*rubs hands together in glee
Today Saz and I hid two VERY evil hides!!! We will post pictures as soon as a few people have found them. OH EVIL EVIL girls we are! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Friday, November 21, 2008
Been a while!
Wow. We hadn't been caching in a month. That stinks, but I moved and spent a whole weekend with that, and I live nearer Hello now so maybe we'll get some spur of the moment caching opportunities.
So she picked me up and off we went. We scouted an area we want to hide one in. We're pretty sure it's far enough away from the cute green snail one we found before. And then we started caching. We spent most of the day in pretty little neighborhood parks. We also found two along a busy street that used to be a creek. The first one was easy to find, so I hid it a little better. The second one was not easy to find. We parked the car and walked to the coordinates. We both knew where it should be, but didn't see it. I forgot to carry the printout with the hint along so Hello had to go get it from the car when we couldn't find it. Still couldn't find it. Darn thing. We turned away from the search spot to ogle this mansion on the other side of the fence. They had a huge pool surrounded by what looked like terra cotta tile, a colorful tennis court....we turned our attention back to the cache and then Hello found it. I swear, it wasn't there a minute ago lol.
We found a good size cache hidden in garlic plants. It was full of tiny crappy things so we filled it up with good toys. Another was hidden near a very nice community pool. It was very hot this day, and not a soul was using the pool. Too bad. Hello spotted the cache right off, but there were two boys hanging out at the nearby picnic table. So we decided to wait them out. It didn't take but a minute or two before they decided to get away from the weird women. I grabbed it down and we filled that one up with good toys, too.
The next coordinates took us to a park with a sculpture. I suppose it's hidden on that sculpture? The one with little girls hanging all over it, playing with their little dolls? Yep. So we plopped down to wait the little girls out, and they ran off away from the two weird women after a minute or two. So we got that one. Poor kids.
We went to a sports park to find a sign only cache. Not my favorite, but a cache is a cache. The coordinates took us to a bench, right next to a green wall, against which a man was kicking a soccer ball as hard as he could. *careful search* WHAM! *cringe* *careful search* WHAM! *cringe*. We gave it a good try but didn't find it. I pulled some garbage out of a bush and threw it out and we went to look for something else.
Okay, you cache hiders you. If you say your cache is not hidden in junipers, but the searcher has to plow through junipers to get to it, you're just plain mean! I got lots of scratches, but I found it. I also hid it much better. The next searcher might lose an eye MWAHAHAHAHA. Oh, excuse me. Ahem. This park did have lots of nice trees. We were a little worried for the cache's safety at first, because the park had been recently attended to and there was a very deep layer of wood chips. If the cache wasn't in the juniper, it may have been woodchipped. But it was in the juniper. Liar.
The last we found was a micro in another neighborhood park, and this one had a playground in it. As we entered, a large flock of geese flew over our heads. They were pretty, and we could hear scads of hummingbirds in the high treetops. They were not bottle brush trees, but it looked like bottle brush blossoms way up there. Whatever it was, the hummingbirds are big fans. The cache was easily found, but not easily replaced. It was one of those tiny little things with a long thin log rolled up inside. Then we played on the swings. Holy crap! After I got going I was afraid I wouldn't stop. I had a lot more momentum working for me now than I did when I was 10. Eventually, I did get off without puking. We played there a bit more, but left when a group of actual children turned up to play.
The last one we tried to find was hard. Walking in, we saw several men walking out, carrying soccer goals. A cute little boy was reaching up as high as he could to get his little fingers under the goal. "I'm helping!" Cute little guy. There were many nearby structures to search, including bleachers. We looked over everything, but were running out of light. So we decrypted the hint and know what to search, but we just couldn't find it. It was getting dark. So, we'll have to go back for that one.
I'm already looking forward to longer days. Darkness at 5pm sucks.
So she picked me up and off we went. We scouted an area we want to hide one in. We're pretty sure it's far enough away from the cute green snail one we found before. And then we started caching. We spent most of the day in pretty little neighborhood parks. We also found two along a busy street that used to be a creek. The first one was easy to find, so I hid it a little better. The second one was not easy to find. We parked the car and walked to the coordinates. We both knew where it should be, but didn't see it. I forgot to carry the printout with the hint along so Hello had to go get it from the car when we couldn't find it. Still couldn't find it. Darn thing. We turned away from the search spot to ogle this mansion on the other side of the fence. They had a huge pool surrounded by what looked like terra cotta tile, a colorful tennis court....we turned our attention back to the cache and then Hello found it. I swear, it wasn't there a minute ago lol.
We found a good size cache hidden in garlic plants. It was full of tiny crappy things so we filled it up with good toys. Another was hidden near a very nice community pool. It was very hot this day, and not a soul was using the pool. Too bad. Hello spotted the cache right off, but there were two boys hanging out at the nearby picnic table. So we decided to wait them out. It didn't take but a minute or two before they decided to get away from the weird women. I grabbed it down and we filled that one up with good toys, too.
The next coordinates took us to a park with a sculpture. I suppose it's hidden on that sculpture? The one with little girls hanging all over it, playing with their little dolls? Yep. So we plopped down to wait the little girls out, and they ran off away from the two weird women after a minute or two. So we got that one. Poor kids.
