Broken!!

GeoJeep has been making unpleasant and strange noises lately or so said Cynthia. I, on the other hand, am deaf and live in my own little noiseless trouble-free world. Actually, I’m only deaf to high frequency noises so when the obnoxious squeak that drove Cynthia mad evolved into a very nasty low frequency grinding vibration...that’s when I decided to take action. But by then it was too late and GeoJeep couldn’t make it to the shop on his own power. Oh the indignity of it all!! Being towed through the neighborhood and onto the freeway for all to see! When we arrived at the shop the tow truck parked next to a scrap yard. No, not this time but this isn’t the first time in the shop and the scrap yard is looking pretty good. But it’s really all my fault. If I had only taken Cynthia more seriously. Rats!!

View from the Top

Yesterday Mike and I climbed two mountains.

The first was only 350 feet away, but it was straight up a mountain of loose rock. The incline was so steep we were worried that if we fell we wouldn’t stop until we hit GeoJeep. We dug in our heels, took baby steps, and eventually made it over the top. Once at the top, we could survey the surrounding slope and were able to pick a less treacherous way to head down. Little did we know that this was only a dress rehearsal for the second mountain.

North of Hazen was our second climb of the day. This cache was a multi. The first stage was at the bottom of the mountain and the second stage was .18 miles straight up Black Buttte. We gathered up our walking sticks, water, hiking boots and hats and set off again. We zig zagged back and forth as we worked our way up over loose rocks, dirt and finally big rocks to reach the top. As we went, we kept hoping we’d reach the cache before reaching the top of the mountain. Not to be - as with most caches, this one was at the top. It took us 30 minutes to ascend the mountain and about 20 minutes to stumble down. When we reached the bottom, Mike informed me that that would be the last mountain we climbed that day.

We sat at the bottom eating our lunch and being amazed that we had actually climbed it. After lunch, we headed into Fallon for some fast caches on the sides of roads. We ended the day with 27 caches and an enormous amount of pride.

Your mission should you choose to accept it is to find GeoJeep in the pictures. FYI, he's in all three.

Whenever we visit California around this time of year we are surprised by Spring. It’s there in all it’s glory, the hills are bursting with verdant pride and the trees are ablaze with blossoms. But here in Reno, just a couple of hours away, winter still holds us in its firm grasp. We know that while life is beginning anew on the other side of the mountain, we are doomed to “dead” trees and brown grass until late May or early June. This was the perfect weekend to get away and sneak a taste of Spring. Right!! Don’t believe it! The real reason for the trip was to grab some much needed counties and quads in California. Spring was just the icing.

After two days of planning, we realized we wouldn’t be able to get seven quads, five counties and mine the Dublin area for numbers in three days. Well, Ok...I know we could do it in less time but we wanted as much time for the NUMBERS! So we left Reno Friday afternoon and drove down to visit L3-Geo in Roseville. That gave us another 2 hours on Saturday. The farther we got on Saturday the farther we could get on Sunday and that would allow even more time to get more numbers in the Dublin area Sunday afternoon and Monday morning. That was the plan...and it worked beautifully.

Saturday, March 1

Saturday morning we were up and out by 7AM. Our first cache was about 100 miles away in Oakdale, a small town 30 minutes east of Manteca. Once in Oakdale, we quickly found the requisite cache to qualify us for Quad 108 and now we were off to the next Quad! Not! It seems GeoJeepette wanted to grab more caches in Oakdale while I wanted to stick to the plan. After a lively debate regarding policies, philosophies, schedules and plans “we” decided to cache around Oakdale. I shouldn’t have spent valuable travel time debating a losing position. Fortunately there weren’t that many caches in the area and it wasn’t long before we were on the road heading east to the Sierra foothills and the Gold Country.

As we drove east on Hwy 108 toward Jamestown and Sonora, GeoJeepette started making little squeaking noises every time we passed up a cache. Sometimes she would spontaneously begin reading the description of an upcoming cache and silently beg with her beautiful big brown eyes. “NO! We are on a mission!!!” Besides, I was mesmerized by the spectacular scenery. The fertile farm land and blossoming orchards were giving way to lush green rolling hills studded with trees and capped with a layer of dark brown basalt. Everywhere you looked there were horses and cows grazing on the rich green velvety grass. I was fantasizing about what it would be like to live here when another squeak snapped me back to reality.

