Leakage from a Cluttered Mind » Geocaching

Geocaching milestone

Phil — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 05:21:11 +0000

Thanks to a few days of caching in the desert, in particular the Planes, Trains, and Automobile series near Barstow, I’ve reached over 4,000 caches found.

How to find 30 caches per hour, solo

Phil — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:24:00 +0000

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

With all the hiking, driving, and bouncing around the desert in a 4×4, I was pretty lazy on Monday morning, and took my time packing up and getting underway driving from Palm Springs to the Barstow area. My objective was to find the caches belonging to the Planes, Trains, and Automobiles series, starting just off of highway 395.

This series, appearing on the map as a funny looking tomahawk, is designed as a so-called “power-caching trail,” with caches placed roughly 0.1 miles apart. I think a series like this is generally done by a team that uses a strategy that enables them to go really fast in finding the caches. I was curious how fast I could find them going solo.

Here’s how I worked it out:

drive to next cache fast, monitoring GPS for where to stop
slam on brakes, letting anti-lock brakes do their thing, leave engine running
open door leaving it open, follow GPS arrow to correct side of car
search for footprints to follow, or small pile of rocks next to a bush
grab container, typically a film cannister, pop top off, unroll log, scribble facsimile of geocaching name, place log back in cache, pop top on, replace with rocks on top to keep the desert wind from blowing it away
record find on GPS, select next closest, while walking back to car
jump back in car, leaving seat belt off
put in gear, floorboard accelerator, monitor roughness of road to determine max speed
repeat, dozens of times

Philatsea, Rumrunner1, Cap'n Finder, Sweet Marie

I found the first cache at 12:08 pm and the 158th sometime after sunset. Spent some time chatting with three Canadian cachers at the end of the day who were just finding their last cache in the series, so that slowed my find rate down a bit, but I still doubt I averaged as much as 30 per hour. However, it was certainly the most caches I have ever found in a day, and I only cached for half a day. I still had another 90 or so caches in the series to find.

If I had wanted to be a die-hard, I could have continued after dark, but I called it a day, headed to the motel in Barstow, and had a nice dinner at DiNapoli’s Firehouse. As much as possible, I got organized to leave the motel early in the morning, and in fact I did manage that.

I started caching again about 7 am and finished about 11 am, finding another 92 caches. Somewhere along there I passed the 4,000 total finds milestone.

I ended this caching series with 250 finds, no DNFs (thanks, I think, to the Canadian caching crew who went just before me and replaced all the missing ones), and one very dusty truck (the result of slamming to a stop in a cloud of dust and leaving the door open).

Hiking/caching on the PCT near Mt. Laguna

Phil — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 06:05:37 +0000

Garnet Peak with the Salton Sea way off in the distance

Choices, choices! Do I go with my friends and bounce around in a 4×4 south of Ocotillo Wells or find a nice place to hike? I was sure both would be enjoyable, but in the end the attraction of hiking in trees at near 6,000 ft on the Pacific Crest Trail won out.

My trip planning research had revealed a large concentration of caches on the PCT near Mount Laguna in the Cleveland National Forest (south of Julian, if that rings a bell). Then my GBA friends mentioned Phil’s Memorial Cache (the oldest active cache in California) was in the same area. So, I decided I really wanted to spend the day hiking, not driving.

I left the motel in Borrego Springs about 8 am and drove south with a stop in Julian for a coffee and then on to the trailhead at Penney Pines. Now there used to be pines here, but a fire a few years ago took most of them. In no time, I was hiking north on the PCT and finding caches. The trail is an easy hike, but just to the east is a dramatic drop off, so the views east to the desert and the Salton Sea are great. And, from one of the high points, I could see the Pacific Ocean (or a fog bank) to the west. Unfortunately, it was fairly hazy.

After a 4 mile hike that I turned into a loop by hiking back along the road, I drove to another trailhead and began a hike out to Big Laguna Lake. This trail was another fairly level one through pine and oak forest. It was a very enjoyable area, and I found several caches on the way to the lake. This hike was 4.8 miles.

Stats for the day: 8.9 miles, 1100 ft of climbing, and 28 caches.

I drove back to Borrego Springs, thinking that I might meet up with my friends for dinner, but when I got there they were just getting dinner in El Centro. After dinner, I drove back to Palm Springs for the night.

[View slide show]

Roughneck Rendezvous III

Phil — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 06:38:35 +0000

Ocotillo Wells SVRA

The Roughneck Rendezvous III is a geocaching event held at the Ocotillo Wells State Vehicle Recreation Area. Several of my geocaching friends spoke highly of it, having attended the one last year. It was ostensibly the reason I made the long trip south.