We went to a sports park to find a sign only cache. Not my favorite, but a cache is a cache. The coordinates took us to a bench, right next to a green wall, against which a man was kicking a soccer ball as hard as he could. *careful search* WHAM! *cringe* *careful search* WHAM! *cringe*. We gave it a good try but didn't find it. I pulled some garbage out of a bush and threw it out and we went to look for something else.
Okay, you cache hiders you. If you say your cache is not hidden in junipers, but the searcher has to plow through junipers to get to it, you're just plain mean! I got lots of scratches, but I found it. I also hid it much better. The next searcher might lose an eye MWAHAHAHAHA. Oh, excuse me. Ahem. This park did have lots of nice trees. We were a little worried for the cache's safety at first, because the park had been recently attended to and there was a very deep layer of wood chips. If the cache wasn't in the juniper, it may have been woodchipped. But it was in the juniper. Liar.
The last we found was a micro in another neighborhood park, and this one had a playground in it. As we entered, a large flock of geese flew over our heads. They were pretty, and we could hear scads of hummingbirds in the high treetops. They were not bottle brush trees, but it looked like bottle brush blossoms way up there. Whatever it was, the hummingbirds are big fans. The cache was easily found, but not easily replaced. It was one of those tiny little things with a long thin log rolled up inside. Then we played on the swings. Holy crap! After I got going I was afraid I wouldn't stop. I had a lot more momentum working for me now than I did when I was 10. Eventually, I did get off without puking. We played there a bit more, but left when a group of actual children turned up to play.
The last one we tried to find was hard. Walking in, we saw several men walking out, carrying soccer goals. A cute little boy was reaching up as high as he could to get his little fingers under the goal. "I'm helping!" Cute little guy. There were many nearby structures to search, including bleachers. We looked over everything, but were running out of light. So we decrypted the hint and know what to search, but we just couldn't find it. It was getting dark. So, we'll have to go back for that one.
I'm already looking forward to longer days. Darkness at 5pm sucks.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Our first Event of Terror!!
Saz and I planned a busy day for ourselves on Saturday. We had a workshop we were going to where we would meet some fellow cachers for the first time. We were both pretty nervous about it. We both made excuse after excuse as to why we weren't going to go even though we knew we were going to.
We decided to start the day with a cache we have looked for 4 times already. This one was a 4 difficulty so we didn't feel to stupid not finding it but let me tell you we were getting very frustrated. We pulled up with high hopes. We stood there for a second and looked around the same area we had looked at so many times before. We even walked up a hill to see if we could get a different view. Nothing. I had brought a little mirror and started looking in holes. In one I saw something but moved on for some stupid reason. A little later I decided to go back to where I had seen something. I fiddled around with all kinds of things and nothing. UGH. Then I pulled out this little screw that didn't look like you should be able to pull it out and PLUNK there fell the cache at my feet. Saz and I looked at each other with big eyes and then got a big old grin on our faces. Then I had a moment of panic. How in the hell am I going to put it back. Saz of course came to the rescue and figured it out. We walked away feeling like queens. Now we didn't have to ask for clues at the workshop!!
Our next stop was Child of the Flame Station. That's right!! One of our caches we hid had a baby! Someone who found our cache wanted something in it and the only thing they had was a little camoed container. So they took it and hid it. Sniff I am so proud of our little child lol. Anyway, we followed this pretty trail that had a cute little creek running by it. We got to the location and started looking. Saz was on one side of the creek and I was on the other when I hear "Did you find it yet?" in a man's voice. We said no and introduced ourselves to a fellow cacher named Fogheads and his friend Fran. We got to meet a cacher in the wild!!! A real live cacher whose name we have seen on logs and whose caches we have found. We were actually thrilled. They were super nice people. He found it first and then let us hunt for it. After I found it he pointed out poison oak to us. We hadn't seen it without leaves so we would have ended up grabbing it at some point. Thank God for The Fogheads!!
He also let us know about a archived cache in a old stump that Saz found with no problem!! Go Saz!! Then we parted ways and we headed back to the car. As we got in here comes Foghead telling us to come over here. He had found a letter box cache. We looked at the stamps and signed our names. We then found out we were actually going to the same workshop later. We said our goodbyes and left for the next cache.
This one was closer to home. In fact I had seen it pop up right when it was activated and had Saz lived closer to me I would have made her go with me to get it. It would have been our first FTF hunt. But she doesn't. YET!!! Saz is moving closer to me! I cannot tell you how freaking happy I was as we drove to her new apartment to put the down payment on it. I swear it is less then 10 minutes from me. WATCH OUT CACHES!!!
The cache we drove to was actually between our houses. As we drove up we saw a man in a worker's vest and a hard hat. We snickered a bit because it was totally obvious to us that he was looking for the cache. What are the odds of seeing two people in one day at two seperate caches. But he left before we got to it. After a little searching around we finally found it. We giggled at the fact that we did since it was a little bit harder then normal. We hopped in the car and drove to the bank for that downpayment and as we drove back by that cache we just found there were three people looking for it. I had to honk the horn because I am bratty that way lol.