The first cache in Quad 109 took us to the Masonic Cemetery in Jamestown. Like so many old pioneer cemeteries, this one was on a rural road sandwiched between two houses. And like so many others, the grave markers are all gone and the property neglected. Sonora is just a short distance up the road from Jamestown and it’s similar to so many of the old quaint mining towns that you find along Hwy 49 in the Sierra foothills; historically interesting and very touristy. A couple more caches here assured us Quad 109 and we then headed up Hwy 49.

Just inside Quad 99 there is an ammo can cache at a historical monument. You would think that we had enough experience with ammo cans to spot one “behind the monument”. The ground around the monument was free of debris and vegetation and the trees were small and sparse. I expanded the search and even kicked (gently) the rocks adhered to the monument hoping for a secret compartment. Nothing. Not even a questioning stare from the muggle sitting in the car nearby. Very unsatisfying. But, fortunately, the next cache up the road was easy and very clever.

The return trip back to Oakdale was interrupted by a few stops for caches because...I’ll admit it...I relented, gave up, surrendered to the brown eyes. I’m weak. But, I felt better after having lunch in Oakdale and after a few more caches there we headed off on the next leg of the trip. The plan required us to take Hwy 108 to Modesto and then Hwy 132 west to I-5. The next cache was about 40 miles south on I-5 just north of the intersection with Hwy 152. An hour and a half later we had another quad and still had plenty of daylight left, but, just to be safe we called and made hotel reservations in Watsonville. Now we were committed to stick to the plan. No dawdling over unnecessary caches! The ensuing debate regarding the true meaning of “unnecessary caches” helped pass the time.

By the time we reached Gilroy, Geojeepette was much more amenable to grabbing the first cache and heading south on Hwy 101. No, it wasn’t a result of my persuasive debating skills. It was getting late, we had three more counties to get and I could hear a glass of wine calling my name all the way from Watsonville. Luckily (or was it my masterful planning), we quickly found caches in San Bonito, Monterey and Santa Cruz County and still had time to check in at the hotel and find that glass of wine.

Sunday, March 2

The bags were packed and the car was loaded before the 6 AM complimentary breakfast was even served. This was going to be an easier day but we wanted to be in Dublin around noon to start the mining operation. But first we toured Watsonville and Freedom looking for caches. We were disappointed with what we found. The caches were either missing or we couldn’t figure out how to get to them or they were camoed under too much garbage. And then there were the indigenous residentially challenged population prominently represented along the sidewalks and gutters. Our tolerance for Ick and Yuck ran out so we cut our visit short and headed up Hwy 101 to Santa Cruz. Once we thought we were far enough away we stopped at a vista point somewhere south of Santa Cruz. After finding the cache I wanted to get a picture of the ocean in the distance but I needed a higher vantage point. The nearby rock wall fit the bill but when I placed my hand on top of the wall in preparation for climbing up onto it, I touched something slimy. When I looked down at my hand I nearly puked! My hand was sitting in a puddle of spit next to a used cigarette. The ultimate in yuck! I may never be the same. I’m still having nightmares.

We skipped all the caches in Santa Cruz. We didn’t need them and GeoJeepette was wise enough to allow me time to recover from the shock. At Santa Cruz we turned north and headed up Hwy 17 to Scott’s Valley. By then I was returning to normal so we stopped and found a couple caches. Now we had to make a decision. We needed one more quad and county and both could be gotten with one or more caches in the Redwood City/Woodside area. Do we take the quickest route north on Hwy 17 and into the bowels of freeway hell or do we take the scenic route up Hwy 9 through the coastal redwoods. I would have consulted GeoJeepette but she was asleep so I made an administrative decision. The redwoods won, of course.

Majestic is the only word I can think of to describe the trees along Hwy 9. The winding road added a measure of fun to the trip but all the bicycles caused some very tense moments. Cars and bicycles shouldn’t be allowed to share the same narrow twisting mountain road. From some of the looks I received from bicyclians I knew they agreed with me, but obviously had a different perspective. Once in Quad 114 and Santa Mateo we found the required cache and continued on into Woodside. The plan was to cache around Woodside for a bit but when we got there this small...no... tiny town was wall to wall with motorcycles and scary people wearing leather so we pulled a quick U-turn and headed west on Hwy 84 to Redwood City. From there it was a relatively quick trip up Hwy 101 to the San Mateo Bridge and eventually Dublin.

