sheet. Thanks for placing a cache so close to "home" - at least for one night!

Trolls of Arch Rock

2:14 pm - This was a nice little side trail off from Arch Rock. We started looking around where we figured it would be and then where the hint said it should be when I had my first encounter with stinging nettle. Ow. It still hurts.

I enjoyed the Indiana-Jones like move I had to make to get to the cache. Once I got to the right spot, it was very obvious. The hint should be reversed. TNLNSL. Thanks.

Camo Cache#1 (Mission One)

Seems like this one isn't coming back.

The Amazing Race

"It's just a quarter mile!"

At the tail end of a string of caches, I convinced Nostrada to go give the new coordinates a try. "It's only a quarter of a mile" I said because that's how far my GPSr said from where we parked. We took a trail that headed us in the wrong direction so we did some other caches first. Then we tried to make it back to this stage but only found ourselves on ever-narrowing trails that eventually ended in a very dubious cliff.

We went back and tried for another route. This time we stayed on the trail for a while longer. Then we found a point at which it seemed the cache was 500 feet off the very steep side of this trail. I decided to go for it and Nostrada followed. My reception was spotty but something strange started to happen - I began to get farther away. The further down I went, the further away I got. Finally I realized that I had made a terrible error and the cache was not down the cliff but up the cliff on the other side of the trail.

Nostrada didn't want to go back up, so he went parallel to the trail while I scrambled back up. When I reached the trail no one was around, so I wasn't sure what to do. I decided to continue up the trail for a bit to see if they went that way. After a few minutes of hiking, I was convinced they couldn't have gone this far, but then I remembered that when I was in this park before I saw a trail that ran parallel to this one further up. I hussled up the trail and sure enough found the trail. A ways down the trail I found the cache. Hooray! I took a few new instruction sheets and headed back down.

A half hour later I arrived back to where the others were waiting. I thought it might be funny to grimace and pretend to limp a bit as I arrived to see if they were worrying about me. As they approached in concern I broke into a sprint waving the sheets in my hand. They didn't think it was funny.

Do You See What I Saw?

12:23 pm - The parking hint helped a lot on this one. As we approached the first waypoint, we saw some others who appeared to be looking for it as well. We decided to take a short walk and let them to do it. A few minutes later, we came back and they were still looking.

My coordinates zeroed out in one spot and after a thorough look, I found the well-camo'd object. I didn't want to run the fun for rossf2, so I put it back and then went to put in the new coodinates. Somewhere in there I completely forgot the numbers, so I had to go back. Rossf2 was looking in the right place now, so I helped them find it a little and then really got the coordinates.

By the time we reached the second waypoint, they were already there. I poked around in a few places, then got lucky and found it. This was a cool area tucked away in Stanford that we haven't seen before. Thanks.

Alice Locke Park

11:42 am - Boy, the residents of this area sure do a good job keeping people out. So many streets that dead end or are two-way on one side and one way on the other. We finally found our way in and started examining likely places based on the Dr's previous devious hide. Not to long later we found the cache. Well constructed. Thanks for the cache.

ELVIS LIVES

11:28 am - The GPSr was pointing to every place except the cache, so we used the hint and then found it pretty quickly. Once again, nice camo job. Thanks. I never realized my name had such a great anagram!

-Trouble

Cover all the Bases

4:33 pm - Yet another navigation fiasco. I got separated from Nostrada in all the traffic and they had to pretent to be interested in buying some real estate to call me and figure out where I had gone. Then again, maybe if Nostrada would solve his own puzzles, he would have known where we were going. :-D

Nostrada provided more "cover" while I retrieved the cache and others were rounding the bases. Thanks for the puzzle.

Tater Tot

4:27 pm - This puzzle was a bit perplexing, but with some help I was able to get the right coordinates. I loved all the subtle language.

This was the last cache of the day and it made for an interesting drive. I lead Nostrada all around until I finally found the right road. Nostrada did the honors and we headed home, tired and dehydrated once again. Thanks.

Oozy Crypt Logo

3:55 pm - Some pretty weird stuff in this puzzle. So far, no nightmares though!

My navigation abilities were definitely not up to snuff today. We led us into trying this one from the wrong side and we realized that we wouldn't be able to get it from here. After a longer walk, we arrived at a place we could have driven to instead. I stared at the spot where the coordinates zeroed out until Nostrada spotted and pulled it out right under me. Thanks for the education and the cache.

Bend Tree Hunch

3:43 pm - Second attempt at this one, first time with the decoded hint. Some passersby eyed us suspiciously while we probed for the cache. Thanks.

The Luuuuv Cache

1:36 pm - This was the final cache of our tour of this park. Great series and this was a cool place that we've been to before. The arboretum was nice and a little searching produced the cache. TNLNSL. Thanks.

The Noble Guardian (Sphinx Hunt)

1:20 pm - Thanks to my buddy Nostrada, I was able to claim this one. I didn't know there was a locationless for this. It was a beat as well, located in Villa Montalvo park in Saratoga , California.

Montalvo Water Company

1:17 pm - The GPSr was pointing us to one place, but then Nostrada found it in a much more interesting spot. Thanks for the cache.

Wildcat Creek Shell Cache

1:11 pm - This was a nice walk in the woods. As we approached, Nostrada took the hard way, scrambling down the hill, while we leisurely strolled down the trail. Didn't have any shells, so TNLN. Thanks.

Montalvo Lookout

12:51 pm - Nice views from up here. Nostrada and Anne crawled around while I looked out for muggles. They had trouble so I went in and showed them how it's done. TNLNSL. Thanks for all the fresh caches.

Pay Attention

12:29 pm - Looks like we interpreted the title wrongly and made the same mistake as digital fish. We got some nice views, but decided to turn back when the trail had poison oak crossing the trail.

Once we went to the right spot, it was an easy find. Thanks!

Montalvo Crossing

12:10 pm - This cache sure was busy today! We actually missed the parking lot and ended up driving out to route 9 and back!

Found this one shortly after meeting up with Nostrada and running into the fogheads as they were finishing up their 6-pack. The cache was well-hidden in a logical place. TNLN and signed the log. Thanks.

Julian's End

9:18 am - The new cache is working nicely. :-) The puzzle was pretty easy, or maybe I just got lucky in finding the right tool.

There were a lot of people sipping coffee around the cache location, so I had to be stealthy. While waiting to download the description and the hint, I grabbed in the right place and found the cache. Very appropriate location. Thanks for the fun!

Log a Lion

9 am - DNF'd a cache in the area, but at least I found this. This is the "Lion Building" in downtown San Jose, California. Waddya know, there's a lion statue there.

Nihonmachi

7:48 am - This was a cool area I've never seen before. I had it pretty much all to myself at this early hour too. That actually made it harder to search though because just one other person in the area made me stick out quite a bit.

Found the 4 waypoints, and all without entering in any but the first one. Did the calcs and got to the final area, but had some trouble finding cache. Then I found the attachment device, but not the cache. Uh oh. Looking a bit more I saw that the cache had fallen out of place. It took me a while to get it back out, but I was able to sign it and put it back where I guessed it should be according to the hint.

Thanks for pointing out this place.