Now it was time for the workshop! This was our first event. It was a workshop to teach us how to build sneaky caches. We drove up and noticed that there was no parking. That is when we started to get a little nervous. Then we saw the house. OMG we almost had a fit. There were tons and tons and tons of freaking people standing all over that yard. We drove by still looking for a parking space and looked at each other in horror. I guess neither one of us is into crowds. We gave ourselves a pep talk as we got out of the car and headed towards the big group. As we walked up I told Saz that she was doing the talking. Now... normally I can't shut up and Saz doesn't do a lot of talking. That totally works for us. However when I told her I wasn't talking she didn't take me serious until about 20 feet from the event when she asked me a question and I said nothing. She gave me a look that would have peeled off my skin. I laughed and told her not to worry...sort of. Why? Because as soon as we got in that group of people I turned shy and quiet. Abnormal for me but that is exactly what happened.
We took the sodas we brought to the backyard and started to try to mingle. We kept sneaking peeks at everyones name tags. Oh didn't I mention that we had to wear name tags? It was kind of nice to put faces to names we have only seen on logs or caches we hunt for. Saz ended up buying me a really cool flashlight that has this long antenna like thing with a magnet on the end. She got herself one too. We also got a few little cache containers and a few garbage bag things. After about a hour we decided to sneak the heck out of there. I couldn't handle not talking and Saz probably didn't no how to handle me not talking lol.
Then we were off for the next cache. They had set up a few caches around the area for people to find during the event. We went to the closest one and it took us way to long to find. And of course while we were searching a cacher and his daughter walked by to go to the store. Lucky for us we found it super fast after that. Off for the next hidden one for the event.
We parked the car and started looking around this electrical box. So we searched and searched and looked and finally found it. We signed the log and got in the car to go. As we pulled away a group of about 15 people from the event come around the corner. We were so damn happy that we found that before getting busted by all these people who have like 5,000 or 7,000 finds. We would have been mortified. We did wave to The Fogheads in that group as we drove away.
We then headed back to a cache that had been muggled the last time we looked for it. Although we knew this time it was there. Can I tell you what an easy find that was LMAO!! After we found it we walked across the park to get another one in the area only to have a group of hoodlum teenagers sitting exactly where we needed to go. So we left that one for later.
We then headed to another area of the park that we needed to drive to. This one we searched high and low for. We couldn't find that one to save our lives. Turns out it was not there. *mental note to self: read farther down then one log to see what's up
Another cache we went to we ended up in a neighborhood that had a fence. Of course it was on the other side of the fence so we had to drive around the street and pull into a store. Once there we had to shhhhhh break into a giant fence only to figure out it was on the other side. We decided it was in the bushes and started to hunt. Nope.. then we decided it was on the fence and even though it was it still took us way to long to find that darn thing!
Our next cache led us to a beautiful rose garden. It was that beginning of twilight time so everything was so darn beautiful. We walked up to this old closed down building. Not a run down building but a building you almost would expect them to open the doors wide open and invite you in. We searched for a bit and then found it. It was a wonderful peaceful place.
The next one was a little different. We walked into a large grove of trees and had to search through there. Harder then it sounds. We LOVED the container though. It was a bell pepper made of ceramic I think. But it was totally clever and it gave us a laugh.
We thought we could squeeze one more in before dark. But when we got there it was almost full dark. And we were blocked by a stupid fence. That didn't stop Super Saz though. She actually got down on her belly and shimmied under and through a fence with her new super flashlight. She gave it a great effort but searching in the dark with a flashlight just didn't work this time. We have to wait two weeks until we can go again. I am looking forward to it.
Look for pictures tomorrow!
We decided to start the day with a cache we have looked for 4 times already. This one was a 4 difficulty so we didn't feel to stupid not finding it but let me tell you we were getting very frustrated. We pulled up with high hopes. We stood there for a second and looked around the same area we had looked at so many times before. We even walked up a hill to see if we could get a different view. Nothing. I had brought a little mirror and started looking in holes. In one I saw something but moved on for some stupid reason. A little later I decided to go back to where I had seen something. I fiddled around with all kinds of things and nothing. UGH. Then I pulled out this little screw that didn't look like you should be able to pull it out and PLUNK there fell the cache at my feet. Saz and I looked at each other with big eyes and then got a big old grin on our faces. Then I had a moment of panic. How in the hell am I going to put it back. Saz of course came to the rescue and figured it out. We walked away feeling like queens. Now we didn't have to ask for clues at the workshop!!
Our next stop was Child of the Flame Station. That's right!! One of our caches we hid had a baby! Someone who found our cache wanted something in it and the only thing they had was a little camoed container. So they took it and hid it. Sniff I am so proud of our little child lol. Anyway, we followed this pretty trail that had a cute little creek running by it. We got to the location and started looking. Saz was on one side of the creek and I was on the other when I hear "Did you find it yet?" in a man's voice. We said no and introduced ourselves to a fellow cacher named Fogheads and his friend Fran. We got to meet a cacher in the wild!!! A real live cacher whose name we have seen on logs and whose caches we have found. We were actually thrilled. They were super nice people. He found it first and then let us hunt for it. After I found it he pointed out poison oak to us. We hadn't seen it without leaves so we would have ended up grabbing it at some point. Thank God for The Fogheads!!