Since activities began at 7 am, we agreed to get an early start from our motel in Borrego Springs—6 am. We arrived at the meeting place early and were first in line to pick up the CD containing the GPS coordinates. It took us a few minutes to get the .gpx file loaded onto our GPSr, and then we were off. Notably, what we were given appeared on on GPSr as waypoints, not geocaches, which meant we needed to depend on a paper record to record our finds.

Up and down, follow the twisty trail

Here’s how the activities sort of worked. Along with the .gpx file of coordinates, we were given a pamphlet into which we recorded information about every cache found. There were various types of activities; regular geocaches, earth caches, caches along a nature trail, ranger-led activities, etc. At the end of the day we totaled up what we had found and were given raffle tickets accordingly. There were a lot of prizes (donated by sponsors), but most were of use only to southern California folks. Only one of our group won a prize.

Given that I was unsure what the 4×4 trails would be like, I elected to ride along—in fact, we split our group of eight into two vehicles. In retrospect, I’m glad I did this. While I’m confident I could have taken the Ridgeline on many of the sandy trails, some of the badlands trails we did were too tough. On a couple of occasions I was anxious as a passenger, let alone as the driver.

Our strategy was to head north clear across the SVRA in order to avoid congestion. This worked, but took us into a badlands area of narrow, twisty washes, and tough, steep climbs out of and into the washes. I think we kind of got lost in the twisty maze, and burned a lot of time driving around without finding any caches.

The pumpkin patch

One of the very interesting places we stopped at was called the pumpkin patch—an area of weathered concretions that resemble pumpkins (or in other places, large cannonballs). Another was the gas domes where gas (CO2, I think) and water pressure combine to push up the soil into large domes that bubble gas and water at the top.

I finished the day with 44 cache finds.

[View slide show]

Hiking Mecca’s Painted Canyon

Phil — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 05:17:57 +0000

Peering down in the slot canyon

Near the north end of the Salton Sea is the little community of Mecca (sorry, despite what you may have thought from the headline, I did not take a hike in Saudi Arabia), and just a few miles east on a dirt road is the trailhead for Painted Canyon. I had never heard of it, but noticed it because it has a high concentration of geocaches. It must be publicized somewhere, because there were a surprising number of people there.

The landscape is desolate and rugged. It is heavily eroded, with the washes having near vertical sides a hundred feet high. Ladder canyon (so named because of the 3 or 4 aluminum ladders required to get past the dryfalls) is a true slot canyon, 3 or 4 feet wide at the base. After climbing out at the top of ladder canyon, the trail continues on among the ocotillo until it drops back down into a large dry wash which I followed back to the trailhead.

Since it was mid-afternoon, I headed for Borrego Springs where I intended to meet up with my friends from the Geocachers of the Bay Area (GBA). I pulled over for a break at the service station at the intersection of Highway 86 and S22 and spotted a familiar looking vehicle with a familiar face peering out at me. So I met up with my friends earlier than expected.

[View slide show]

Hiking on the beginning of section C of the Pacific Crest Trail

Phil — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 05:57:17 +0000

Caches on PCT section C starting at Cottonwood Canyon trailhead

From a geocaching perspective, there is an interesting section of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) that begins just north of I10 near Cabezon. My goal for the day was to start at daybreak from the Cottonwood Canyon trailhead and hike north as far as the Whitewater Preserve. I didn’t achieve those goals, but had a great time anyway.

I got to the trailhead later than I intended because it seems I always underestimate how long it will take me to get organized, have breakfast, and drive. It also took me longer to find some of the caches than I estimated. I got close; I could see the Whitewater River and hear the water, but I adhered to my turn-around schedule and made it back to the trailhead just after sundown.

It was a nice day, in the high 70’s, and just a light breeze. The first caches weren’t too difficult, but after cresting the pass and starting down into the Whitewater drainage, a different cacher was hiding the caches and chose to make them more difficult.

Elevation graph: 2500 ft in 13 miles

During the 13 mile hike I only ran into one other hiker, and that was near my turn-around point. On my way back, as sunset was approaching, i was serenaded by coyotes—never saw them but there was much barking and howling. Finished with 32 caches found. If I ever get back to the area I’ll start at the Whitewater Preserve trailhead and try to find the other 20 or so caches on the PCT in this area.

Back at the motel, I was too tired to invest much energy in finding a restaurant, so I just went to a nearby mom and pop Greek restaurant (Nina’s Pita and Pizza) that only had 3 tables and ordered takeout. The Yelp reviews were good, and my gyros plate was very good.

[View slide show]

Beginning the journey to the Roughneck Rendezvous III

Phil — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 06:45:34 +0000

Today was the long drive south to Palm Springs in preparation for the geocaching event Roughneck Rendezvous III at the Ocotillo Wells SVRA. I decided to go earlier than my friends from the Geocachers of the Bay Area (GBA) because there were a couple of interesting hikes I wanted to do.

