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Poison Oak Cachers

Ca Racetramp

By Ca Racetramp
in West and Southwest

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pointsaljim

+pointsaljim

Posted
Posted

Thanks, Oreo Pony. :D I did SLO Higher and Highest this evening as well as Mint Julep. Between the co-worker who insisted that I drink a beer before going geocaching and having a Mint Julep before I drove back to Orcutt, its a good thing I didn't get a 502! I don't remember getting much of a buzz though. Could it be because the "beer" was an Odoul's and I forgot to put bourbon in my Mint Julep? :unsure: Do you and BooBooBee shop at the same store for cache containers? Your 5 year old must be very motivated to find the caches or is gonna end up climbing Mt. Everest! That's a tough 40 minutes. Seriously, SLO Higher and Highest are fantastic hikes that everyone should do. Note: If you do SLO Higher, you've already done 95% of the hard hiking. It's just a nice stroll over to Highest, so do them both at the same time.

BTW, Geocats, I couldn't find the cache at Highest, but I did find your note and almost stepped on a coiled rattlesnake when I was intently bent over looking in the bushes! Actually, Highest is so nice that it should be made into a virtual. There is a way. way, cool viewing area that someone has built out of natural material.

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Geo_cats

+Geo_cats

Posted
Posted
If there is a spare seat in the northcountymobile I'd appreciate a ride from SLO. How about I meet you (OP) about 6:45 in SLO at the Denny's on Calle Joaquin.

 

Sounds perfect Naturesprite. Three of us from North County will pick you up there.

Sounds like we're getting a nice little group from SLO area. Hopefully one of us North County people have a SUV or van. Our group has reached or outgrown my PT Cruiser's capacity for people plus gear.

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Oreo Pony

+Oreo Pony

Posted
Posted
That's a tough 40 minutes.

There ya go... it took us 1 hour and 20 minutes - just to get to Higher. We (er, I mean "he") needed to rest A LOT!

 

Since I'm the last one to see Highest, I feel obligated somehow to go back to check where I put it. I sure don't want to see any rattlesnakes though. Having lived here for 35+ years and gone hither and yon, I've yet to see a rattlesnake. I just jinxed myself there now didn't I?

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Geo_cats

+Geo_cats

Posted
Posted
That's a tough 40 minutes.

There ya go... it took us 1 hour and 20 minutes - just to get to Higher. We (er, I mean "he") needed to rest A LOT!

 

I agree with you OP. I know it took me over an hour to get to Higher. When I started at the bottom of the trail I saw an older guy ahead of me and I thought 'aha!, I can sort of pace myself behind him and not tire myself out'. :lol:

Bulltwinkle! He left me in the dust. :rolleyes:

I lost sight of him before I got halfway up and then I rested, rested a 2nd, 3rd time and was finally getting near the top when I met him coming down. He was in his 70's and said it was so beautiful up there he lay down and took a short nap!! :ph34r:

Talk about heaping insult on top of injury!

But in talking to him I learned he does this several times a week. So, you see, he knows all the shortcuts to the top.

:lol:

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pointsaljim

+pointsaljim

Posted
Posted

Hey Oreo and Geocats:)

 

Did I say 40 minutes? I meant to say 39 but decided to round it off! I met a guy at the top who claimed he did it in 32 minutes. He said he started 3 weeks ago and has been hiking it almost everyday and has lost 30 pounds! He even pulled up his shirt to show me his slimmed down tummy. I also met a lady that had to be in her late 60's who does this hike frequently. She had seen my geocaching papers because they had fallen out of my pocket and confessed that she had read all the logs. Both her and the other tummy show guy were absolutely convinced that even with all of the other great local hikes that geocaching has to offer that NONE could measure up to this one for the difficulty level. Personally, I think ANYONE who does this hike to Higher in less than 2 hours has expended a lot of energy and has done a great job! The only reason that I went so fast is because I just HAD to make sure that I got to Mint Julep before the bars close!

Oreo: I sure don't want to JINX anyone, but feel it is my duty to warn people when I see one. Before this year, I can't hardly ever remember seeing a rattlesnake either! This is the 2nd one I've seen in the last 3 weeks.

 

BooBooBee: There is a one lane dirt road that is overgrown a little bit that looks like it is an access road for utility trucks to work on the power lines that comes from the south and will lead you right to both caches if you want to BIKE it.

