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Two crazy women, First time hunt details....


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Our introduction to this hobby was innocent enough. I saw Geocaching mentioned on another board I visit. I asked a few questions and then was led to this board where I read like a mad woman. I contacted my friend Saz and asked her if she would be my partner. Totally fly by night operation. Two women with no real clue what we were doing but most of the basic rules down. (have learned a few more since yesterday lol)

Here is what I wrote on the other board.

 

So today Saz and I went on our first treasure hunt. It was hot but that didn't stop us. We hopped in the car, entered the first coordinates and were on our way. First stop was a park. As we walked up there were muggles! Lucky for us they left right as we arrived. We walked around for a bit and finally found the area the coordinates said we were suppose to be at. LET the search begin!! There we were searching in bushes and around trees. We were there only about 5 minutes when Saz said "Found it"

Hidden under a flower bush was a plastic tuperware container with the words Geocache written on it. We were so freaking excited. We opened it up. Looked around for muggles and then started pawing through the goodies. We signed the log book. We also found a traveling bug (a item with a tag attached to it that likes to move from location to location) We took that and left a wooden fish in it's place.

We hopped back in the car and went to the second location. A park. We were looking through bushes and around trees and not having very much luck. Saz warned me about bees. Then again Saz says "found it!".. Again we got all excited and started looking through the stuff inside. We signed the log book again. "Saz and Hellolost" We put Dill Pickle the traveling bug inside and I got my first swag. A skeleton keychain! (I have since learned that traveling bugs do not count as trade items and need to go back and put something in that cache! :D )

Boy were we smug now. We talked about how good we were doing. We put the coordinates in for the third location and went on our way. When we got where it said we were blocked by a locked fence. We drove around for a while and found a different way in.

"in between two trees are six bushes. rear left bush" was the clue. The thing is there was ivy everywhere. We spent quite a while digging through ivy. Getting bushes in our hair. Crawling around on our hands and knees. We finally gave up. We couldn't find it That is what being smug got us.

We hopped back in the car sweaty and dirty and disappointed. We decided to stop and get something to eat before we moved on to the next cache.

The next cache was in another park. After searching a while AGAIN Saz says "found it" (I was beginning to wonder if I was blind)This one was a magnetic box that was attached and painted to look like the electrical box it was stuck to. It had been muggled All the stuff was on the ground and there was no log book to enter. We put the stuff back inside and added a dollar coin. I let the owner know it had been muggled when I logged our find when I got home.

Off to the next one!!! First we turned into some industrial area and were blocked by a fence. So we got back in the car and looked for a different way to get in. We found a pathway and started walking for about a mile (if it wasn't a mile it sure felt that way in 99 degree heat). We had to go off road. So there we were walking through tall dry grass getting stickers all over us. Me in flip flops and we come to a creek. YUP coordinates say it is on the other side of the creek. So back we walk to the car in the heat begging the gods for a hole in the fence. We hop in the car and go to Starbuck and get a GIANT iced coffee while picking stickers out of our shoes and pants.

Back on the hunt! We drive around to the other side of the creek and walk along a nice path mostly in shade. We find a place where we need to go off road a bit and find the coordinates. We start the hunt. I find it!!!! YAY FINALLY!! It is a ammo box covered in camoflauge. we pull it out and open it. Inside is all kinds of fun stuff. Since it is Sazy's turn to pick something I hand her the box while I am looking through the log book. This cache has been there since 2003!!! There were many many entries. And I found one and Saz found one from other people who accidently went the wrong way too. Saz chose a glass fish bead thingy and we put in a candle. Back to the car we went.

By now we needed gas and another soda to drink. MY GOD it was hot.

We put the the next coordinates and off we went. Yup another hike. Sheesh. But it was fun actually. We found the coordinates and started looking... and looking... and looking again. We found the bird cage the person whose cache it was talked about but no cache. There were rocks moved all over the place so you could totally tell that there were people looking for it. We never did find it

Off we went for home.

