Great! Another Caching Angelino who wants more than the drive-up geocaching! The geocaches that require more than just footwork are more interesting to me, and I don't mind doing mental gymnastics to get me close to the final location.
Take a look at the caches planted by WM6P ("Surveyor’s Delight" for example) and JudgeCrater ("Hide and Seek #1" for example), they're about as far out as I've found and they're mostly in Thousand Oaks / Simi Valley area so they're reasonably local. Like you, I also try to go out of my way to make things more, uh, interesting. I placed my third (LA-43 saboteur) last week, and so far I only know of one person that's looking for it. Another area cacher known for his antics is Otispug, but from what I understand the mystery is in the hiding of the container more than in the thrill of the chase.
Feel free to contact me via the Geocaching site if you want to discuss some ideas outside the forums, there are a couple of things that I've thought of but haven't had time to implement yet.