 

Anyways, I'm going to post my pics. I feel like I got some real good sun shots, although the best one has a little purple spot right in the middle. Maybe BooBooBee or someone can show me what I'm doing wrong. (Maybe I just need a filter when shooting towards the sun.)

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pointsaljim

+pointsaljim

Posted
Posted

Hey everybody who is going on July 30 to C'ISHUMU:

 

I volunteered to bring a rope. Should I get climbing rope that is rated for a fall and is way expensive and long(50 meters), or should I get static rope that is not rated for a fall and is inexpensive and I can get a short lenght of it ? :)

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Geo_cats

+Geo_cats

Posted
Posted

I don't think we are going to be climbing Half Dome. It sounds like we just need a rope to help some of us less nimble folk up or down. Twenty feet of something that would hold 250 pounds should do. Anyone weighing more than that might not make it through the narrows if the pictures are any indication.:)

 

I don't know about the rest of you but I'm sure looking forward to this cache.

:)

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pointsaljim

+pointsaljim

Posted
Posted
He can find the rattlers and shoo them away so the rest of us can enjoy the hike!  :)
Uh Oh, This sounds like it is going to be a therapy hike....confronting my nightmares! Once, we found a long gopher snake in our yard and my kids made it into a pet. They let the thing slither around their neck and even my wife seemed to be comfortable holding it. I could barely bring myself to pet it when my kids were holding it. I then went away for 5 days and during that time got myself totally psyched up to hold it and play with it. When I got home, my wife informed me that it had escaped it's cage(aquarium), about an hour earlier. We couldn't find it. Needless to say, I was pretty freaked out for a couple of weeks thinking that it was going to show up in bed with me one night! :)
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heligator

+heligator

Posted
Posted (edited)

Hey all you guys going to C'ISMUHU, check this out. You don't need an Adventure Pass for this part of the Los Padres National Forest anymore.

 

Adventure Pass Notice

 

And here's another goodie. This is a bearing diagram for the start point. The line pointing down is north since you'll be travelling south from the trailhead.

 

C'ISMUHU bearings

 

And just for reference, here's the cache page:

 

C'ISMUHU

 

Don't forget to pick up "Go, Play!" for a twofer as long as you're in the area.

 

Go, Play!

 

Have fun!

Edited by heligator
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Geo_cats

+Geo_cats

Posted
Posted
Hey all you guys going to C'ISHUMU, check this out. You don't need an Adventure Pass for this part of the Los Padres National Forest anymore.

 

And here's another goodie. This is a bearing diagram for the start point.

Thanks for the info on the Adventure pass.

 

As for the bearing picture, I made as much sense out of that as I think the picture of the washing machine will help in our locating the cache.

 

Does anyone know if the Adventure pass is needed to hike the Cerro Alto cache?

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Geo_cats

+Geo_cats

Posted
Posted
Hmm, let's try that again. The bearing diagram shows north down, 130 degrees magnetic (upper right) and 285 degrees magnetic (lower left). If you line up the water tower to 130 and the camel rock to 285 you're there!

I admit, I've never seen a bearing diagram before and so may be a bit slow on the uptake. Be gentle with me and help me understand what I'm seeing. :)

 

I see three lines intersecting within a circle with several offset squares inside the circle. The intersecting lines are at aproximately 125 degrees (lower right), 180 degrees (bottom), and aproximately 310 degrees (upper left) . I guess I have no idea how this correlates with your explanation. ;)

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pointsaljim

+pointsaljim

Posted
Posted

When I went to the Forest Service to get my adventure pass today, it turns out that the last Saturday of each month you don't need one. (I got an annual pass anyways 'cause I expect to use it quite a bit. Got the rope. Weather forecast is for hot on Saturday and sunny!

 

Geocats: I don't understand the bearing diagram either, but do want to try figure it out.

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Oreo Pony

+Oreo Pony

Posted
Posted

If I have to be one or the other, I'll be the king snake magnet:

 

KingSnake.jpg

 

Found this guy at a nearby cache and brought him home for a short visit.

 

All was going well until he got out of the terrarium while we were at work. Lucky for me I found him within five minutes. If we hadn't found him, we would have had to move to a different house, according to my hubby.

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Oreo Pony

+Oreo Pony

Posted
Posted
Attn: All POC members. HELP! How do I change the order of pics that I post to my log? When I finished with SLO Higher, I decided that I wanted to add one more pic, but I didn't want it to be the last one, esp. since I had labeled the previous last one, "The End".