In the meantime we started making lists of stuff we needed for our treasure hunting trips. Little back packs, water, bandaids. We also started planning our own caches for the future lol. They will be Lost Hatch related.

I had the best time ever today and can't wait to do it again!!!

 

Today I checked back on all of the caches we visited just to see if anyone else had visited them. Our first find had a visitor today and our first not found was now archived. (I think that is what it is called when someone closes it.)

 

Saz and I have begun to make plans for another hunt. We have had trouble explaining to our family what two 40 year old women are climbing through the bushes and why it is fun. The hunt is what makes it fun.

 

Although I am really really not to sure that I like the micro containers I see pictures of and comments about. But I guess those might come later after we get a few more hunts under our belts.

 

I had to laugh at a comment made by a friend of ours on a board Saz and I go to daily and have a "treasure hunting" thread following our adventures.

I'm not 100% following all this, but I'm really enjoying it! I am so glad you guys are having fun adventures together and I am totally LOL picturing you guys crawling in bushes to find some box with a key chain in it. lol

 

We know that this is not "treasure hunting" but that is the easiest way to explain it to people who can't seem to get it lol

 

Thanks for reading our story.

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I'm going to guess (from the three caches you found) that you're in Northern California. Just so you know, the largest Geocaching event of the year, GeoWoodstock 6 is being held next weekend in Wheatland (outside of Sacramento) and there will be a large number of Geocachers from all over the world. If you'd like to meet the local community, come join us (see the links below) and if you can't make it, there are plenty of other events here in the Bay Area and knowing your fellow Geocachers just makes it even more fun.

 

GeoWoodstock 6

GeoWoodstock 6: Friday Night Meet & Greet

 

and a link to the local Bay Area group:

 

Geocachers of the Bay Area

 

Hope you can join us!

 

DCC

Edited by Driver Carries Cache
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We actually found four caches but one needed maintenence. So I clicked on that. Should I also have put in that we "found" it? I am still a little confused about the logging things. I am pretty sure I got most of it right except that part.

And do I need to do anything with the one we did not find that the owner closed the next day?

 

I am going to show Saz the information regarding the GeoCaching event. I know we are both busy on the 25th but it sounds fun.

I love that there are groups too! I can't wait to show her that also.

 

We were so unprepared but totally eager when we went out. I was wearing thongs for goodness sake :huh:

We are already planning our next hunt. But we will be smarter this time.

1. look at the cache size

2. Look at the difficulty level. Low until we get use to this.

3. Wear normal shoes lol

4. Make a trip plan instead of driving one way then the next then back over by where we were before.

5. WATER

6. Sunscreen lol

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You two ladies need to meet up with NurseNana and LadyBee4T up in Michigan, lol!

 

God help us all if you meet up, lol! The stories we'd hear from the 4 of you's!!

 

Great story and welcome to the madness... just a word of advice...stay away from the geocoins :D

 

:huh::huh::)

 

Naomi :D

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The one thing I missed from your story - the Travel Bug (TB) you picked up and later deposited needs to be logged independently of the caches. If you are going to be moving a TB on the same day you find it, write down the number from the tag so when you get home you can log that you took it from cache X and placed it in cache Y.

 

Welcome to the addiction!

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I am going to show Saz the information regarding the GeoCaching event. I know we are both busy on the 25th but it sounds fun.

I love that there are groups too! I can't wait to show her that also.

 

If you can't make it for GeoWoodstock, do check into the Geocachers of the Bay Area. Members organize events all year long. There's usually a couple a month at least. An event usually involves food (sometimes we picnic or BBQ in a local park, or meet at a local pizza joint) games, fun, meeting all the other local cachers and telling stories about all our crazy adventures.

 

There are a huge number of very active geocachers all around the Bay Area. I think it's even more fun when you've met the person who hid the cache and you recognize some of the names in the log book. It just makes it so much more personal.

 

Loved your story... it so reminds me of how thrilled I was when we found that first tupperware bowl under a shrub in a local park! :huh:

 

It's like you've just been made privy to some big hidden secret! :huh:

 

Have fun out there, and If you make it to GeoWoodstock (or any other event), say hi!

