My last cache of the night. Pretty simple cache but like most of the other Bzerk Park caches it showed me yet another Berkeley park that I had no idea even existed. I was really hoping to see some monkeys but no such luck 
After doing a couple other caches I decided to grab a few more on my way home. This cache brings you to a stunning house in Berkeley, one that I have driven by countless times in the past. Now, thanks to this cache I know a little something about the place. There are tons of amazing houses in the area so if you like architecture you will love this cache. After figuring out the simple puzzle at stage one of this multi-cache I headed over to the final. I was a bit saddened when I noticed what kind of hide it was, they aren’t my favorite. It was dark outside by this time as well which made searching a bit more difficult. Thankfully I found the cache fairly quickly.
As I mentioned in my previous log I over ate during dinner and wanted to burn some of that food off. This cache I had read about but was avoiding because I knew it was going to be a monster hike. I set off shortly before sunset and started the long uphill hike up to the cache. I have lived in Berkeley for a number of years and since I have started geocaching I have found so many new and interesting areas and this is one of them. I had no idea there were all these hiking trails here and the views from up here are magnificent. It wasn’t an easy hike at all, all of the uphill trekking will get your calves burning. I had several people comment to me who were on their way down saying things like “don’t worry, the view is worth it” or “it’s a lot easier on the way down”. I finally did make it to the cache site and had very good timing as I got there just as the sun was setting and the view was beautiful.
I had a huge dinner and was feeling rather fat and I had just bought some new hiking boots so I decided I’d put them to the test and work off some of my huge meal. My ultimate goal was to do No Escape!! which I knew was a monster hike but this one was on the way so I of course couldn’t skip it. When I arrived at ground zero I thought the geocache had been destroyed. There were lots of little trinkets around made into a shrine of sorts. I thought someone had taken all the geojunk from the cache and made the little shrine. Thankfully I was wrong and I found the cleverly hidden cache in good shape.
The hardest part of this cache for me was figuring out where to park. Once I changed my approach and found the right place to park this was a pretty easy grab. Get to cross one more Bart cache of my list, still got a quite a few left to do!
The coords for this geocache were a bit off for me but with the help of the hint I was able to find it without too much trouble. The cache location has a pretty interesting history as well.
This cache is located in downtown Orinda right near the movie theater. I was there on a Saturday afternoon and I was expecting to have to deal with a bunch of muggles but the area was surprisingly empty. With the help of the hint this is a very quick find.
I screwed up on this one. This is a multi cache with a simple puzzle that you need to decipher from a plaque at stage one. I made a silly mistake and screwed up which sent me to the wrong spot for the final stage. As I was looking in the wrong area I had a woman tell me that I was on private property (I really don’t think I was) so when I got back to my car I took a second look at the cache and noticed my error. I backtracked over to the final stage and was able to locate it quickly.
This geocache was hidden by my brother which meant that I had to see if I could find it. It was actually a pretty easy find but a very clever one. Very neat little spot where it was hidden and an unexpected object at the geocache location.
This cache is located in a very popular park in Moraga. I got unlucky because there was a big event going on at the park which meant that there were a ton of muggles around. I did get lucky though and was able to quickly find the cache without too many people around looking at me wondering what the heck I was doing. I had to wait a little bit to put the cache back waiting for the coast to be clear.
Pretty boring cache here. It is near a nice trail head but you need a permit to hike on it. Quick find though.
This cache was hidden by my brothers father in law and boy did it give me trouble. Due to all the trees in the area my GPS couldn’t make up its mind and kept pointing me to different areas to search. The hint is that the cache is magnetized but there is a ton of different metal objects around so it didn’t help too much. I actually had my first experience dealing with the cops on this cache. I had parked my car on the side of the road, which was legal, but the cop told me that it probably wasn’t a good idea because it was on a blind turn so he asked me to move it. The bad thing was is that I was trespassing in an area that I knew that I shouldn’t have been in when the cop pulled up. Thankfully he was very cool about it. He had heard of geocaching and didn’t really hassle me at all. After he left I was about to give up but decided to do one last sweep and that is when I found the geocache.
This cache is a perfect example of why I love geocaching. The location doesn’t look like anything special now but when I read the history of what used to be here it blew my mind. I had driven past this location countless times back in high school and I had no idea that there was once a tunnel here. The cache itself was very well hidden and due to tree cover my GPS wasn’t much help. Thankfully, with the help of the hint I was able to find the cache.
I made this cache much more difficult than I had to by parking at the wrong spot. Due to my parking choice I had a decent hike up to the geocache. It wasn’t bad though and I could use the exercise. Once I made it to the cache area it was a nice quick and easy find.
Yet another geocache that I have driven past countless times. I decided today was the day to actually make the hike up there and grab it. It was a very nice hike actually and the view up from the cache area is quite nice.
I had tried for this one in the past but was thwarted because this cache is inside of a park like area which you can only access during business hours. The location for this cache is actually pretty cool. It’s located at the Berkeley steam trains which is a fully functional small scale steam powered train. I had come here a couple years ago for my Nephew’s birthday and it’s a cool place and the little kids absolutely love it.
I had tried for this cache before in the past but was unable to find it. This cache is located on a small walking trail between some houses and one of the houses was doing some construction and their fence was taken down. Because of this it makes you feel like you are searching in someones back yard as you look for the cache. I felt a bit uncomfortable the first time I was there so I didn’t spend much time looking. After my unsuccessful attempt I went home and read some of the past logs and I found out that the posted coordinates were about 100 feet off. Anyway, to make a long story short, I went back today and focused my search area a bit further west than the posted coords and found the geocache quickly.
I had departed company with my brother from our day of caching in Briones and as I was driving home I decided to pick up one more cache. This is another of those caches that I have driven by countless times. This is a cute little multi cache. At the posted coordinates you find some writing on the wall and then solve a quick and easy puzzle which gives you the coords to the final location. By the time I found the cache it was quite dark outside so I didn’t even notice the in theme hiding spot until a week or so later when I drove by the area again in daylight. I don’t think I would have ever noticed this object if it weren’t for this geocache, pretty cool.
This cache annoyed me. There is only reason for this, the cache is marked as a traditional cache but it is in fact a multistage puzzle cache. My brother and I must have wasted about 10-15 minutes looking around for a cache that wasn’t there. We finally broke down and looked at the hint and it was then that we noticed that the cache was a puzzle. We solved the puzzle and then much later in the day came back and grabbed it as we were headed out of the park. It was quite an adventure getting to the cache and it could easily be rated higher than two stars for terrain in my opinion. I dropped of the Jeep travel bug that I had found in this cache and now I am afraid that may have been a bad idea because this cache doesn’t seem to get visited very often.
There is quite a hike up to this cache up a very steep hill. Thankfully it’s not too long but it will definitely get your calves burning. Finding the cache is simple enough especially with the clue. The best part about this cache was getting down from the big hill. I squatted down with one foot under my body and my other leg out in front of me and slid the whole way down. It was quite fun!
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