Unfortunately, methinks you need to delete them all and post over in the corrected order. OP

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Naturesprite

+Naturesprite

Posted
Posted

I understand the bearing diagram, it should be of some help to us. This is basically a tool for triangulation of your location. When we are at the right spot, we will see the two bearing objects (the rock and water tank) along the bearing lines of the diagram (that is oriented to North). If we were tricky, we could attempt to locate the two markers on a topo map (probably easy for the water tank and hard for the rock) we could then take reverse bearings to triagulate the spot and grab a lat/lon on the location so the gps will lead us to it. That doesn't sound like as much fun though :) . Maybe I should save my geography degree for more practical purposes ;)

 

Looking forward to the adventure.

 

NS

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heligator

+heligator

Posted
Posted (edited)

Well that's closer but not quite. The problem is that you're travelling south and looking south for the bearing landmarks. So I flipped the diagram 180 degrees and it is oriented south, not north. So the line pointing down is 0 degrees due north, upper left is 130 degrees (water tank), lower right is 285 degrees (camel rock). I mixed up my left/right in the previous explanation. How's that?

 

Actually I did try to find the landmarks on a topo map, but they're too small and you don't know the distance to the water tank. Also, the only lat/long coordinates you have are that of the trailhead. You'd need a satellite photo showing the trail to have a general idea of where to look on the map. I made an estimate, but was 1/3 mile off.

Edited by heligator
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Oreo Pony

+Oreo Pony

Posted
Posted
I mixed up  my left/right in the previous explanation.

I almost wrote to you to ask if that were the case - my brain just flipped what you wrote earlier.

 

I'd LOVE to take a course on orienteering, etc...

 

or maybe just ply a knowledgeable person with free food to give an orienteering course at a local park sometime. :laughing:

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Geo_cats

+Geo_cats

Posted
Posted
Geocats: I don't understand the bearing diagram either, but do want to try figure it out.

Well now that Heligator has his right and left figured out and explained it a bit better I kinda sorta get the jist of it but I'll have to have someone show me. :laughing:

 

Just in case, I'll bring the picture of the antique washing machine too. That might be as much help to me as the bearing diagram. :laughing:

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Geo_cats

+Geo_cats

Posted
Posted

How about that, my avatar has returned!

Has anyone noticed that things come and go on the geocache sites? Theres been times I could not get a map to display or caches would not show up on a map even though you could search them and see they're still active. Now my avatar wanders off for a day or two and returns. :laughing: I wonder where he went to? Probably looking for nuts. Those shouldn't be too hard to find in these forums.

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pointsaljim

+pointsaljim

Posted
Posted
Unfortunately, methinks you need to delete them all and post over in the corrected order. OP

 

Me thoughts that was going to be the answer; was just hoping that maybe there was another way.

NICE KING SNAKE! :laughing: (Maybe your husband and I can do snake therapy together!) :laughing:

 

Before this year, I can't hardly ever remember seeing a rattlesnake either!

 

I just now remembered that 2 years ago I had to grab a painter and pull him away from stepping into a small electrical room that a rattlesnake had taken up residence in right near the door opening. I guess I am pretty good at spotting them. I actually have a good 2 minute video of capturing the snake and good shots of his rattles, but I don't know how to attach it to this reply. :laughing:

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Naturesprite

+Naturesprite

Posted
Posted

It's lunchtime and I am hungry, and now I'm reading about free food in exchange for orientering info. I don't pretend to be a professional orienteer, but I know the basics of compasscraft and map reading. I have an old merit badge from scouts and a geography degree and have done a few orienteering races before.

 

If I had a helper, I would be willing to set up an orienteering course at a local park and we can invite interested cachers out for a chance to learn ways of finding things without the gps (Event Cache?). The gps would be helpful in setting up a course though. I could also make some handouts with orienteering methods, prepare the orienteering maps, and borrow a compass or two from my office.

 

We would need a park that has some space and trees and topography. El chorro regional Park (SLO area) would work. Maybe Heilman in Atascadero? Suggestions?

 

If folks are up for this we can start looking at dates. Maybe I can get my brother to come down, he's done quite a bit more orienteering than me. If anyone out there has experience as well, maybe we can work together.

 

How 'bout it?

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Oreo Pony

+Oreo Pony

Posted
Posted

Hey Naturesprite - Thanks for the offer to help us (map loving fiends that we are) - sounds like a grand time.