 

DCC

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Welcome to the addiction, and welcome to the boards...you'll find good information here and lots of interesting things...

Loved your story...I felt like I was there with you! I'm also a mom in her 40's frequently crawling around in bushes or bog tromping with my caching buddy and several kids tagging along. You are off to a great start! You might reconsider candles as swag in 99 degree weather, they can be messy. I used play-dough for swag on my first trip out and by reading these forums discovered that was not the best idea. Apparently some animals find that to smell like food and will ravage a cache to get it.

 

Have fun!

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Hi guys! I'm Saz.

 

Do you carry a cache hunting pack? What items do you find useful? I am thinking about bandaids and gloves and stuff like that.

 

I carry a sling backpack. I tried several types of bags until I found one that was the right fit. I have a few things that I always carry in my pack.

 

Gardening gloves for reaching into unknown spots or icky caches.($1 section at Target)

Cuts and scrapes first aid kit ($1 section at Target. Makes good swag too!)

Several pens and pencils

Various sizes of ziplock bags. (never know when you need to replace a damaged one)

Hand sanitizer (for icky caches)

A small multi tool

A small keychain flashlight (good for looking into spots before reaching in)

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Hi guys! I'm Saz.

 

Do you carry a cache hunting pack? What items do you find useful? I am thinking about bandaids and gloves and stuff like that.

 

I carry a sling backpack. I tried several types of bags until I found one that was the right fit. I have a few things that I always carry in my pack.

 

Gardening gloves for reaching into unknown spots or icky caches.($1 section at Target)

Cuts and scrapes first aid kit ($1 section at Target. Makes good swag too!)

Several pens and pencils

Various sizes of ziplock bags. (never know when you need to replace a damaged one)

Hand sanitizer (for icky caches)

A small multi tool

A small keychain flashlight (good for looking into spots before reaching in)

 

Thank you. That is quite a lot like what I had in mind.

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We actually found four caches but one needed maintenence. So I clicked on that. Should I also have put in that we "found" it?

 

The needs maintenance log does not count as a find so you can go back to the cache page and log a "found it" to get credit for the find. In this case you would have both a "Needs Maintenance" log to alert the owner to a problem and a "found it" log to get credit for this cache.

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mousekakat says:

 

 

You two ladies need to meet up with NurseNana and LadyBee4T up in Michigan, lol!

 

LOL, LOL, LOL!

 

What a hoot you are! Welcome ladies to this fine addiction and fun story game of ours! It was not that long ago that I can remember doing much the same thing that you describe. And the rest is history!

Love the story! I hope that you have many many fond memories as the years pass and your finds increase! If you enjoy each hunt and make it a way to enjoy not only the outdoors, but use it as a special time with friends and away from life's every day stressors, with a little effort you can have many fun years ahead of you!

 

Enjoy!

And if you DO get to Michigan, be absolutely sure to look up LadyBee4T and me. We can teach a thing or two to anyone about how to make the most fun out of even the simplest (and easiest ) caches. You might also have the opportunity to learn from our mistakes. Not that we ever make any, or admit to them when we do....right Beverly?

 

Have fun and stay safe....and invest in some good boots/footwear!

 

anne

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mousekakat says:

 

 

You two ladies need to meet up with NurseNana and LadyBee4T up in Michigan, lol!

 

LOL, LOL, LOL!

 

What a hoot you are! Welcome ladies to this fine addiction and fun story game of ours! It was not that long ago that I can remember doing much the same thing that you describe. And the rest is history!

Love the story! I hope that you have many many fond memories as the years pass and your finds increase! If you enjoy each hunt and make it a way to enjoy not only the outdoors, but use it as a special time with friends and away from life's every day stressors, with a little effort you can have many fun years ahead of you!

 

Enjoy!

And if you DO get to Michigan, be absolutely sure to look up LadyBee4T and me. We can teach a thing or two to anyone about how to make the most fun out of even the simplest (and easiest ) caches. You might also have the opportunity to learn from our mistakes. Not that we ever make any, or admit to them when we do....right Beverly?