He also let us know about a archived cache in a old stump that Saz found with no problem!! Go Saz!! Then we parted ways and we headed back to the car. As we got in here comes Foghead telling us to come over here. He had found a letter box cache. We looked at the stamps and signed our names. We then found out we were actually going to the same workshop later. We said our goodbyes and left for the next cache.
This one was closer to home. In fact I had seen it pop up right when it was activated and had Saz lived closer to me I would have made her go with me to get it. It would have been our first FTF hunt. But she doesn't. YET!!! Saz is moving closer to me! I cannot tell you how freaking happy I was as we drove to her new apartment to put the down payment on it. I swear it is less then 10 minutes from me. WATCH OUT CACHES!!!
The cache we drove to was actually between our houses. As we drove up we saw a man in a worker's vest and a hard hat. We snickered a bit because it was totally obvious to us that he was looking for the cache. What are the odds of seeing two people in one day at two seperate caches. But he left before we got to it. After a little searching around we finally found it. We giggled at the fact that we did since it was a little bit harder then normal. We hopped in the car and drove to the bank for that downpayment and as we drove back by that cache we just found there were three people looking for it. I had to honk the horn because I am bratty that way lol.
Now it was time for the workshop! This was our first event. It was a workshop to teach us how to build sneaky caches. We drove up and noticed that there was no parking. That is when we started to get a little nervous. Then we saw the house. OMG we almost had a fit. There were tons and tons and tons of freaking people standing all over that yard. We drove by still looking for a parking space and looked at each other in horror. I guess neither one of us is into crowds. We gave ourselves a pep talk as we got out of the car and headed towards the big group. As we walked up I told Saz that she was doing the talking. Now... normally I can't shut up and Saz doesn't do a lot of talking. That totally works for us. However when I told her I wasn't talking she didn't take me serious until about 20 feet from the event when she asked me a question and I said nothing. She gave me a look that would have peeled off my skin. I laughed and told her not to worry...sort of. Why? Because as soon as we got in that group of people I turned shy and quiet. Abnormal for me but that is exactly what happened.
We took the sodas we brought to the backyard and started to try to mingle. We kept sneaking peeks at everyones name tags. Oh didn't I mention that we had to wear name tags? It was kind of nice to put faces to names we have only seen on logs or caches we hunt for. Saz ended up buying me a really cool flashlight that has this long antenna like thing with a magnet on the end. She got herself one too. We also got a few little cache containers and a few garbage bag things. After about a hour we decided to sneak the heck out of there. I couldn't handle not talking and Saz probably didn't no how to handle me not talking lol.
Then we were off for the next cache. They had set up a few caches around the area for people to find during the event. We went to the closest one and it took us way to long to find. And of course while we were searching a cacher and his daughter walked by to go to the store. Lucky for us we found it super fast after that. Off for the next hidden one for the event.
We parked the car and started looking around this electrical box. So we searched and searched and looked and finally found it. We signed the log and got in the car to go. As we pulled away a group of about 15 people from the event come around the corner. We were so damn happy that we found that before getting busted by all these people who have like 5,000 or 7,000 finds. We would have been mortified. We did wave to The Fogheads in that group as we drove away.
We then headed back to a cache that had been muggled the last time we looked for it. Although we knew this time it was there. Can I tell you what an easy find that was LMAO!! After we found it we walked across the park to get another one in the area only to have a group of hoodlum teenagers sitting exactly where we needed to go. So we left that one for later.
We then headed to another area of the park that we needed to drive to. This one we searched high and low for. We couldn't find that one to save our lives. Turns out it was not there. *mental note to self: read farther down then one log to see what's up
Another cache we went to we ended up in a neighborhood that had a fence. Of course it was on the other side of the fence so we had to drive around the street and pull into a store. Once there we had to shhhhhh break into a giant fence only to figure out it was on the other side. We decided it was in the bushes and started to hunt. Nope.. then we decided it was on the fence and even though it was it still took us way to long to find that darn thing!
Our next cache led us to a beautiful rose garden. It was that beginning of twilight time so everything was so darn beautiful. We walked up to this old closed down building. Not a run down building but a building you almost would expect them to open the doors wide open and invite you in. We searched for a bit and then found it. It was a wonderful peaceful place.
The next one was a little different. We walked into a large grove of trees and had to search through there. Harder then it sounds. We LOVED the container though. It was a bell pepper made of ceramic I think. But it was totally clever and it gave us a laugh.
We thought we could squeeze one more in before dark. But when we got there it was almost full dark. And we were blocked by a stupid fence. That didn't stop Super Saz though. She actually got down on her belly and shimmied under and through a fence with her new super flashlight. She gave it a great effort but searching in the dark with a flashlight just didn't work this time. We have to wait two weeks until we can go again. I am looking forward to it.
Look for pictures tomorrow!
Sunday, September 21, 2008
A geocaching milestone
Hello and I want to place some really evil and clever hides. There's a masterful hider here we are going to visit next month to learn some cammo tricks, and there's a trailhead micro we've tried to spot three or four times already and we just can't see it. So this day's hunt was all about micros. We found a whole pile of them and learned about some new containers and placements. We have a big tackle box full of fun swag and, even though we were going for micros today, we filled our packs up with trade goodies. Mine was completely empty and that just doesn't feel right, so I crammed in as much as I could. It was as full as it could be and it turned out to be very naughty swag.
