Geocaching

Official Geocache Page

A nice simple park and grab in Oakland. This area has some nice views and a bit of history about Oakland.

Official Geocache Page

I almost stopped and picked this one up on my way to meet up with my brother but he wanted to get going so I had to backtrack and get this one later. There is a plaque at this spot which tells you a bit about the history of Lafayette which was quite interesting. The cache itself was a pretty clever hide but the camo didn’t fool me. Unfortunately, the logbook in this cache was lacking a plastic bag and the container is far from waterproof so I fear what the rains are going to do to the geocache. If I had a plastic bag on me I would have put it in one but I didn’t.

Official Geocache Page

This was a nice simple drive up cache. Although the container was a nano, which can often be a real challenge to find, this one wasn’t too bad. Not much to see at this spot so I signed the log and headed on to the next geocache.

Official Geocache Page

I was about to call it a day when I noticed a nice string of caches all in a nice little cluster. I love being able to go to an area and walk to a bunch of caches so I just couldn’t resist. There are seven different caches in the Bailey Walk series and this was the first one. This one gave me some trouble. The hint states that the cache is magnetic so I looked around at all the metallic objects in the area and kept coming up empty. I continued my search and then finally spotted the cache. The cache is indeed magnetic but I had no idea that the thing it was sticking to was metallic!

Official Geocache Page

This wasn’t an easy find. I spent a good five minutes looking around before I finally located it. The cache container was a new type for me and pretty cool. The only hard part was trying to get the logbook out of it, it gave me some serious trouble.

Official Geocache Page

We had to make a bit of a judgment call on this one. The area that the cache was hidden in was behind some orange fencing for construction that is going on in the area. We looked around and didn’t see any safety issues with us sneaking in to the area and there wasn’t really anyone around to catch us so we decided to go for it. Thankfully this was a nice easy one so we didn’t have to linger long in the area.

Official Geocache Page

My 100th find!

After the nightmare of Punto del Norte this was a nice change of pace. I walked right up to this one and found it in a matter of seconds.

Official Geocache Page

I grabbed this one as I was making my way around some local caches. This is a nice easy drive up cache that brings you to a trail that I am going to have to check out at some point. When I found the cache and went to sign the log I was quite surprised to find that I was the first person to sign it. Turns out that the cache had gone missing and I was just the first person to find it since it had been replaced.

Official Geocache Page

This cache has a very funny description. The hider talks about a hamster with laser beam eyes that he has left guarding the cache and that you should never wear polka dots while hunting for this geocache. The hide itself was a pretty easy one to find. There was a lot of poison oak in the area but that doesn’t bother me as I am not allergic. When I found this cache, which was a large Tupperware container, the lid was off and the insides were exposed to the elements. Thankfully everything was still in good shape and after I signed the log I put everything back together as good as I could.

Official Geocache Page

After DNFing on the last two caches I was really hoping that this one was going to be a success and thankfully, it was. Actually, this one was pretty easy. I found the cache in the first place that I looked. It was a nice little spot that I had never seen before and the reason for the cache was to show you the new firehouse that has been built across the street. I took a picture of the fountain that is right near the cache as well as the firehouse.

Official Geocache Page

I love these rock parks that are scattered throughout Berkeley. I love climbing up and around on the rocks, it makes me feel like a kid again. I got lucky with this cache. My sixth sense kicked into over gear and I walked right up to this one. I really enjoyed this park and it was nice to relax up on the rock and take in the amazing view.

Official Geocache Page

This was a really fun “armchair cache”. The idea was simple, go to this site which has a bunch of webcams in the Dresden area. Watch these webcams and when you “Trabi” (a Trabant actually), which is a type of car, take a screen shot of it and post it on the cache page.

As silly as it may sound, I really enjoyed hunting around looking for my Trabi. When I first tried the sun was going down in Dresden and it was quickly too dark for me to continue the hunt. I tried again about 12 hours later when the sun was back out. There were several times where I thought I have may have caught a Trabi but I wasn’t positive and I really wanted to catch a nice clear shot. There are many pictures listed on the cache page where there is no obvious Trabi and to me, they are cheating.

I spent about a couple hours looking while I was doing other stuff on my computer (the webcams only update every 30 seconds or so) and then I finally spotted one. You can see my Trabi below! Very cool idea for a cache!

Official Geocache Page

There is a very nice story behind this cache. I won’t repeat the whole thing, if you want to read about it just click the official cache link above. To sum it up though a geocacher proposed to his wife at the spot that the cache is hid at. This guy is a very active cacher and is famous for getting first to finds. So he hid this cache, with the ring inside and then dragged his then girlfriend along with her. They find the cache, she sees the ring, he proposes and a happy ending for all.

This was a nice little hike from my last find and again I was walking over lots of rocks and stuff which was fun. I passed right by the “Castle” that is out on the Albany bulb and I of course had to check it out. I tried taking some pictures but the crappy camera on my Treo took pictures that aren’t even worth posting. The castle is quite neat though and I suggest you take a peek at it while you are out there.

After checking out the Castle I headed over to find the cache. I got lucky with this one, my GPS was spot on and took me within feet of the cache and then the cache was exactly where I thought it was going to be. I was hoping to find another diamond ring inside but I had no such luck I did sign the log though and enjoyed the view of the San Francisco bay.

Official Geocache Page

While I had been walking around the bulb I had noticed a bit of industrial junk and large chunks of concrete and little hints of artsy things here and there but nothing prepared me for what I found at this cache. Apparently, the Albany bulb used to be a dump and then sometime during the 80’s or 90’s artists started going out there and turning this junk into art. There are parts of the bulb that are just covered in public art and it’s really cool. This cache is located in what is known as the “The Amphitheater” which you just have to see for yourself, my crappy cell phone pictures really don’t do it justice.

I really enjoyed this cache, it was probably my favorite of the day. I had no idea that this place existed and I was really happy that I had discovered it via Geocaching. I took a few crappy pictures of the area with my cell phone (I really need to remember to bring my camera more often), take a look.

Posted in Did Not Find (DNF), Difficulty 1.5, Regular, Terrain 1.5, Traditional Cache by: Moe
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