Geocaching

Official Geocache Page

After the ordeal I went through trying to find Purple Vs. Turtles I was really hoping I’d have better luck at this one. I made the nice short hike up to the posted coords, trying to remember to look up from my GPS and enjoy the view. I followed my GPS to a nice area right near a little bench and saw what I thought would be a great hiding place for a cache. I was right, the cache was right where I expected it to be. I retrieved the cache and walked back over to the little bench that is nearby and signed the log and took a minute to just relax and enjoy the area.

It sure was nice to get a win after the crushing defeat from the cache before.

Official Geocache Page

This cache is hidden near an old park that was built in the 1930’s. I really enjoyed the park, it is way different from parks being built today. It features a long slide that is made out of concrete (I am not sure how that works, sounds painful), the rock also has lots of rock walls and is just generally very rocky. In today’s lawyer happy society a park like this couldn’t be made. I am actually kind of surprised that this one is still open, you’d think if a kid fell and scraped his knee some greedy parent would want millions of dollars.

Anyway, to get this to cache I took a nice little stroll through the park and then up a pretty damn steep paved hill up to the hiding place. When I arrived at the final location where my GPS was telling me the cache was hidden I had a pretty damn good idea where it was and I was right. Three for three today with the cache being in the first place that I thought it would be.

I signed the log and walked back down the hill through El Cerrito’s Huber Park and headed off to the next find.

Official Geocache Page

This was the first five star difficulty geocache that I ever attempted. The difficulty on this one isn’t really finding it (which proved to be a bit of a challenge), it’s figuring out where it is. I highly suggest you click the above link and read the puzzle. I know that it gave me a headache. I read the cache page over and over trying to figure it out. I followed all the links and downloaded the stuff I needed to solve the puzzle and I got down to work.

Man, this was hard, I really couldn’t figure out what I was doing. This kind of advanced math was always a bit beyond me. I decided to read the puzzle page one more time and then I got an idea. I decided to think outside of the box. Once I made that step things slowly started to fall into place and I finally came up with an answer that I believed to be correct.

It turned out that the final location wasn’t far from my house and even though it was getting a bit late (around 10PM) I knew the area wouldn’t be crowded and I figured I wouldn’t be bothered by anyone so I decided to give it a go. When I arrived at the area in question I knew I was on the right track. There were pictures posted on the cache page and I immediately recognized one of them. I looked around for a bit, not having any luck, but then I found the area that I knew the cache was located in. After searching for a bit I finally found the very cleverly hidden cache!

I about had a heart attack as I was putting the cache back in it’s hiding place. It was late and dark and I always feel a bit sketchy being around places like this, poking around in bushes and shining my flashlight on things. Even though I know I am not doing anything wrong and I am not a criminal I also realize that people seeing me won’t think that way. Anyway, as I was placing the cache back the sprinklers turned on. The sound of the water rushing into the pipes scared the crap out of me and I may have even screamed like a little girl a bit.

This was one of the most rewarding finds I have had, I really enjoyed it and felt quite proud of myself when I found it.

Official Geocache Page

At the end of a very long day of caching my brother and I were headed back to my place and we decided to go for just one more. This cache is very close to my house and I had tried to get it a week or so earlier but there was a scary looking homeless guy in the area so I decided to come back another time.

The cache is located in a nice little park in Berkeley that I had seen before but never really explored. The actual area that the cache is in has a few picnic tables, is well shaded with lots of trees and is generally just a nice little area.

When we arrived at the cache site this time there was absolutely no one around so we were free to look around unhindered. We commenced the hunt and I was able to quickly make the grab. We both signed the log and then headed home, I was utterly wiped out and starving!

Official Geocache Page

We were headed over to a different cache and I noticed that we were practically driving right by this one so we decided to swing by real quick and get it. This wasn’t the most exciting cache of the day, it’s in a convenience store parking lot, but it was at least nice and easy. The muggle factor could be very high on this one though if you ever try and get it, we got luck in that there wasn’t really anyone around.

When I got home that night and I was logging my finds I noticed that this one had gone inactive. This was the second time this had happened to me, it happened to me back on Redwood Trailhead as well. Anyway, I contacted the owner and told him that his cache was actually still there and that we had found it. My brother was the one to make the actual find and he said that it was rather exposed so when he put it back he hid it a bit better.