Now we were in our own element. We were home. The Dublin/San Ramon/Pleasanton/Livermore area is our old stomping grounds. We lived in San Ramon for six years and knew this place like the back of our hand. Or so we thought. When we got off the freeway and tried to look for a place to eat we were lost. This wasn’t Kansas anymore! Everything seemed different, there was more of everything and we didn’t recognize anything. A quick calculation explained it all. It’s been 28 years since we left!! You feel really old when streets that didn’t exist before are old and cracked and full of potholes. But then, if you think about it, so am I now.

We did manage to find the familiar and reassuring yellow arches but were taken aback when we saw that it had sofas. What’s that about! I briefly worried that we had fallen down a rabbit hole but quickly decided it was better to go with the flow than to make a scene. It was comforting to discover that Big Macs were still Big Macs. After lunch we spent some time in the car reviewing maps and consulting the laptop in order to orient ourselves to our new old stomping grounds. We spent the rest of the day being relatively successful racking up some numbers before we checked into our hotel, grabbed some dinner and crashed.

Monday, March 3

San Ramon is just a short freeway ride north of Dublin and we decided that would be a great place to cache and see if we could find our old house. Thirty four years ago, our neighborhood was the first to be built in San Ramon. When we moved there cows and horses outnumbered the people and there were no stores, gas stations, parks or office buildings. Nothing. Now the cows are gone and the hills are populated with houses. Every amenity known to exist is there now, only a short distance from our old house. And the traffic and the number of people was nearly overwhelming. One moment I was wishing we had never left and the next I was glad we did.

We spent the morning caching and being amazed at the changes and then we headed back to Dublin, over to Livermore and then I-580. We continued east on I-580 stopping for the caches along the road and eventually found ourselves on Grant Line Road. After getting a cache near the off-ramp we decided to continue on Grant Line and see if we could pick up a couple more out in the country. One of these was at the Altamount Speedway. When we arrived it was quiet and the gate was closed. Good, no Muggles today. As I got out of the car I heard a strange yet familiar sound and by the time I reached the cache I was convinced there was a cat in extreme distress trapped high up on a nearby power pole. The cries and yeows were heart wrenching but, no matter how hard I looked, I just could not spot the cat. GeoJeepette had heard the cries too and was also searching the pole. She had a different vantage point then I and discovered that the feline cries were really coming from a bird. I wonder if that’s where the phrase “cat bird seat” came from. Do you suppose there really is a cat bird?

Now time was getting short and it was a long way back to Reno but that didn’t stop us from picking up a couple more before we found I-5 and headed north. Three hours later and, yes, a few caches more, we arrived back in Reno just as the sun was setting.

Puddles and Poo

Today we celebrated the end of “The Big Storm” by driving out to Fernley and Fallon. Our greatest concern was that, because of all the snow and rain, we would be restricted to pavement and wouldn’t be able to go off-road. Once there we found huge mud puddles that we avoided, no puddles at all and more than our share of puddles that were just right (it’s a guy thing).


We decided that once we reached Fallon we would grab all the caches south of Hwy 50 and then work our way back hitting the caches north of Hwy 50, creating a roughly circular counter clockwise route. Our course took us through thick sand and slimy mud to lifting skirts in parking lots. And, we visited many more of Fallon’s famous “Flood Gates”. More than once we stirred the curiosity of the locals, irrigation canal and utility workers. Luckily we were able to flee before we were asked to explain our strange interest in diversion dams and fence posts.

Toward the end of the day, we found ourselves near a dairy searching for a nano in a haystack, or was it a tree, or..maybe on (in) that cow. Anyway, after we found it we took off down the road to the next cache. I thought the brown colored piles in the road were dirt but when GeoJeep started slipping and sliding I knew the brown stuff came from that dairy. It was more than a little obvious that their manure wagon was overflowing or incontinent. When we got out at the next cache, GeoJeepette wrinkled up her nose, looked at me and asked indignantly, “What’s that smell!” I quickly pointed at GeoJeep hoping I was right. I was...and IT was all over the previously (and lovingly) applied mud. Brown on brown and reeking of poo!

We managed to continue caching until it was time to head home but we weren’t very enthusiastic whenever we had to get out. On the way home GeoJeepette made it crystal clear that, if I didn’t wash GeoJeep before we got home, he would be spending the night on the driveway. So, as the sun was setting I found myself at a do-it-yourself car wash knocking chunks of mud and poo off GeoJeep so he could enjoy the comfort of the garage. Despite the odiferous experience, it was a beautiful day to get out and do something we love and we had a great time.