Neither of us are morning people, so we only catch a couple before we are ready for lunch. We hunted for one in a huge empty parking lot, empty except for a cop sitting in his car smack in the middle of the lot. We print out the hides we are looking for, and I had it in hand while Hello worked the GPS, so we were prepared to explain ourselves. Despite lurking in and out of the bushes (and getting poked in the eye) he paid us no mind and Hello found it as I rubbed at my eyeball. I forgot my sunglasses and haven't found the safety glasses I want for my pack yet. It was a funny hide, under a cammo'ed container and set in a rat trap! We went for another and didn't look long before I had to pee. So I went to use the bathroom and Hello found the cache. Oh good, says I upon returning, where is it? She made me look for it. Mean thing. So I found it for myself and we chatted with a cute little black squirrel and then we went to find one placed in memory of a fellow who passed away this year. I read the hide description as Hello drove, and we park and (of course) hunt in entirely the wrong area. A young family walks by. "Mommy, what are they doing in the bushes?" asks the little girl. "Looking for their ball", answers mom without missing a beat. I bet that little one asks LOTS of questions. We got covered in ants and spent several minutes ewwwwwing and brushing them off each other. Hello tried to get a butterfly to sit on her finger, but they all had attitudes and wouldn't cooperate. There were about a hundred of them, and one fully grown muggle hopping up and down like a kangaroo. What the hell? Dork. We eventually find the cache. Rest in peace, Fred. Then we head off for lunch. We have japanese food and lavendar tea, use the tree filled bathroom and off we go again.
We found many clever hides, new styles, and as we hunt I am thinking up evil hides with my newfound knowledge. I haven't come up with anything really horrible yet, but I will. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Hello has two evil ideas already, but it's a secret. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! We want to stump one of our longtime local cachers, who hasn't been impressed at all with the few hides we've placed and leaves us teasing logs. In fact, we were going for our 100th find today and we wanted to make it one of his so we could tell him how boring it is in the log to commemorate it. We're a bit snarky. LOL.
A cute green snail was sitting on a cloaked cache stuffed into the bark of a redwood tree. There were many cute snails in there, so I carefully removed and replaced the tiny cache. We also visited another local cacher's house. We're not crazy about residential hides. Whispering, quiet voices, eyes darting around, peering into the yard of the wrong house, quick grab and replace and then getting the hell out of there. I act and feel like a creep. I can see why the burly men who cache alone make some folks nervous. We're not even a little bit scary looking, crazy maybe with leaves and twigs in our hair, but we laughed about what the neighbors must be thinking. Peeking through their curtains, dialing 9 1 and waiting for us to do something before pressing 1 again. We finally find the clever hide, admire a yard full of birdhouses, and get the hell out of there. As we're driving along to the next, I pull my cell phone out. Mostly to make sure I still have it. I forgot to move it out of the meshy front pocket to an inside zipper pocket and as I have it in hand to move it, I realize it's making a call. In fact, it's calling Hello!
"I'm calling you."
"You are?" She pulls out her phone. Ring ring. "You are! Hello?", she answers. Ha ha.
I hang up the phone and it immediately calls her again. Ring ring. I hang it up and it calls her again. Ring ring. WTF? My phone is haunted. Then I realize what's happening. My ear piece is somewhere in the swag stuffed pack, and something has pressed the on button long enough to connect it, and now it is repeatedly dialing the last number I called with it. Ring ring. I hang it up. Ring ring. We're cracking up as we make our way to the next hide. Ring ring. I'm poking at my pack to try and move the naughty bit of swag that's pressing on the autodial button. Ring ring. Holding the phone so I can hang it up. Ring ring. Ring ring. Ring ring. We get to the next spot and I dump out my pack, find and disconnect the ear piece and place it in it's own little pocket, and off we march to catch our next find. Woo hoo! A creek trail. Do you know you just called me twelve times? Ha! Oh shit, it's directly on the other side of the creek. Wait. We've been over there. We climbed on that brown grate thing, didn't we? We already got that one! Crap. How did that happen? Oh well. The next cache we try is near the same creek, and Hello is triumphantly waving it over her head almost before I've unassed the car. I did the same thing at a large parking lot for commuters. I grabbed something funny and there it was and got a look as I held it up for her to see. Of course a bus came in right then and 40 people got off. Another sent us to "where the old people live". I thought the "old" was a trifle unnecessary....until we got there. Now we think it should be changed to "where the grumpy old people live". I don't think we've ever been scowled at so much.
It's getting late in the day and some clouds have moved in to filter out much of our sunlight, so it's time to get that 100th and we're composing the teasing log we are going to post and giggling on the way there. As soon as we reach the trail entrance, we suspect that we've found this one already, too. Hoping it's only familiar as part of a series in this large hilly park, we head in, but nope. We hunt it down and we did already find it. Crap. Well, we saw two black tail deer and got a mini hike and we've got just enough light to hunt the nearby trailhead micro we've had trouble with. It's rated a four difficulty, so not finding it doesn't make me feel stupid, but I sure would like to get it. All we learned this day about micros did not help, so we gave it up and debated whether to ask for a hint, or try again when we've got more experience. I vote for a hint. Damn thing. I wonder what it is?