 

While doing some surfing on the net, I noticed the Bay Area Orienteering Club is our closest as far as attending events and learning. BAOC

 

I'd much rather organize a Geocaching Event and dip our feet in locally.

 

I'll check into El Chorro since it's cooler and larger. El Chorro Regional Park

 

September 17th is National Orienteering Day. I'll throw that out as a possible date.

 

In the SLO County Parks Special Events calendar I see that there is an Amateur Golf Tournament at Dairy Creek that weekend, but that shouldn't hamper us. There's camping too (first-come, first-serve basis) for those who want to make a weekend of it.

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BooBooBee

+BooBooBee

Posted
Posted

Sept. 17 is a GREAT idea. Perhaps we could invite members of the Bay Area Orienteering Club to join us. We share our food, they share their knowledge...or some such. Also, I'd be willing to write and deliver news releases to invite the general public to participate. If we thought that might create too much of a crowd, perhaps we could charge a small fee of non-members (to help us bring MORE food), or we could include in the news release that it's a potluck...bring food in trade for lessons and fun.

 

I'm putting this on my calendar! :(

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Naturesprite

+Naturesprite

Posted
Posted

If we go on the 17th, Poinsaljim and I can lay the course out the previous week, that way we can start earlier - like 10am. PSJim, I'll take you up on the offer to help. Then maybe we can head out earlier in the morning of the event just to check out the target markers to make sure they are all still in place. In fact, we'll have to lay it out ahead of the day because I'll need some time to make the maps on my topo program since you need a map for orienteering.

 

Unless we can get a couple of trainers, maybe we should keep the event for our local caching community (new and used) the first time. Then, perhaps, if we all get to learn this skill a bit better we can host a bigger orienteering event next year and invite the general public.

 

Since those of us discussing this are all getting together this weekend, we can discuss details then. This is starting to sound like a fun thing.

 

See ya Sat.

 

NS

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BooBooBee

+BooBooBee

Posted
Posted
Maybe after our event we could set up the course as a "trim O course" (permanent) - similar to this one - GPS - O

That's a GREAT idea OP! (You're full of 'em)

 

Looking forward to Saturday...bring sunscreen and snacks/lunch. :blink:

 

I'm bringing:

GPSr

kid pack

kids

husband to carry one kid (I get the other)

water

camera

map to parking area (I THINK)

extra batteries for GPSr

more water

lunch/snacks for kids

 

Sounds like GeoCats are bringing the orienteering pictures from the cache page? If not, let me know and I'll grab those too. ;)

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BooBooBee

+BooBooBee

Posted
Posted

I'm bringing:

GPSr

kid pack

kids

husband to carry one kid (I get the other)

water

camera

map to parking area (I THINK)

extra batteries for GPSr

more water

lunch/snacks for kids

 

Sounds like GeoCats are bringing the orienteering pictures from the cache page? If not, let me know and I'll grab those too. :blink:

Oh yeah...and first aid kit. We always have one of those with us on any hike that's long enough to require kid carrier.

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AvePaloma

AvePaloma

Posted
Posted

Hi Poison Oak Cachers,

To all of you going to C'ISMUHU this weekend...wish I could go. Maybe one of you can be my guide on another occasion. Just wanted to let you know that KNAPPS Cache that just came out is just across the road...well almost. Some of you might want to go on to that one. Anyway, have fun and take lots of pics.

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pointsaljim

+pointsaljim

Posted
Posted

Hi Avepaloma,

 

I'll be glad to be your guide. :laughing: We had a good time today, but we all got cut up and scratched to a little bit. (Check out our logs for C'ISHUMU). We were all ready to go home by the time we got back to the cars. Will have to do the other nearby caches some other time. Will probably wait until November to go again in order to be guaranteed that the views will be clear. Thanks for all the great caches you've been hiding. :rolleyes: Hope to see you on Sept. 17 at El Chorro Park for the Orienteering Event.

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Geo_cats

+Geo_cats

Posted
Posted

:unsure:

After all these years, I too have gotten poison oak for the first time. At least I think it is. What's strange is that I broke out Saturday morning BEFORE going to C'ismuhu! And my previous foray into the wilds was 8 days before. So I guess I don't know where I got it.

It sure did itch though. Calamine seemed to help but the itch was still there and some gal at the campout we just attended this weekend had me apply some sort of prescription cortisone cream and it worked great! The itch stopped immediately. :laughing:

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