Dan and Janet wanted me to go with them for the afternoon to San Jose, and then in the evening hunt Venonium, which they had already found. We probably got on the road around 1 PM, and found our first cache at 1:46 PM. This one was Monsters Could Hide Here! Dan made the find, although we were all zeroing in on the area.
We found Cheap (First Cache) quickly at 2:11 PM. We were zeroed in on where to look on approach. 328 was at a bus stop, and after we found suitable parking and walked a short way to it, I found it fairly quickly at 2:33 PM.
Then we drove a couple of blocks to a park to hunt for Rincon Hump, which was a pedestrian bridge over San Tomas expressway. It just took a methodical search to locate this one at 2:44 PM. Along the De Anza Trail 3 – Campbell was a “blinker” nano-cache. Knowing what to look for, it didn’t take long. Dan spotted it at 2:56 PM.
Starting with Secret Trailhead #20 – Campbell (found at 3:07 PM) we thought we find a few on the Los Gatos Creek Trail. We did get M&J Geobeads #3 – Signal the Frog at 3:16 PM, but then wasted some time hiking west, only to find the cache we were heading toward was on the other side of the creek. We moved the car to another trailhead, but along the way stopped to get VTA Downtown Campbell Station at 3:48 PM. Then at the trailhead, Dan got Campbell Park Troll before I could get under the bridge. Logged it at 4:03 PM. A little ways west along the Los Gatos Creek Trail we got Billys Box at 4:09 PM. Then we headed east along the trail, under highway 17, and I found F.A.M.E. #2 – Los Gatos Creek Trail at 4:32 PM. On the walk back we came through the nearby shopping center and found Romantic Rendezvous 1 – NEM at 4:46 PM.
From here we headed south toward WoW’s neighborhood and the general area of Venonium. We stopped at a park on the way on found Along the De Anza Trail 6 – Tequila Mockingbird at 5:18 PM and Not Basketball? Midnight! which had cool camo, but Janet got it at 5:25 PM. At another little park, we found this multi–Huerta Post at 5:41 PM. On the way to the pizza place for dinner, we stopped and found Little Cache of Horrors. Tricky camo, but I finally saw it at 5:55 PM.
After pizza, I began the hunt for Venonium 263. Stage 1 was right at the entrance to the parking lot. I had to look for a long time, but finally caught sight of the clue I needed. I think it was hidden a bit more than it should have been.
Before heading for stage 2, I went to the other corner of the parking lot and found “An Irate Vet” at 7:20 PM. At stage 2 I had quite a hunt. I could easily find the clue that told me I was close, but couldn’t find the actually coords. Finally, I got oriented the right way and found it. As we walked to stage 3, we came to Alien Mother Ship and logged it at 7:41 PM.
Stage 3 was a straight-forward find. This was where Dan found centipedes that glowed under UV light, but we didn’t find any tonight. Stage 4 could have been tough, but I managed to get it quickly. Stage 5 had me going for a while, but I finally recognized it. Stage 6 required proper planning/thinking to approach. I think it would be a lot harder on a dark night, but we had a full moon tonight. I was thrown off at the final for a while by a yellow tennis ball that I couldn’t quite get to. I finally got past that diversion and found the cache. Logged this one at 8:20 PM. What a great cache!
While we had thought about trying to do Touch The Twilight at Mission Peak on the way home, we decided we didn’t have enough time, so we hunted for a few more in the area. I found Flash of Inspiration (Dan and Janet already had) at 8:39 PM. We tried for Achoo, but came up with nothing. May be too hard to do at night. Then we found Little Cache of Horrors III at 9:13 PM. Clever disguise.
Next we parked in front of Worker of Wood’s house to look for Lost in the Woods. It’s right in his front yard, and despite the fact that he knows folks look there, I was uncomfortable. Dan stuck with it and found it while Janet and I were back sitting in the car. Logged it at 9:28 PM. Then we went to WoW!, which I found at 9:41 PM.
Quite an interesting day. I found 23. On the way home we stopped for me to look for Buzzy Kaboom (I’ve solved the puzzle), but I was too tired to give it much effort. It’s at a parking structure, so there’s several possibilities.
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