Geocaching

Official Geocache Page

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.

Official Geocache Page

This is classified as a puzzle cache but it’s not really a puzzle. You have to find Celebrating Milestones to get the coords for this cache. There was a quite a hike up to this cache. As the name implies this cache is way up at the top of one of the many hills in Briones park. We finally made it up to the top and then my brother quickly found the cache.

Official Geocache Page

This was a pretty simple grab for me, it was pretty much in the first place that I looked. I did really enjoy walking along the trail though, I had no idea that it was here and it’s such a beautiful area.

Official Geocache Page

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.

Official Geocache Page

After my second DNF over at Purple Vs. Turtles I decided I was going to do a bit more caching and get a few finds under my belt. I was looking at my GPS and I noticed a nice cluster of caches on this little peninsula area. I later found out that this peninsula is called the Albany bulb. I headed on over to the area and found some parking. Most of these caches will require a decent amount of hiking. This is a great place to bring your dog if you happen to have one though, you can let them run off leash.

I had never been out on the bulb before and it was a very cool place to go find. This cache isn’t very far out, but there are actually two that are closer to the parking. I followed my GPS to the spot and I found some large rocks that were covered in graffiti and some large industrial sized junk. I figured I was in the right spot and started looking. This one was tough for me, of course once I actually found it I slapped myself in the head but I spent a good 10-15 minutes looking for this one. Reading the hint really helps on this one.

Official Geocache Page

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.

Official Geocache Page

This cache was a bit different from anything I had ever seen before. This was another candcfamily cache and one of the more interesting ones we did today. The name of the cache probably tells you how it works. They posted some coordinates that were with two miles of the actual cache location and then allowed readers of Geocaching.com to ask them questions to help narrow down where the cache is.

I hadn’t looked at the puzzle before we left but Charley had. From the questions that had been asked Charley was able to draw up a map of a few blocks where the cache was known to be located. We also had a hint that told us that the cache was near a large landmark that was made out of earth and rock. Armed with Charley’s map we started driving up and down the blocks, we had gone up and down a few times, looking for something that fit the hints description when I looked over and saw it. I brought it to everyone’s attention and they agreed that it definitely had potential. We parked the car and started looking, remember, we had no GPS coordinates to work off, we were flying by the seat of our pants. Surprisingly, my brother made the find not too long after we started looking. He got a bit lucky with the find but he found it.

This was one of the more rewarding caches of the day and it was a real team effort between the three of us to find it.

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

This was our third and last cache of the day which happened to be my first day ever going Geocaching. It was quite a hike up from What’s Your Angle but not as bad as the hike from Selinka & Pistol Lost Their Marbles to What’s Your Angle. By the time we got up to Pokey I was pretty wiped out, but of course we still had to get back down.

When we got to the spot the Pokey was hid it took us awhile to find him but my friend from Chicago finally uncovered him. Pokey was well hid but we all loved the container and got a kick out of it. There was a camera in the cache and we took a picture of ourselves but the picture never showed up online that I ever saw.

We spent a good amount of time up at the top of the hill enjoying the viewing, taking some time to relax and just soaking it all in. Finding Pokey was a very good end to a very fun day of Caching.

Although the hike wiped me out it was a very fun day. When we finally got back to the car we crashed and we were just sitting on the pavement by the car and another group of cachers came by going out looking for a nighttime cache. We didn’t join them.

Official Geocache Page

I first went caching all the way back in 2003. My friend had recently bought a GPSr and had heard about Geocaching and wanted to give it a try. A good friend of ours was in town from Chicago and we decided to give it a shot. We went out searching for three caches that day this one being the first of the day.

We started off the day a bit poorly. When we got to the cache site all that was to be found was the remains of the cache. We found the Tupperware bottom, the camera and the gameboy case which were spread all over the place and covered with dirt. We did our best to put things back together and re-hid the cache.

It was still fun though, the thrill of the hunt, watching the GPS and seeing ourselves get closer and closer. And then looking for the actual hide. I am surprised I didn’t get more addicted to caching that first trip out. I guess I just didn’t want to spend the money on the GPS (they were considerably more expensive back then), but it sure was fun.