 

Have fun and stay safe....and invest in some good boots/footwear!

 

anne

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Saz and I have planned two new new hunts! We are both chomping at the bit to get back out there and find some more. lol

You should see us making lists. Planning packs. Planning a hunt after being at a baseball game all day Sunday. Hunting on Monday. Going tomorrow to buy some swag (with a hunt or two thrown in shhhhhh!) :D oK so that makes three hunts lol

 

I have to admit I scared myself to death looking at that best cache container thread. I have no idea how I would find half of those things. I hope I don't have to for a little while until I get use to hunting :D

 

I can't wait to meet some of our fellow searchers some day.

 

We aren't going to Sacramento but we are seriously thinking of joining the bay area group.

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We wrote down the number of the travel bug and then logged it when we got back.

Dill Pickle

http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?tracker=XXXXXX

 

Did I do it right?

 

I noticed that this bug had went missing for almost 3 years :laughing:

 

Looks just fine. Welcome to the addiction!

 

Perhaps I am mistaken but shouldn't these posts be edited to not show the tag number for others to log???

(I edited the links in my quotes to not have the number.)

 

Forgot to add. Sounds Like you ladies had a blast and truly enjoyed yourselves. Welcome to the fun.

Edited by ComputerCacheBug
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Oh. I had no idea I wasn't suppose to put a link to a travel bug I found. Sorry :)

 

We went on our second hunt yesterday. Saz did the write up this time.

 

Yesterday at 1:47pm, Hellolost wrote:If we end up shopping LMAO!!!!

 

That was the plan. Hunt for one before dark then go buy stuff. We..uh....just hunted.

 

Besides, two car wrecks and a fire along the roadway made me pretty late. We still packed in three hunts.

 

The first one was hidden across the street from the hider's friend Larry's house. "Larry can sit in his easy chair and watch cachers". Great. The coordinates led us to a school yard and near the center of the lot with a chain link fence. The fence had vines all over it. So we searched the vines and the neighboring trees, all along the ground and looked up where we couldn't reach. We decided being short people will not work to our advantage. Must think what to do about that. There was a guy washing his truck and I wondered if that was Larry. He didn't pay us any mind, certainly didn't tell us where to look. Larry's a bastard. We found it anyway. The hider used one of the M&M plastic tube container things, covered it in brown tape, and hung it on the fence in the vines. It was a good hide.

 

Then we officially blew off shopping, laughed at ourselved a bit, and headed to the next one. This was near a canal, along a chain link fence covered in vines again, and the ground was covered in deep ivy. The coordinates placed the cache either directly on the ivy side of the fence, or directly on the other side where the canal is. For about 1.5 seconds I considered hauling my a** over that fence.

 

 

But there wasn't much plant life there, bare ground, and I'm not 12, so it had to be on the ivy side. We couldn't find it, but didn't want to quit, so we were both head and shoulders digging in the plants. The clue said something like "you would find this in a leprechaun's mouth", and after all my dirtier thoughts passed ( ), I suggested we look for a pipe. Hello found it and examined it carefully. We were head and shoulders in the bushes again. I imagined someone driving by and noticing the asses sticking out of the bushes . Oh look! An a** bush! We tried our best, and we were in the right spot, but it wasn't there or we flat couldn't see it. So on we went.

 

Riding in the car to the third, I realize I have little scratches all over my hands and 100 leaves in my hair. I had gloves in the car, but I didn't want to carry them or carry my purse so I've got to get on the cachepack problem. Hello, didn't we see the little bags we want at Macy's? With a cute little monkey toy grabber thing? I've still got that gift card.

 

So we get to the third hunt. I figure why bother with gloves now and leave them in the car. We had more trouble finding the search spot this time, but we did get there. It's starting to get dark, and we are head and shoulders in the bushes again. It was a big group of bushes with a trail through them just the right size for a three year old. So I am crawling around on my hands and knees and the bushes are catching at and trying to rip my top off. The flashlight would have come in handy here, but my pockets carried only toys to leave behind. The flashlight was in the car. Must get a dadgum PACK! Hello finally found it. A green box in a green bush in the near dark!

