Dan, Janet, and I decided to do a little cache hunting in San Ramon open space today. We left about 10 AM and went looking for the appropriate trail head off of west Bollinger Canyon Road. We took the trail at the end of Paddock Drive.
Bishop’s Paddock is very close to the trail head. We searched around for a while with no luck, and then used the hint to narrow our search. Still couldn’t find it. Then Dan just about stepped on it (10:45 AM). It was on the ground, in the open, obviously not where it was intended. We couldn’t figure out where it should go to match the hint, so we just put it in a nearby secure place. At least I don’t think it’s going to fall out.
Glowing Eyes refers to some deer seen by the cache hider at night, when the cache was hidden. We did see some deer (even a buck) but not at this cache site. Janet found this one at 11:02 AM.
Hey! I Can See My House From Here! was close to a big water tank with a good view out over the valley. I found this one pretty easily. It was a magnetic film canister tucked behind a corner iron fence post.
Mt. Diablo View is a bit of a misnomer, at least from the cache location. It’s sheltered under some large oaks, but there is a good view when you get out from under the trees. After Dan read the hint about the size of what we were looking for, I spotted it quickly at 11:35 AM.
Delta View is full of misdirection. First of all, you can’t see the Sacramento River delta from this location, but you can see a Delta fence sign. We quickly found a film canister tucked under the concrete poured around the fence post, but it was a decoy. I checked one other location under the concrete, but it wasn’t there. So, we started widening our search pattern looking for anything that might hold a micro cache. No luck. Dan finally found it . Finished this one at 11:56 AM.
We backtracked to the car, and drove to It’s Elementary, My Dear Watson. We quickly found the best parking because Dan was familiar with the neighborhood (his friend Scott had lived close by). The general cache location was obvious, but Dan and I got suckered in. We kept looking in the center of the bush. I got a bunch of ants all over me from the branches, and while I was brushing them off, Janet found the cache at 12:56 PM. It was under some grass right at the edge of the big bush.
Then we drove right across Bollinger Canyon and quickly found BMX Dogz. The access is right between a dog park and a BMX track. It was pretty easy to find this time of year, but the logs seem to indicate that in late spring the brush is very thick and loaded with ticks (waiting for the dogs I guess). Finished this one at 1:10 PM.
We crossed the freeway into Bishop Business Park and found 100 Days and Counting at 1:27 PM. Even though it was a fake rock, it stood out like a sore thumb.
At another part of the business park, I grabbed Hail to Da Bishop at 1:37 PM. It was easy to see, and since I hadn’t found it on a previous hunt, I suspect it wasn’t where it had been.
I took Dan and Janet to Iron Horse Trail — Part 4, and infamous Team Alamo hide that I’ve looked for 3 or 4 times. We looked, turning over the same rocks, poking into the same holes, and came up just as empty. We decided to leave, but just as Dan passed by something, it caught his eye and with a little effort he had the cache in hand at 2:08 PM. It was inside a crimped section of pipe slipped over the end pole of a section of portable chain link fence. I always thought those were too temporary, so never looked at them very closely.