When I first arrived at the cache site I was a bit mortified, there was ivy everywhere and I ivy hides are never pleasant. Thankfully the cache wasn’t hidden in the ivy and I was able to find it pretty quickly.
I made this cache much, much harder than it could have been. The way that I approached the cache I seriously could have used a machete. If you happen to read this before you go to try and find this cache take my advice and stay above the cache for as long as you possibly can, if you do that you will only have to do a tiny bit of bushwhacking. At the time of writing this log this is the oldest cache that I have found, this cache was hidden on 1/20/2001 making it quite old.
I took the direct route to this cache which made it a bit more challenging. I parked on S Park Dr. which takes you to about 500 feet away from the cache. Of course, those 500 feet are straight up! It wasn’t too bad and I could use the exercise. Once I finally did make it up to the top I was treated to some gorgeous views and I was able to quickly find the cache.
When I arrived at the general area I was a bit worried that muggles were going to be a problem because there were a ton of people around. Once I headed off down the trail to the cache though my fears were quickly eliminated. I headed down the wrong trail at first but quickly noticed my error and backtracked to the right one. Once I arrived at ground zero I was able to quickly locate the cache.
From reading the previous logs on this geocache I was expecting it to be harder than it was. It did give me some trouble, I was zeroing out on the wrong side of a hill and with all the tree cover my GPS was having a hard time settling down. Once I decided to expand my search area a little bit I found the cache pretty quickly.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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!
The hardest part of finding this cache was finding the right trail to take to get to it. My brother finally did spot the correct one and we made our way to the cache. Fairly easy find once we got there. Unfortunately we didn’t see any newts while we were there.
I didn’t exactly find this one. This one was hid by my brother and since I made the hike out to the cache he let me take credit for the find. It’s a very clever puzzle though so you should check it out. We were more than delighted when we got to the area and found that it was perfect for hiding a cache, the way that this puzzle works he couldn’t just choose his location so he was happy that this location worked out.
The last geocache of the day for me. I had driven past the trailhead that leads to this cache countless times but never explored it. I was surprised at how many trails were actually down here. I made my way down to the cache site, avoiding the massive amounts of horse poop on the trail and was able to find the cache pretty easily.
This hide was a lot harder for me because the cache description says that it’s hidden on the right side of the trail but from the direction I came it was on the left side of the trail. Thankfully the coords were pretty good and after a little bit of bushwhacking I was able to find the cache.
This one was made a lot harder because of an event at the Greek Theater which made my approach to the cache much, much more difficult. Thankfully I already did the hard climb when I picked up June’s Cache so from there I just made the relatively easy hike over to this one. There were some security guards and muggles hanging around within eyeshot of the geocache so I had to wait for an opening to find the cache.
Due to an event happening at the Greek Theater in Berkeley this cache was a lot harder than it could have been. I couldn’t park at the spot closer to the cache with the easier approach. I had to park down below it and then climb up a pretty steep hill up to the cache. As the first cache of the day it definitely got me sweating right off the bat. During Cal games this area becomes known as “Tightwad Hill” because you can watch the games for free up here. There was another cache close by so I headed over to it after finding this cleverly hidden geoacache.
© 2010 Geocaching | Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS)