We didn’t stop and have a snack but we did find a missing cache

Official Geocache Page

Yet another puzzle that I didn’t look at before we headed out, there sure were a lot of those today. This was one that my brother had solved and looking at it I think I could figure it out, it all appears to be chess based, I just haven’t bothered to do so. Near the actual cache location there was a little spot to pull the car over, I don’t think it was legal parking though. Just in case it wasn’t legal I decided to hang back in the car. Wasn’t too big of a deal, my brother walked right up to the cache and found it in practically the first place he looked.

The cache itself was pretty funny, I won’t spoil the surprise for you though.

Official Geocache Page

This wasn’t one that we were going to go after but we noticed that it was just down the street from the one that we were headed to and we couldn’t resist. Charley had already found this one so he stayed in the car and my brother and I headed out. As we followed our GPS it quickly became apparent to us approximately where it was going to be hidden and when we got to the final coords it didn’t take long for us to find it. Clever container, not one that I had seen used before.

My brother and I signed the log and then quickly headed back to the car for some more.

Official Geocache Page

This was probably the most challenging cache of the day! It is a four stage cache with the first three stages being virtual caches. The picture to the left is what the virtual caches are. You have to find three of these planes, from the posted puzzle page you get the location to the first plane. From there you take information off the plane itself which tells you how to get to the next plane. Once you have found all three planes there is an easy puzzle to solve (just matching up letters with numbers) which tells you how many feet you are from the final cache location, you are given the bearing.

Now all this bearing stuff was totally foreign to me but luckily Charley had a handle on it. What we didn’t know was that with our GPSr we could project a way point which would have made this cache much much easier. Anyway, Charley figured out where he thought we needed to go and we headed off to find the final cache.

We spent a very very long time looking. After probably half an hour I decided to call home and had my mother go online and read the logs hoping that we could get a hint or something from the logs, that didn’t do us any good. Charley decided to use a lifeline and called up TeamAlamo to get a hint. Unfortunately, the hint that he gave us was wrong. He had told Charley that it was down in the rocks which it is not.

After searching for about an hour we we admitted defeat and we started heading back to the car. As we were heading back to the car though my brother kept looking. We lucked out and my brother finally spotted the cache. The hint given on the cache page helped out a lot here.

I would love to go back to the final virtual and use the project way point feature of the GPS and see where it puts us. The initial area that we were looking in was off by probably about 500 feet.

Official Geocache Page

This was another puzzle cache that I hadn’t even looked at before we went out that morning. So I was pretty much tagging along on this one. I have since looked at the puzzle and it’s not too bad.

The cache is all about Willie Stargell, an ex baseball player who grew up in the area and went to the High School in which this cache is hidden by. To even further get into the spirit of the cache there was even a game going on. When we arrived to the final coords there was a bunch of weird junk around which I was inspecting and before I knew it, my brother had found the cache.

While we were out in the area we also noticed that we could see an object in the distance that was going related to the next Geocache, Fetch!

Official Geocache Page

We had done quite a bit on the base and we were getting side tracked and decided that it was time to visit the final stage of In The Line of Duty so that we could figure out the puzzle. So we headed off to do that. Of course, as happens quite often when you are out Geocaching, we got distracted. We drove right past Cop Food and decided to pick it up while we were there.

This cache is well named as it is located right outside of a donut shop. We got lucky and the area was pretty much muggle free so we were able to look without any worry. I was the one who finally located the cache. We all signed the log and then decided that we needed a bit of cop food ourselves. Went inside and got a donut and a drink and then headed off to the next cache.

Official Geocache Page

I barely even remember this cache It was a bit of a walk from the car so the three of us started following our GPS’ over to the coords. As we walked Charley and I started talking about our GPS units, I think I was asking how to do something or something about a feature or something. We were just walking and fiddling with our GPS and then all of a sudden we hear my brother go “I found it”.

Apparently there used to be a rather large barge in the area which is now gone. I think it would have been cooler if I had seen the barge before it disappeared.

Official Geocache Page

We continued our hunt around the military base and went for this one named “Under New Management”. After coming from See Planes in Alameda this one was a bit easy (they use the same style hide). Even though the two are similar they are still very clever hides and I am a bit more surprised that I haven’t seen more of them.

One really nice thing about this cache is that parking sure is easy! The cache is located in a good sized lot and there wasn’t another car even in sight while we were there.