My route took me into the dreaded (for me, at least) southland freeway system (the 5, 210, 10), but since I passed through during mid-day, the traffic wasn’t bad. When I got to Redlands I headed south-east on San Timoteo Canyon Road. This route included a short power-caching run with the caches named after auto raceways (start here). Power-caching trails like this are meant to be done by teams, but I wanted to see what it was like. The experience wasn’t enjoyable. The small, country road had a considerable amount of traffic and I could barely get off the road for parking. At times it felt unsafe, so I did a few and skipped a few.

Next, I navigated across Highway 60, intending to pick up a number of caches along the Jack Rabbit Trail. I was immediately put off by a large sign saying it was a private road and trespassers would be subject to arrest. After the fact investigation suggests an over-aggressive landowner, and that it really is an unmaintained county road.

I went on to Sunset Avenue in Banning and found a few as the sun was going down. This was a nice little excursion, worth finding more, but I ran out of daylight.

With that, it was time to head to Palm Springs and check in to the motel, eat, and get ready for a big hiking day tomorrow.

Mentryville: hiking in the rain

Phil — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 05:23:23 +0000

Before driving home from our motel in Santa Clarita, we decided to take a little hike (and find some geocaches), even though it was lightly raining. Since checkout time wasn’t until 12 noon, we could hike, but still shower and change into dry clothes. We started our hike at the end of the public road in Pico Canyon and hiked up a paved trail to Mentryville, and beyond. Mentryville is now a ghost town, but was founded as a very early California oil town. Wikipedia has a brief article. There are a number of caches along the trail. We found six before we decided we were too wet and cold. It’s and interesting place and worth getting a docent led tour. Besides there are a lot more caches farther up the canyon.

Geocaching on a quick trip to Riverside

Phil — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 05:58:24 +0000

I took advantage of a trip to a birthday party in Riverside to pick up three fizzy square type geocaches (the kind where to qualify you must have filled the 81 squares of the Difficulty/Terrain rating matrix). Two of them were in Riverside along the Santa Ana hiking/biking trail and one was near Sedco Hills east of Lake Elsinore. I learned that when I hand enter coordinates to the GPSr, I need to double check them because for the cache near Sedco Hills I was off by a couple of miles. The interesting thing is, it was a perfect place for a geocache. Anyway, it was a nice little side adventure.

Following this afternoon activity, we drove north only as far as Santa Clarita, hunted up a Mimi’s Café, and stayed the night in a comfortable motel. This way we didn’t have to fight any of the morning commute traffic.

Steep hike, Cache Creek

Phil — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 06:30:26 +0000

Lately, in my geocaching adventures, I’ve been focusing on caches that have a high difficulty and/or terrain rating. (Caches are rated on two criteria. The difficulty (D) rating is supposed to indicate how difficult it is to find the cache, perhaps because of a hard puzzle that must be solved or very effective camouflage. The terrain (T) rating is supposed to indicate how difficult it is to get to the cache hiding spot. All of this is highly subjective, of course.) A major reason for wanting to find these high D/T combination caches is to completely fill out a grid of all possible D/T combos for a challenge cache.

I’m currently working on A Fizzy Challenge – Whiners Edition. One hole in my grid for this challenge is the D3/T4.5 combo. While there are closer-to-home caches that have this combination, I was attracted to the hike to this cache—Dozer Trail. It’s in the Cache Creek area (past the casino and into the canyon proper.) A little research with Google Earth showed the trail (if one can call it that) to be really steep, but the views from the ridge line impressive.

After driving the 115 miles north, I was at the trailhead by 10:30 am. I followed a firebreak cut by a bulldozer a few years ago. It’s beginning to be overgrown, but there was generally a use trail to follow. It is very steep, with the steepest part in the last quarter mile before the ridge. I gained the ridge a little before noon.

There was a lot of scat on the trail, more evident on the lower parts of the trail closer to the creek. It was full of red berries that were abundant this time of year. I’m assuming it was bear scat. I didn’t see any bears, or any tracks. I was surprised a couple of times by quail exploding out of a nearby shrub (now that’s a start when you’re wondering if there are bears around), but didn’t see any animals other than a couple of deer up near the ridge line.

I quickly found the nearby cache and, since I was on the ridge, I hiked a mile along the ridge-top fire road to another cache, called Cache Overview. Along the way I spotted a rock cairn atop a high spot and went over to find the summit register for Glasscock Mountain. I wish the air quality had been better. Visibility was just a few miles so other peaks and mountain ranges were lost in the grey haze.

My descent was trickier than my ascent. First of all, I took a slightly different route and had to bushwhack just a bit. Secondly, I slipped a few times on loose rock and pebbles, but saved myself from a bruised bottom with my two hiking sticks.

My track on Google Earth reveals the average steepness was about 25%, but the last quarter mile to the ridge is over 40%.

Track and elevation profile