101 FINDS! WOO HOO!!
Neither of us are morning people, so we only catch a couple before we are ready for lunch. We hunted for one in a huge empty parking lot, empty except for a cop sitting in his car smack in the middle of the lot. We print out the hides we are looking for, and I had it in hand while Hello worked the GPS, so we were prepared to explain ourselves. Despite lurking in and out of the bushes (and getting poked in the eye) he paid us no mind and Hello found it as I rubbed at my eyeball. I forgot my sunglasses and haven't found the safety glasses I want for my pack yet. It was a funny hide, under a cammo'ed container and set in a rat trap! We went for another and didn't look long before I had to pee. So I went to use the bathroom and Hello found the cache. Oh good, says I upon returning, where is it? She made me look for it. Mean thing. So I found it for myself and we chatted with a cute little black squirrel and then we went to find one placed in memory of a fellow who passed away this year. I read the hide description as Hello drove, and we park and (of course) hunt in entirely the wrong area. A young family walks by. "Mommy, what are they doing in the bushes?" asks the little girl. "Looking for their ball", answers mom without missing a beat. I bet that little one asks LOTS of questions. We got covered in ants and spent several minutes ewwwwwing and brushing them off each other. Hello tried to get a butterfly to sit on her finger, but they all had attitudes and wouldn't cooperate. There were about a hundred of them, and one fully grown muggle hopping up and down like a kangaroo. What the hell? Dork. We eventually find the cache. Rest in peace, Fred. Then we head off for lunch. We have japanese food and lavendar tea, use the tree filled bathroom and off we go again.
We found many clever hides, new styles, and as we hunt I am thinking up evil hides with my newfound knowledge. I haven't come up with anything really horrible yet, but I will. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Hello has two evil ideas already, but it's a secret. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! We want to stump one of our longtime local cachers, who hasn't been impressed at all with the few hides we've placed and leaves us teasing logs. In fact, we were going for our 100th find today and we wanted to make it one of his so we could tell him how boring it is in the log to commemorate it. We're a bit snarky. LOL.
A cute green snail was sitting on a cloaked cache stuffed into the bark of a redwood tree. There were many cute snails in there, so I carefully removed and replaced the tiny cache. We also visited another local cacher's house. We're not crazy about residential hides. Whispering, quiet voices, eyes darting around, peering into the yard of the wrong house, quick grab and replace and then getting the hell out of there. I act and feel like a creep. I can see why the burly men who cache alone make some folks nervous. We're not even a little bit scary looking, crazy maybe with leaves and twigs in our hair, but we laughed about what the neighbors must be thinking. Peeking through their curtains, dialing 9 1 and waiting for us to do something before pressing 1 again. We finally find the clever hide, admire a yard full of birdhouses, and get the hell out of there. As we're driving along to the next, I pull my cell phone out. Mostly to make sure I still have it. I forgot to move it out of the meshy front pocket to an inside zipper pocket and as I have it in hand to move it, I realize it's making a call. In fact, it's calling Hello!
"I'm calling you."
"You are?" She pulls out her phone. Ring ring. "You are! Hello?", she answers. Ha ha.
I hang up the phone and it immediately calls her again. Ring ring. I hang it up and it calls her again. Ring ring. WTF? My phone is haunted. Then I realize what's happening. My ear piece is somewhere in the swag stuffed pack, and something has pressed the on button long enough to connect it, and now it is repeatedly dialing the last number I called with it. Ring ring. I hang it up. Ring ring. We're cracking up as we make our way to the next hide. Ring ring. I'm poking at my pack to try and move the naughty bit of swag that's pressing on the autodial button. Ring ring. Holding the phone so I can hang it up. Ring ring. Ring ring. Ring ring. We get to the next spot and I dump out my pack, find and disconnect the ear piece and place it in it's own little pocket, and off we march to catch our next find. Woo hoo! A creek trail. Do you know you just called me twelve times? Ha! Oh shit, it's directly on the other side of the creek. Wait. We've been over there. We climbed on that brown grate thing, didn't we? We already got that one! Crap. How did that happen? Oh well. The next cache we try is near the same creek, and Hello is triumphantly waving it over her head almost before I've unassed the car. I did the same thing at a large parking lot for commuters. I grabbed something funny and there it was and got a look as I held it up for her to see. Of course a bus came in right then and 40 people got off. Another sent us to "where the old people live". I thought the "old" was a trifle unnecessary....until we got there. Now we think it should be changed to "where the grumpy old people live". I don't think we've ever been scowled at so much.
It's getting late in the day and some clouds have moved in to filter out much of our sunlight, so it's time to get that 100th and we're composing the teasing log we are going to post and giggling on the way there. As soon as we reach the trail entrance, we suspect that we've found this one already, too. Hoping it's only familiar as part of a series in this large hilly park, we head in, but nope. We hunt it down and we did already find it. Crap. Well, we saw two black tail deer and got a mini hike and we've got just enough light to hunt the nearby trailhead micro we've had trouble with. It's rated a four difficulty, so not finding it doesn't make me feel stupid, but I sure would like to get it. All we learned this day about micros did not help, so we gave it up and debated whether to ask for a hint, or try again when we've got more experience. I vote for a hint. Damn thing. I wonder what it is?