Official Geocache Page

After Bunny Town and still following the trail for In The Line Of Duty we further explored the military base and ran across this cache. This ended up being one of my favorite caches of the day.

Charley had already found this one so it was up to my brother and I to find it. Neither my brother or I had read the cache description so we didn’t know what we were looking for. If we had, finding this one would have been a lot easier but not as much fun. We spent quite a bit of time looking for this one but then we finally located something that we thought may be correct. But, what’s this? It’s locked. Charley was just smiling at us so it was then that we decided to read the cache description. Very clever and my brother and I really enjoyed it.

We signed the log and moved on.

Official Geocache Page

We were going to call it a day after Off The Grid but we noticed that there was another one pretty close by (this happens a lot when you go Geocaching) and we said “why the hell not” and headed over. This one is hidden in the very famous People’s Park in Berkeley. There were muggles everywhere but there are always a ton of people in this area so we decided to throw caution to the wind and look for it anyway.

This one gave us some trouble, with a basketball game being played about ten feet away from us and lots of people around it made searching a bit more difficult. Charley or my father finally made the find though. We all signed the log and then finally head on home. It was a great day of caching and it was nice to do it with my family.

Official Geocache Page

After the disaster that was La Loma Quarry we all felt a bit defeated as we headed over to Old No. 7. We quickly found the area that we were supposed to be looking in and I had barely gotten out of the car before Charley had this one in hand.

So it was a nice to have a quick victory after the hard fought defeat. We signed the logbook and headed out for another.

Official Geocache Page

This one was tricky. Using Charley’s GPS with navigation we had no trouble getting to the right spot. Charley had already found this one so my brother and I went for it solo. We swore up and down that we were standing at ground zero and there was nothing there, so we looked and looked but still no luck.

It was then that I noticed the stairs…

This was one very clever hide, the first of it’s type that I have run across although I am sure there are more like this out there.

I finally did locate it and my brother and I signed the log and we were on our way.

Official Geocache Page

After a nice lunch at Jupiter we decided to head back and pick up the car and then travel up into the Berkeley hills for a few more. There are quite a few caches stashed around in the hills. The first one we went for was “The Austere Academy”, one that Charley (my brother’s father-in-law) had gone for at least once in the past and had never been able to find. Charley’s GPS has street navigation on it, so the GPS can tell you how to get places, where to make turns, etc. which made maneuvering up in the Berkeley hills considerably easier (and convinced me that it was worth it when I bought my GPS) so following his GPS we had no problem getting to the spot that the Cache was hidden. Finding the cache was a different story though.

We all spent a good amount of time looking all over the place for the cache but we just couldn’t find it. My brother broke down and read the hint which was just “Touche!” he mentioned this to Charley who informed him that touche is a fencing term. Well, there was a fence in the area so my brother concentrated on the fence and sure enough, there was the cache. Charley was happy to check this one off his list and we were all happy that we didn’t DNF (Did Not Find) on the cache.

Official Geocache Page

This was our third find of the day and my very first Multi-Cache. This wasn’t a very good first multi-cache though because it wasn’t your typical multi. Anyway, the listed coordinates take you to the entrance of a building and then you are given directions on how to find where the actual cache is hidden. This cache is another good example of what is great about caching. At the final location there is quite a sight to be had and well worth the visit. The logbook was fairly easy to find, there were two possible place that it could have been for the most part, I started on one, my brother on the other. My brother chose the correct side and found the cache.

If you are ever on the UC Berkeley campus this one is definitely worth the trip to check it out.

Official Geocache Page

This was the first find on a day that we found quite a few. My dad was still here and he was having a good time caching with us so we decided to make a day out of it. We invited my brothers father in-law (who is really into Geocaching) along with us as well and all met at my house in the morning.

Blue Bottles is only a few blocks away from my house so we headed over their first. Caches like this are one of the reasons I really like Geocaching, you get to see some really cool stuff that you didn’t even know was there. I have driven by this cache hundreds of times but never noticed anything special. This cache is located in front of blue house which has hundreds of blue bottles in the windows. According to the cache page her collection of bottles started modestly enough, but then people started buying them for her. Then strangers were leaving cobalt blue bottles for her on her door step.

The cache itself was fairly easy to find, my brother is the one who made the actual find. It was a nice start to the day.