Beating the Storm

Today we decided to stick close to home because there was a big storming coming. There were several new caches in the area and we’d been saving them up to we could be more efficient. We headed out to Spanish Springs - the farthest point from home and worked our way back.

Our first cache was a short walk down a very icy path. We had been here once before after the last storm and decided to wait for the ice to melt. We felt sure it would be gone by now. No such luck. This time we decided to go for the cache anyway. We worked our way around the ice as much as possible and made the find.

At our next cache we ran into the laughinggravy’s. They were out caching before the storm as well. We visited and each headed our separate ways. As we toured Reno it kept getting colder and colder. We finished our last Reno area cache around 1:30pm just as the snow began to fall. It was pretty light so we decided to make a quick run to the north end of Carson City for a cache we couldn’t get to last time we tried because of snow. As we headed down 395 south, the snow got heavier and heavier. Soon we were traveling through white out conditions. Who had this great idea (not Mike)? But there was no turning back so on we went. We arrived at the cache site, walked through the accumulating snow and found the cache quickly. The nearby hawk wasn’t too pleased to see us but aside from “talking” to us he left us alone.

It was now time to head home. Actually the drive home was a lot calmer. The snow was lighter and it was already melting on the road. We finished the day with nine caches. By the time we headed to bed, we had six inches of snow around our house and they were predicting six more by morning. We’ll see. The weather never seems to go along with the forecast.

PO'd in Auburn??

Saturday morning we hopped out of bed at 5am with Mike kicking and screaming and were out the door by 6:30am headed to Auburn for a day of caching. Thirty minutes up the road Mike was talking to me again so I knew he was finally conscious. We found our first cache at 8:29am and by 9:04am we had found five. We were feeling pretty confident by then so we headed out Forest Hill Road to pick up four more caches. Three DNF’s later we finally found our sixth cache at 10:20. Our confidence was waning, but we headed on back to Auburn in hopes of more caches to be found.

We had a roughly circular route in mind taking us up Highway 49 and then home via Magnolia Road to 80. We worked our way back and forth on both sides of Hwy 49 and were being pretty successful. We visited the back roads of Auburn to find obscure trails to walk. We made a quick left turn into a “Do Not Enter” area, but are happy to report that no cars were coming at us so as I was squeaking, GeoJeep saved the day and headed for the right side of the road. We visited the Auburn Cemetery for the second time and ended up stopping for lunch just outside their gates.

After lunch we tried to find a new cache that no one else had been able to find. We walked up a short path, around some nasty berry bushes and started our search mucking through the trees. We came up empty as well. We widened our search thinking the coords might be off but with no luck. We went on from there and by the end of the day we had 25 caches and 8 DNFs. It was about 4pm so we headed home.

After arriving home, we discussed whether we needed to worry about poison oak (PO) and were sure that we had not seen any at any of the caches. We had our dinner and I logged our finds. After finishing logging the successes, I started to log the DNFs. As I logged the DNF on the new cache with the berry bushes and the trees, I noticed that a previous cacher said that the trees were covered with PO. Well S**T!! For two old folks, our clothes came off in record time. We slathered on the Technu, waited the required time and jumped in the shower. Luckily we have two showers so we didn’t have to fight over who went first.

Now two days later we are glad to report that we weren’t PO’d in Auburn!!

Cold Ducks and More!

Yesterday the sun came out for a few hours and so did we. Because of work, snow, wind, and cold, we hadn’t been able to cache in several weeks. Since we were tired of sitting in the house, we planned a caching trip and waited for the weather to cooperate. When the sun peeked out from the clouds, we grabbed our caching stuff, jumped in the car, and were off. We started with a cache called “Cold Ducks”. We walked around a local man made lake and at GZ started our search. All of a sudden then was quite a flurry of wings and water. We looked up to see what was happening and realized that all the small black ducks were headed for us. They raced up and practically stood on my feet hoping I would feed them. I felt really bad because it hadn’t occurred to me to bring food for the ducks. They persisted and so did we. We found the cache, but unfortunately, they didn’t get any food.

We continued on our route around Reno and found 5 caches before the cold and wind stopped us again.

Today we raced out to look for 3 caches we didn’t have time for yesterday. We made short work of them and headed back to our warm house.

We have only one thing to say. ENOUGH ALREADY OF THIS COLD AND SNOWY WEATHER!!

BTW: The picture doesn't even begin to show the number of ducks that were first there. By the time I got out my camera, a lot had given up.