101 FINDS! WOO HOO!!
Monday, September 15, 2008
A hunt and a Hide
Saz and I decided to go geocaching Saturday. We also decided to hide another cache. So while I was waiting for her I loaded up the ammo can and got everything ready for our trip.
Sazy came over and we hopped in the car with the ammo can and drove off to where we did the death hike the last time we went out. I had printed out all of the other caches around it so we would have an idea of where they were so we wouldn't have the you are to close to another cache problem again.
We hiked up the side of a mountain in between two caches, climbed up below a huge tree and climbed a steep incline to put the cache up on a ledge. As we walked back down all covered in dirt and leaves we looked at each other and decided that we were going to be told to move it again. But we kept on going and found a tiny little cache at the front gate.
This time we took lots and lots of pictures.
We were off then to find one right by it in a park that we thought was called Miracle Mountain. Up we climbed thinking we were going the right way only to find out we weren't. So down the hill we went seeing what has become a staple of our caching days. A kitty. This time the kitty wanted nothing to do with us. To bad because I love a good kitty lol.
We finally arrived at the spot and started looking. And Looking. And looking. We decided we needed to look at the clue. Not a live oak. What? Saz and I looked at each other and thought we have no idea what a live oak is. We poked around a bit more in the multitude of different oak trees and got pretty frustrated. At one point I got a long stick and started pointing at trees. Is this a live oak? Saz say I have no idea maybe it is a scrub oak. Is this a live oak? While pointing at another tree. I have no idea. Is THIS a live oak? While pointing the stick up in the air at yet another kind of oak tree. Then Saz goes HEY there it is! Take a look a the picture. We were darn lucky to find that guy. We opened it up and had to remove some crud. Like a splenda packet and a golf ball with a gouge out of it. Who puts stuff like that in a cache?
We hopped back in the car and headed back over towards the cache we had tried to find when I lost my cell phone the last caching trip or so. It had been almost dark when we started searching and our minds weren't on the hunt so we had to take a do not find. This time however we found it! Along with tons of cute squirrels playing "OH my god I hope I don't die when I make this jump" at the very tip tops of these giant redwood trees.
We felt much better after finding it!
The next stop was Vasona park. Of course the stupid lady in my GPS thought that we should be searching on the freeway but we drove around and around until we figured out that it was in the park. We paid our six bucks to get in, parked and set off on foot. There were two in the park so we carried our little packs.
Did I mention we look cute with our little backpacks?
On the way to the first one we heard an ice cream man. There is something about Ice Cream Man music that brings out the little kid in people. Before I knew what had happened I was happily walking along with a missle pop lol.
Pretty soon after getting the ice cream we found the first cache tucked away behind a tree. By now we are pretty happy with ourselves since we have found all of the caches we have searched for. We then headed off towards the next one in the park.
We had to cross over this pretty bridge and then hike around the lake a bit. We found the spot and started searching. This should be easy after all it is a ammo can. Well we searched and searched and searched. Finally we found it under a pile of pine needles. Sneaky caches today YAHOO!
Inside that cache I found the best gargoyle statue. I was freaking excited since I collect them. LOVED IT!!! We filled the cache back up and put it back.
We tend to do that. Take a empty cache and fill it back up with goodies. We figure we would want to find a full cache why not let the next person be happy. We are happy cache fillers lol.
After heading back to the car we came across a whole bunch of geese. Of course I wanted to pet them and Saz wanted to take pictures. She even snapped a picture right before one bit me lol.
We hopped in the car and drove up up up up this windy road to find the next cache. We parked the car in a very expensive area and started down a lovely paved walking path. Nothing at all like we are used to. We are use to gravel or dirt. I guess having money has it's perks. We ended up at this beautiful little bridge with a tiny bit of water running under it. A nice surprise since it is high summer. It took just a few minutes to find the cache. We had a good laugh reading the log book since it said things like.. "there was five of us and it took us over 30 minutes to find it". We wandered back up the pretty trail to the car and headed out for the next one.
We had to sneak through a fence and wander around under power lines to make the next find. We have decided we hate power lines with their crackle and snapping and buzzing. At one point on the trail two huge dogs come out of no where towards us. We had that moment of OMG run before we saw the owner. Like Saz and I could out run dogs LMAO!! We found it inside a fence pole. We have found a few of these but we were kind of shocked when we pulled it out and it was HUGE. Filled with aliens.
By now it was getting to that stage where it is almost dark. Where you are not sure if another hide will put you in full dark or if you can make it. We decided to go for it.
Again we ended up in a fairly affluant neighborhood with a pretty little paved trail. Of course off of the paved trail was a not paved trail where we found the cache. We then decided to go to the next one which was only .1 miles up the road. After getting that one we hopped back in the car to go home but instead ended up at a party store buying more swag to fill our cache bags and cache tackle box up. Yes we have a tackle box filled with swag.
When we got home I entered in the new cache and logged our day's finds. We waited for a little while and then BAM DENIED!!
ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
You are 37 feet to close to another cache.
Funny thing though this time we were ok with it. The next day we made a quick run back and climbed our butts up a rock cliff thing and up a mountain and moved that sucker.
Got home and put it back in with the new coordinates. It was accepted and posted!!! We have our first finder who seemed to like it a lot too.
