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.
My brother called me up and asked if I wanted to head over to Briones to grab a cache or two. I said sure and we decided to meet over. We thought we had found parking near a trail head but that didn’t end up panning out so we had to go to the main parking lot, my brother has a parking permit though so no biggie. This cache is quite a hike, about 1 1/4 miles each way and the last 600 feet or so are up a pretty steep hill. The hill would have been a lot easier if my 2 year old niece wasn’t in a stroller still that we had to push up the hill… ugh. We did finally make it to the top though and my 4 year old nephew made it most of the way all by himself. When we followed our GPS to ground zero we were saddened to find that the cache’s camo was off so the cache was fully exposed. We did have a nice little surprise when we opened the cache though, it makes sound effects!
After signing the log we decided to head off to another cache in the area. We ended up having to abandon that hunt though, we were on the wrong side of a rather large hill and with the little ones in tow it would have been too much.
As I was driving along I saw this one coming up on my right. I pulled over to the side of the road and noticed that it wasn’t that far away and the terrain rating was only a 2.5. I didn’t bother reading the cache description (big mistake) and started making my over to the cache area. It ended up that there was a rather large ravine between myself and the cache. I decided to go for it, getting down the ravine wasn’t too bad, slid a large portion of the way. Getting back up was a different story. There were a few times where instead of going up I ended up going further down the slope. It was very steep and slippery. I finally did make it to the top though, my shoes were full of dirt and my socks were filthy, but I made it.
Once getting up the ravine I still had to find the cache. The cache is hidden in area that is a rather large Redwood Grove (gee what a surprise when you look at the cache name) and it’s quite pretty. While I was there the sun was at a good angle and you could see the sun beams shining through the trees into the meadow in the middle and it was quite the view.
The cache itself is very cleverly camouflaged. I actually picked it up once without even noticing that I was holding the cache. Thankfully when I came back to it a little later I noticed what I hadn’t on the first trip and I spotted it.
Trifecta Vista was the third and final cache in this general area that was all walkable from my parking place. I walked down the trail from Swing With A View following my GPS to the area. When I arrived at the area I spied a spot that I was pretty sure was going to contain the cache. I was wrong this time. I looked all around but my GPS was jumping all over the place so I was having a hard time pinpointing where to look.
I decided to walk away from the area and find a spot where my GPS had a nice clear view of the sky. Once my GPS seemed happy again I slowly started following it and this time my GPS was bringing me to a spot that I hadn’t really explored. Once I got to ground zero I quickly spotted the cache! I signed the log and then headed back to my car. I guess two out of three for the area isn’t too bad.
I had had enough caching for the day so I decided to go home and take a nice hot shower. It was a good day though, I found 8 in total.
I was sitting at home working and I just wasn’t at all inspired. I just knew I wasn’t going to be very productive so I decided if I wasn’t going to get any work done I wasn’t going to sit on my butt all day in front of the computer, I was going to go out and do some caching and get myself some exercise.
I was also craving Taco Bell so that determined my initial direction 
After getting myself some yummy taco bell (two soft tacos and a chicken quesadilla if you want to know) I headed off to the next closest cache which was on of the Bart ones. Someone has gone out and in to honor the Bart system hidden a cache near all of the stations. I am not sure how this one is near a station, granted I didn’t look that hard but I sure didn’t see it and the cache is in the middle of a strip mall parking lot.
Anyway, I got lucky and I was able to park right next to the cache. There was a security guard strolling around so I had to play it a bit stealthy but once his back was to me I made a quick grab. The day was off to a good start, always nice to find the first one.
This was yet another puzzle I hadn’t looked at before we got to the cache location. This time though no one had figured it out before we got there. The puzzle is a letter scramble where you have to unscramble the following letter “atiodruhezroesneplnyoln”, the letters spell more than one word. Neither my brother nor Charley had been able to crack it but the coordinates posted are the correct ones and the scramble just is more like a hint I guess.
Anyway, when we got up to the cache site my brother broke out his ninja caching skill and walked right up to and found it. It was a very clever cache, it’s effect was just somewhat dampened by the fact that we had seen one similar to it just a bit earlier.
This was yet another puzzle cache that I didn’t even look at before we headed out so I was mostly along for the ride. I did look at the puzzle when we got home though and was able to quickly figure it out. I don’t like taking credit for puzzle caches that I haven’t solved personally, it’s a little bit like cheating.
When we arrived at the location Charley was already waiting for us, he had already found it and signed the log. My brother and I started looking and it wasn’t long before I found it. We both signed the log and then headed back to the car.
This was probably the most evil cache of the day. We arrived at the location with no difficulty and confirmed with Charley (who had already found this one) that we were looking in the correct area but we had a hell of a time actually finding it. My brother and I were probably there for a good fifteen minutes and then Charley started coaching us a little bit. Telling us that we didn’t have to climb all the way in as the cache is not behind it and hints similar to that.
Finally, my brother and I just kind of sat back and were scratching our heads when Charley said to us “You have already touched it”. That was enough to get us looking again and that was when I tried something I hadn’t tried before and Voila! I found it.
If you are looking for this and not having any luck here is a little hint.
We were coming back from Trivial Math and headed over to Alameda and I noticed on my GPS that we were driving right past this one. Charley had already done it but he told us to go for it. We couldn’t find legal parking again but Charley said he would stay with car while we went and did this multi-stage virtual cache. This was to be my very first virtual cache, in a virtual you don’t actually have to find a log book or sign anything, it’s usually just seeing something neat or interesting. To verify that you actually saw the owners of the cache usually ask you to email them some information from the area to prove that you saw it.
The first stage of this brought you to “the house that Jack built” Jack being, Jack London who is quite important to Oakland’s history. I had actually never been over to this area of Oakland (I am learning that I haven’t seen a lot of the area that I live in), there was a nice farmers market going on as well. We didn’t really have too much time to stop and smell the roses as Charley was waiting for us though. So my brother and I quickly got the needed information from the first stage and then headed over to stage two. Stage to brings you to a statue of Jack himself, from there we grabbed the info we needed off the plaque at his feet and then headed off to Alameda.
When we got home I emailed the owner of the cache and he verified my info. Virtual caches are a bit odd and I miss not having the hunt of looking for the actual caches. Virtual caches are no longer allowed to be made but the old ones are still available to you on Geocaching.com
This was the first cache on a day that we would end up finding 32 caches. My brother’s wife went out of town so my brother asked my mom if she would mind watching the kids for the day. Those kids are like crack to my mom so she readily agreed. We also invited Charley, my brothers father-in-law to join us. We decided to meet up at the Rockridge Bart station since it was a convenient location for all of us and we were going to head toward Alameda. As luck would have it, there was a cache right near the station (there is one at every Bart station). Charley had already gotten it but he told Scott and I to go for it so we hoofed on over.
When we arrived to the coordinates we were a little afraid that they were now in a construction zone but as it turned out, we were wrong. After a couple minutes of hunting, my brother found the cache. We both signed the log and head back to Charley to head off on our Geocaching super adventure.
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