 

She also got poked in the neck with a stick.

 

Then she pointed out that we were in the same park as one cache we could not previously find, so we decided to see if anything had changed. As we cross the park, half the sprinklers come on and I wonder if we are going to make it. We only take a quick glance because it's pretty dark now, and the spot is still ransacked, and we manage to get back without getting sprinkled.

 

Then we laughed at ourselves all the way back to Hello's and now I've got to comb leaves out of my hair and wash up. I see I picked up some spider webs, too.

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I love your posts Hello. They make my day and bring laughter.

 

If you are unable to modify the post you can always report it then put in the msg to the moderator to modify the post to not include the ######'s.

 

But Keep posting, or better yet maybe get a blog site to post your adventures at so we may all read and join in on your adventures.

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HEY There!!! I am so happy you started hunting too. I am having the time of my life doing this.

 

If I did a blog type thing where would I put it? It would be a lot of fun for us to keep a record of our trips.

 

I'm having a BLAST too! This is one of the funnest things I've come across in awhile, hubby and I love it. :unsure:

 

Blogs would be fun to do. I've never really blogged myself though.

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HEY There!!! I am so happy you started hunting too. I am having the time of my life doing this.

 

If I did a blog type thing where would I put it? It would be a lot of fun for us to keep a record of our trips.

 

I'm having a BLAST too! This is one of the funnest things I've come across in awhile, hubby and I love it. :unsure:

 

Blogs would be fun to do. I've never really blogged myself though.

 

Rllglglgggglglglggll glglglgggrlll rllglgllll

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What is a muggle card?

 

It's a little card with information about geocaching that you can give to muggles when they've caught you while searching for a cache (sometimes it's just unavoidable). It's also useful to explain what you're doing to a law enforcement officer if necessary. I've been stopped twice while searching for a cache by a cop and had to explain what I was doing.

 

Going back to an earlier post regarding logging, you didn't mention if you had logged the caches that you did not find. It is quite useful to the owner of a cache as well as other cachers if you always log a DNF when you don't find a cache you're looking for. Several DNFs in a row might indicate that a cache has gone missing or it must may be that it's a difficult hide. When planning out future hunts you can look at the recent logs to see if it might be missing and choose a different cache to hunt. Last weekend I was traveling through an area that had a cache that had several DNFs and the owner had disabled it until she could check on it. Since she lived about 40 miles away I offered to check on it and replace the container if necessary. When I arrived I found the cache within a minute of leaving my car, captured a waypoint (others had said that the published coordinates were off a bit) and posted my log. Now that caches is enabled again.

 

Logging a cache with a DNF and then a subsequent "Found It" (once you've found it) is perfectly acceptable (and in fact, encouraged). Using the "Write a Note" option is also useful if you want to add additional information after you've logged a Find. I recently solved a 5 star puzzle cache and used the "Write a Note" option to indicate that I had solved the puzzle but hadn't yet searched for the cache.

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Awesome story to a great hobby! And at the end of the day you two ended with the right attitude. It was fun and it was an adventure! I hope to be able to meet you on the trails one day.

 

Cheers!

TL

 

P.S. Great alias.

Edited by TotemLake
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Saz and I did it again!

We went back to that cache we hadn't found on Wednesday. The one with the a** bush. This time we found it!!! It is funny how finding a cache that you have previously not found makes you proud while at the same time makes you feel like an idiot lol

We next set off with the intention of starting at a beautiful park with a creek running through it. There were two caches along a trail.. well actually there were three but because I am not a premium member (yet) I couldn't see one. We hopped out of the truck and walked along this wonderful trail filled with flowers. And different beautiful trees. We had a great time. We did run across a few punk children on the trail who barked at us and made me want to turn them over my knee and spank the hell out of them. I hate punk children. I really should have started chasing after them just to scare them lol....