I am going to post pictures from our outing in the next post since I can't figure out how to put them in where I want them.
I am looking forward to our next cache hunt and hide!!!
Sazy came over and we hopped in the car with the ammo can and drove off to where we did the death hike the last time we went out. I had printed out all of the other caches around it so we would have an idea of where they were so we wouldn't have the you are to close to another cache problem again.
We hiked up the side of a mountain in between two caches, climbed up below a huge tree and climbed a steep incline to put the cache up on a ledge. As we walked back down all covered in dirt and leaves we looked at each other and decided that we were going to be told to move it again. But we kept on going and found a tiny little cache at the front gate.
This time we took lots and lots of pictures.
We were off then to find one right by it in a park that we thought was called Miracle Mountain. Up we climbed thinking we were going the right way only to find out we weren't. So down the hill we went seeing what has become a staple of our caching days. A kitty. This time the kitty wanted nothing to do with us. To bad because I love a good kitty lol.
We finally arrived at the spot and started looking. And Looking. And looking. We decided we needed to look at the clue. Not a live oak. What? Saz and I looked at each other and thought we have no idea what a live oak is. We poked around a bit more in the multitude of different oak trees and got pretty frustrated. At one point I got a long stick and started pointing at trees. Is this a live oak? Saz say I have no idea maybe it is a scrub oak. Is this a live oak? While pointing at another tree. I have no idea. Is THIS a live oak? While pointing the stick up in the air at yet another kind of oak tree. Then Saz goes HEY there it is! Take a look a the picture. We were darn lucky to find that guy. We opened it up and had to remove some crud. Like a splenda packet and a golf ball with a gouge out of it. Who puts stuff like that in a cache?
We hopped back in the car and headed back over towards the cache we had tried to find when I lost my cell phone the last caching trip or so. It had been almost dark when we started searching and our minds weren't on the hunt so we had to take a do not find. This time however we found it! Along with tons of cute squirrels playing "OH my god I hope I don't die when I make this jump" at the very tip tops of these giant redwood trees.
We felt much better after finding it!
The next stop was Vasona park. Of course the stupid lady in my GPS thought that we should be searching on the freeway but we drove around and around until we figured out that it was in the park. We paid our six bucks to get in, parked and set off on foot. There were two in the park so we carried our little packs.
Did I mention we look cute with our little backpacks?
On the way to the first one we heard an ice cream man. There is something about Ice Cream Man music that brings out the little kid in people. Before I knew what had happened I was happily walking along with a missle pop lol.
Pretty soon after getting the ice cream we found the first cache tucked away behind a tree. By now we are pretty happy with ourselves since we have found all of the caches we have searched for. We then headed off towards the next one in the park.
We had to cross over this pretty bridge and then hike around the lake a bit. We found the spot and started searching. This should be easy after all it is a ammo can. Well we searched and searched and searched. Finally we found it under a pile of pine needles. Sneaky caches today YAHOO!
Inside that cache I found the best gargoyle statue. I was freaking excited since I collect them. LOVED IT!!! We filled the cache back up and put it back.
We tend to do that. Take a empty cache and fill it back up with goodies. We figure we would want to find a full cache why not let the next person be happy. We are happy cache fillers lol.
After heading back to the car we came across a whole bunch of geese. Of course I wanted to pet them and Saz wanted to take pictures. She even snapped a picture right before one bit me lol.
We hopped in the car and drove up up up up this windy road to find the next cache. We parked the car in a very expensive area and started down a lovely paved walking path. Nothing at all like we are used to. We are use to gravel or dirt. I guess having money has it's perks. We ended up at this beautiful little bridge with a tiny bit of water running under it. A nice surprise since it is high summer. It took just a few minutes to find the cache. We had a good laugh reading the log book since it said things like.. "there was five of us and it took us over 30 minutes to find it". We wandered back up the pretty trail to the car and headed out for the next one.
We had to sneak through a fence and wander around under power lines to make the next find. We have decided we hate power lines with their crackle and snapping and buzzing. At one point on the trail two huge dogs come out of no where towards us. We had that moment of OMG run before we saw the owner. Like Saz and I could out run dogs LMAO!! We found it inside a fence pole. We have found a few of these but we were kind of shocked when we pulled it out and it was HUGE. Filled with aliens.
By now it was getting to that stage where it is almost dark. Where you are not sure if another hide will put you in full dark or if you can make it. We decided to go for it.
Again we ended up in a fairly affluant neighborhood with a pretty little paved trail. Of course off of the paved trail was a not paved trail where we found the cache. We then decided to go to the next one which was only .1 miles up the road. After getting that one we hopped back in the car to go home but instead ended up at a party store buying more swag to fill our cache bags and cache tackle box up. Yes we have a tackle box filled with swag.
When we got home I entered in the new cache and logged our day's finds. We waited for a little while and then BAM DENIED!!
ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
You are 37 feet to close to another cache.
Funny thing though this time we were ok with it. The next day we made a quick run back and climbed our butts up a rock cliff thing and up a mountain and moved that sucker.
Got home and put it back in with the new coordinates. It was accepted and posted!!! We have our first finder who seemed to like it a lot too.
I am going to post pictures from our outing in the next post since I can't figure out how to put them in where I want them.
I am looking forward to our next cache hunt and hide!!!
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