The Road Home

Today we headed home up Hwy 95. We waited until we were out of the Las Vegas area and then we began to cache. We found two caches in the Indian Springs area, an Air Force “reservation”. As the jets zoomed over our heads on their practice runs, we walked through the desert hoping they wouldn’t bomb us. For one of the caches, we felt like we were in basic training as Mike had to “slither on his belly like a reptile” to get under a fence to the cache site. After finding the caches, we watched three planes doing acrobatics in the sky. They were zooming straight up and straight down, making us nervous as they approached the ground. But each time, they would pull up just in time.

When we reached Mercury we drove out in the desert for a cache with a view of the Nevada Test Site. Unfortunately we reached a sign notifying us that the area was closed so we had to pass it by. We did get to see the test site and Yucca Mountain in the distance. Next we stopped at the SHM “Nevada Test Site” and learned all about the area.

While we were stopped at “Chain Gang” and up a slight hill at the fence line, a Nevada Highway Patrol officer stopped to see if we were stranded. We explained geocaching to him and he told us he was headed back to Las Vegas after being called up to Reno in anticipation of the storm. He told us it wasn’t as bad in Reno as they expected, that Carson City received more snow than Reno did, and that he had escorted FEMA around Fernley where the levy broke. As we visited with him, we just knew that all those cars zooming by thought we were getting a ticket. If you were one of those cars, we didn’t. He was just happy we were enjoying ourselves and we both went our separate ways.

We made a quick stop at the “Little House out Back” which turned out to be a miniature outhouse in a bush. When opened, it came complete with a toilet and plenty of bathroom products. It’s amazing what you can do in the middle of the desert. If you get down that way on Hwy 95, be sure to stop. It’s certainly worth the short walk.

After that we sashayed from side to side of Hwy 95 picking up caches. We arrived in Beatty for lunch about 1pm. We ate at Rita’s in the Stagecoach Casino. Another hamburger. Middlegate Station still wins as the best hamburger of our trip.

We stopped just short of Goldfield so Larry and Linda could visit their first Brothel. Fortunately, the CottonTail brothel was closed and boarded up. We did find a cache on the sign though. From there it was a straight shot to Tonopah and then 4 hours to home.

All in all it was a great 5 day trip to Las Vegas via Ely (although certainly not the warm trip we had hoped for) and we ended with 159 caches for the weekend.

Cold and Blustery Event

We started the morning at Whole Foods logging our 40 finds from yesterday and enjoying our breakfast. We headed out to cache about 9am and had a pretty successful morning. We headed to the event about noon and spent a few hours visiting with fellow cachers. We won a geocoin and each received another geocoin from Jeremy of groundspeak. After lunch we wandered around the park and found 5 caches. Then it was time to head on out to get more caches before heading to dinner. We picked up another 40 caches by the end of the day and celebrated our success with a bottle of wine at dinner. After dinner we again visited the Whole Foods parking lot to log our caches using their free internet access. When we arrived back at the hotel, we all collapsed. It’s exhausting work finding caches in the wind and cold!

Thrashing in the Rain (or is that caching)

Here we are in Las Vegas where it is supposed to be warm and dry. Not today. The big storm we’ve been avoiding since Thursday finally caught up with us and it is raining. Last time we were in Las Vegas it was raining too. Maybe we’re jinxed.

We started the day at Starbucks - of course. We needed to find internet access to log our last two counties for the Nevada Counties Challenge. As soon as we got access, we also checked for free wireless access and found that we can sit in the Whole Foods parking lot and get on the internet for free. Yea!

We started our caching day very frustrated. We just couldn’t seem to find the right streets to reach the caches. We finally decided to go to an area that had established streets and we finally began to find caches.

Finally it was time to find the final Nevada Counties cache. We followed our GPSrs to Longwalker’s house and began our search. Unfortunately, Frank (longwalker) was not home so we couldn’t meet and chat with him. We did meet his wife. We found the cache, took our pictures, and headed on to lunch at Baja Fresh where we celebrated our success.

We spent the rest of the afternoon caching around the hotel area. It was very cold and windy, but we did manage to find 40 caches by the end of the day. On our way home we stopped at Whole Foods. While Linda and I sat in the car and entered out finds for Friday, the men went inside and bought some meat and cheeses. We returned to our room and enjoyed our snacks and reviewed our fun day. When we all started to fall asleep we went our separate ways.