After some searching I found the first container. We logged our find and continued on our way to the second container. What a wonderful walk! I found the second container and we pawed through the stuff and I found a GREAT patch that said Geocachers of the Bay Area. Which of course reminded me that I need to join them!!! B)

After leaving the trail back to the car we came across a herd? Gaggle? of geese with their babies. There must have been at least 20 babies of various sizes. We stood there for a while and watched.

We hopped back in the car and started to pull out when we noticed the coordinates for the next one were for right in the park. We pulled back into the parking space and walked to where the cache was suppose to be. We searched and searched and never found the darn thing >:) grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

We hopped back in the car and were off to the next hide. This was a hide on private property. It was one of the best caches we have run across yet. Tacked to a utility wall was a bird house that said it was a cache. However we couldn't open it because it had a lock on it. It took me a few seconds to figure out that the key was inside the hole attached to a string. We opened it and took a signature item that needed to be logged on a seperate website and left a pen and balloon.

The next hide said we had to think out of the box. For some reason when I found the container that was in plain sight I just reached down and picked it up. I would never in a million years have thought I would have picked one of these up. But these hunts have made Saz and I get kind of clever. What a good hide. Plain freaking sight!!

The next cache Saz and I decided to take a DNF.

We decided not to try after seeing that it was in a persons yard. Then decided to drive around to the back of it and walked through the park only to have the coordinates show it was on the other side of the fence in that persons yard. Didn't feel comfortable searching private property.

We had a good time searching for the next one. Saz and her eagle eye found this one! I was searching exactly where the coordinates said and she was searching a bit to the left she found it. Signed the log. Took a yoyo and put in a emergency blanket.

The last one was the best though. Here is the log I put for the cache.

This one took some fancy driving to find. It wanted me to stop at the freeway. Finally we found our way to where it was suppose to be and there was a family pulling out of the driveway. We waited for them to leave before resuming the search. A little while later I see two men down the street staring at us. I stood up and stared back at which point they both turned around real quick. hmmmmm the hiders? I called Saz over to me and told her to take a peek at the two men.. who then pointed at us. We giggled a little and decided to sit on the ground and wait them out. They left but we both figured they were hiding in the bushes watching us. After some ummm hard ummm searching we found the cache and signed the logbook. I actually hurt myself a bit on this one. GREAT hide.

Trying to pry the top of a pole off killed my arm as it popped off and scraped my arm.

I know that those two men knew what we were doing lol.

Another perfect day of caching with a great and wonderful friend who gets to write the next adventure.

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This is so funny! As I read abouyt your adventures, it sounds like my friend migrating_butterflies and I. We went on quite the adventure today! Going to one spot, then another in search of a cache. What people must think! Our geocaching always seems to be an adventure! We are totaly addicted. A friend of ours told us the other day, " I just joined this new awesome thing called geocachin". We just had to laugh! B)

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Here is a coming attraction spoiler of our trip today. This is a post I made for a dnf on a cache page... :ph34r:

Hey Saz...Here is what I posted on those two we missed.

Welcome to our nightmare cache. This was one of those hunts where everything went wrong. Where you curse the hider while you are hunting but forgive them after you FINALLY reach the car and give yourself a chance to laugh!

We didn't see the parking lot at the trail head. Totally missed it. We ended up parking at the park .3 miles up the road and walking down the road to the trail head. That was our first mistake. Cars wizzing by. Ugh. Then we started up the trail and for the life of us couldn't find the coordinates. Of course we were totally distracted by this woman on a horse who kept walking it by us telling us the horse thought we needed help..What? Weird? Finally we figured maybe just maybe we were on the wrong trail since it had split earlier. Off we went around the mountain. Mistake #2 We started walking... and walking... and walking. Then we were walking up a mountain. And UP a mountain. Of course we didn't bring anything with us even though we had promised ourselves we would be bringing water and such. Mistake #3. After some pretty hard core up hill hiking in what we hoped was the direction of the car I turned to Saz and said this is where people make their fatal mistakes right. Then a giant vulchure flew over our heads and we laughed. Then it flew over again and again. I told it that we were not dying even if we looked like it. By this point we were so darn far from the caches on this trail we put the gps away and prayed for the car. We kept going in the same direction and finally emerged at the total back area of the park we had parked in. We were so darn happy. We walked around the lake. Looked at some fish and finally made it back to the car. At this point we pretty much hated the hider lol. Once we got back into the car and got something to drink (almost a hour and a half later) we laughed and decided today was not the day for going back up the other side of the trail. We WILL be back for these two caches... after a while.. Oh and we don't hate you anymore LMAO!!!

