I had this Saturday free, so I headed off to Fremont through Niles Canyon. I made my first caching stop in Sunol for Sunol, a multi-cache. The first phase of the multi is gathering information from a historical marker about Sunol. The coordinates of the actual cache can be determined from numbers on the plaque.
This two-stage geocache is hidden in Sunol, California, a small community of about 1,400 people. Sunol was originally settled by Native Americans of the Ohlone tribe about 5000 years ago. In the mid 1800’s, Antonio Maria Sunol and Maria Bernal Sunol gained ownership of 14,000 acres of Rancho El Valle de San Jose and began ranching and farming in this region. By the late 1800’s trains came through Sunol and Niles Canyon as the easiest way to enter and leave San Jose. The ready access to Sunol by the railroads helped develop Sunol as a vacation area for city dwellers. Since then, Sunol has continued to develop as both an agricultural and recreational area. For more information, check this community web page: http://www.sunol.net/
To determine the cache coordinates check the plaque for the numbers:
Sunol is named in honor of Antionio Maria Sunol who acquired a land grant in A B C D =1840
Sunol became a western cattle town with the arrival of the railroad in E F G H =1869
The four numbers at the very bottom of the plaque are I J K L =5989
Use simple math to solve each of these equations to determine the cache coordinates.
37* 35. (B-A) (A*E) (H-L) .710
121* 53. (C+G)/I (F-K) (F+G-I) .209
These derived coordinates led to a close by location. As I was searching, rail fans were unloading their self-powered maintenance rail cars. I saw them zipping on the tracks as I was caching later in Fremont (there must have been a dozen or more). I made the find at 8:35 AM. It was a container just hidden under some leaves.
Continuing on through Niles Canyon on Highway 84, and then staying on 84 in Fremont, I came to 1.23 Miles. I found this one at 9:01 AM. It was on a corner in some landscaping, stuck behind a sprinkler control box labeled Monarch.
After this I went looking for BART View. Unfortunately, I can’t remember if I found it. In any event, I did not record it in Cache Mate. I’ll have to return for another try. Use Riverwalk Drive off of Paseo Padre.
I returned to Highway 84 and found F.A.M.E Event Reminder–94536 at 10:04 AM. It was a quick find. It’s a magnetic cache under the only sprinkler control box around.
After some searching in the Niles District, I backtracked to the park areas on Niles Canyon Road. I was going to hunt for Happy 35th Birthday, but the park was full of folk in full historical Scottish garb, all gathered right where it seemed the GPSr was pointing. So, I went across the street and looked for Happy Birthday JoeSpaz #27. Even using clue, I couldn’t find it (and it hasn’t been found since November 28. Gave up and began looking for SuperGenius #20–More Niles Canyon which I found at 11:29 AM. It’s just a small jar inside an old tree.
Niles Community Park is not too far away (a few blocks south of Niles Blvd.). After a walk around one of the ponds, I found SciFi Kids at 12:31 PM. There was quite a bit of tree cover. It was off the trail under a log. I also looked briefly for CITO Cache–Fremont #3 in the same park, but there were too many muggles in the area.
Niles Depot cache is at the old Niles Depot which is now used by a model train club. The cache is right in the front, just off Mission Blvd. Since no one was around the depot today, it was not very hard to find, which I did at 12:45 PM. It’s magnetic and hidden under a rail switch mechanism numbered 573.
I did a cursory look for Harmony of Shapes, but it was too busy for me, and the logs indicate it’s a hard one.
There is a cluster of caches around the Isherwood Staging Area (trail access to the Alameda Creek Trail). I found Isherwood Staging Area cache at 1:22 PM. It was easy; under a Pine tree.
Just a little ways further on the trail is ISHERWOOD IF YA WOULD, found at 1:34 PM.
Leash Required is also along the Alameda Creek Trail. Rather a hum drum location between the creek canal and a busy road. Found at 1:54 PM.
I searched for a couple of the Happy Birthday JoeSpaz caches without any luck. Given where I think they were probably hidden, I don’t care for them. But, I’ll probably try to find them on another day.
I drove home from Fremont through Hayward and didn’t know the quick way to get up to the college, so I wandered around on the Hayward streets for too long. Finally got up and went hunting for Greenbelt Trail Cache. There was so much tree cover that I lost GPS reception and had to backtrack to a clearing. Even so, I only got 200 ft accuracy. I used the hint and found it at 3:18 PM. It’s in a stump on the creek side of the trail.
I drove back to 580 on Five Canyons Parkway and stopped to look again for The 2 Lit’l Ps: Homer’s Major League Adventure. No luck. It’s a hard one.
I also looked for quite a while for Water Fall–NO PARKING! No luck.
On the way home I drove up the hill for Take a Picture. The little park was crawling with kids and parents, but up the little trail just a couple of hundred feet and no one was visible. Found the cache in short order. None of the pictures interested me. It’s tucked underneath the concrete steps.