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Well let's see. What did we do first? I know I am going to screw up the order, so please feel free to set it straight Ms Hello.

 

I think it was old Calaveras Road, because I was pretty sure where we were going, but didn't end up there. Now I know how Hello feels, lol. We've mostly been hunting in her area and we'd get there and she'd say, this isn't where I thought we were going lol. We drove around a bit for this one as the GPS sent us in a wide looping circle around the site before directing us in. Each with a GPS in hand we tracked it down. Mr. H got a handheld eTrex working and it worked pretty good, too, after I got the hang of it. We would miss the turn by turn driving directions without the other, but for the search site itself it was very good. And we found it! Yay us! Let's go get another!

 

Then I think we went to the park with the tennis balls. It's sort of a long park, with tennis courts on one end and grass and a jogging trail on the other. We were at the grassy end, but there were plenty of tennis balls about anyway. I expected trouble with muggles in this one as the park is usually packed with soccer and football players, but very few folks were around. And we found it! Yay us! Let's go get another!

 

The next was in a smaller park, with some little kids playing right near the search site. I meant to be stealthy, but it wasn't long before I was on my hands and knees pushing leaves around and poking into tree roots. Not suspicious at all, not me LOL. Anyway, we got it! Yay us!

 

The next was in juniper bushes. Actually, it was in one juniper all by it's lonesome. We had already searched the sticky pokey clumps of juniper a bit and decided we hate junipers. I was trying to read the cache log again for a clue and my fingers were sticking together and to the paper. Sticky junipers. Anyway, the name of the cache? Uno Juniper. And where did we find it? In the lone juniper. Yay us! We go back to the car and break out the hand wipes and plot our next victim.

 

This one, okay. I may have mentioned this housing community that I am sure is full of zombies because it was built over an old paint factory, there is a high wall all around it, and only one way in. There is one other entrance, a huge metal gate in the wall, for the fire department's use. This gate is where we were headed. After some looking around we found the hide on the side of the gate in a magnetized container behind some funny clinging plants. Woo hoo! We're awesome!

 

I'm not sure if we had lunch now or hunted one more. If we ate, it was Taco Bell. It's comical when we see that we are both slightly nuts in similar yet different ways, which is of course so much fun if you like to laugh at yourself. Hello lays out all her sauce packets side by side, those that carry the funniest sayings of course, and I lay out my burrito and break out the spork. If I were at home I'd be using a knife and fork. I know. So we had our Taco Bell our way, with a very tasty apple thing for dessert.

 

So next, or before that, or later, I don't even know, we went to a water station to notch our next victory. We walked around quite a bit on this one, trying to get in the right spot. None of the usual suspects were right. The trees, the bushes, the large power boxes.....we'd been from one end of the lot to another and, it seemed right, but it wasn't, so we were leaving the lot to try and find one workable coordinate next door when Hello suddenly spotted it. Sitting all alone and in plain site, a water sprinkler with nothing but concrete to sprinkle lol. That was a new container siting for us. Woo hoo!

 

The next was in a business park next to the railroad tracks. We didn't have to hunt much for this one. I tugged on a strange little post to see if he was hiding something underneath and he was! Somehow this one got water in it. The log book was soaked, but still usable, so I recorded our names, put it back, and off we went.

 

I believe this was when we got cocky enough to head into the hilly county park. There are some serious hiking trails, but also some nice walking trails, and there were two caches along one of the trails. I hoped it was one of the nice soft lake trails. We, uh, ended up in the friggin' outback. By accident of course. We could see the trail entrance on the right side of the road, so we parked and walked back to the entrance. Along the roadside. Cars whizzing by. Guess what was right beside the trail entrance? A GD parking lot. <sigh> LOL So we enter the trail, and we've got two choices. A trail to the left and a trail to the right. We are at the junction of two different trails. A woman on a horse was guarding the trail on the right. I guess. Who knows what they were doing. Just standing there being weird. So we went left. We went as maybe as 100 feet, not having any success in picking up a coordinate. It's further along one of these trails. This one or that one? While we are standing there considering, the woman on the horse comes walking by. "I guess she thinks you need some help", says the woman as they pass by. She attempts to converse with us but the horse has no interest and soon she's out of sight. Before we go any further up a trail following an animal who craps every three minutes, we decide to try our luck on the front part of the other trail. Nothing. We aren't even close to either coordinate. We'll walk down the trail a bit. It's rustic but not much work. Pausing every minute or so to check the GPS and hope for something encouraging, we pass a snake's skin lying on the trail. Hello: do you know what a rattlesnake sounds like? Yep, I answer, wondering if the maniacal running screaming from a snake was at hand. This would be a good spot for a serial killer to live, she remarks. Buzzards and vultures and hawks are stalking us. Horse poop everywhere. Now we've got imaginary murderers and rattle snakes to worry about, too. The trail starts uphill. I am fairly sure we have no further to go to get to the car than we've already been, so there's no point to turning back unless the trail is impassable. It's severely rutted but okay for walking, so we haul our asses up a steep climb and when we finally get to the top, my heart is trying to bang straight through my chest and I am so out of breath and I can feel my face flaming. If we had proper caching packs, we'd have had water with us. We didn't have a frickin' thing. One day we'll get set up right. The walk is easier now that we've got to the top and I am breathing slow and deep, trying to get back to where I can speak without huffing and puffing. There is a man ahead of us on the trail. He stops to inspect little houses along a fence just off the trail. A cacher! Let's follow him! He inspects every little birdhouse looking thing, and when he's left we check it out. I can find no way to open this box, but up the trail we can see him and it sure looks like he is opening these little houses. I have no idea what he was doing. We come down the trail into the small lake area where we left the car. Guess what's directly on the left? The other trail. The one we left to try the demon trail instead. What must be a shorter and easier walk, a shortcut, if you will, to the loopy piece of s*** that we just finished. The caches have to be along this trail, but neither of us have the heart for it right now. We walk into the lake area, take a look at what's going on, take a look at the lake. Hello points out a swirly spot where she says a big fish is. I watch the swirly spot and pretty soon I do see a big fish! Kind of light colored with brown spots in very shallow water. Maybe a catfish?

 

So we get to the car. Admonish ourselves for heading down the trail with no water, even though we had no intention of taking a hike like that, but refuse to call it a failure. It was the horse's fault. We'll take the right trail and outfit for it next time. This is a hold, not a giving up.

 

We picked up about six more caches after this. One was hanging in a tree, one was in a field under a rusty piece of sheetmetal (must get a tetanus shot), under a bridge, under a giant fake rock.....we got them all.

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Great reports. Thanks.

 

A suggestion: Set a waypoint for your car and at significant spots on the trail. It will help you retrace your steps or find the car from a remote location. Incidentally, there are lots of cool things you can put in a caching pack. There are many threads about packs. The right one will really make things easier.

 

Good luck and keep the stories coming.

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I love it!!

 

 

In the future a creek won't stop you. In fact you will welcome them .. another chance to test out your waterproof boots that you will eventually decide is a must, like I did. hehe I grabbed a cache tonight after church that required me to cross a creek twice! I was really excited. Then I had to climb a little bit of a cliff face. So not only did I get my boots wet up to my ankles (but my feet stayed dry) I got covered in dirt on my backside and shirt. What a great day!!

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