A Quick Lunchtime Cache

A new cache was appeared today–Dixie Canyon–located in Dixie Canyon Park above Studio City. I was in the mood for a walk, so I went for it. The cache was a quick find–a nice walk from the end of the street up into a stream-side woodland. The area was donated to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy by Warren Beatty in 1986. It was a nice walk, in spite of the thriving growths of poison oak. Here are a few views of the area.

.

.

Los Angeles County Quadrangle Challenge

Yesterday, Wendy and I drove through the northern half of Los Angeles County, collecting quad and caches for my Los Angeles County Quadrangle Challenge cache. We drove 333 miles, in 12 and a half hours and found 39 caches and 26 quads. It was a great trip.  39 caches in one day is a personal best for me.

I had 1 DNF–fotomom’s Piru Creek cache. It is the only easily accessible cache in the Cobblestone Mountain quad. It’s an ammo can, hidden under a bush, but I had no luck with it at all. I’ll need to go back for it.

Here is a list of the caches that we found:

Cache	Quad
Bubba
Welcome to Rowher Flats	Green Valley
Wee Wee, I Have Seen The “S” Car Go	Sleepy Valley
Penny Lane	Littlerock
Cairn’s Cache
The Esses	Juniper Hills
Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
The Treasure Trove (LDR Farm Operation)	Valyermo
Tia’s Cache	Mescal Creek
El Mirage Quadrangle	El Mirage
Outside Wrightwood	Mount San Antonio
What the….
Go No Further
The Llano Del Rio Geocache	Lovejoy Buttes
Saddleback Butte View	Hi Vista
Ten Fours	Adobe Mountain
A Cache for Jack Rabbit Hill	Jackrabbit Hill
Thomas’ Cache	Rogers Lake
Kandy’s Cache	Alpine Butte
Baby Blocks	Redman
Blocks
Seven in Seven # 6	Rosamond Lake
Get Well Carol	Lancaster East
HDC Aid Station	Del Sur
More Power To You
B3677	Lake Hughes
Neenach Formation - Other Half of Pinnacles (Earthcache)
Old Ridge Route - Old Homestead	La Liebre Ranch
Old Ridge Route - Can You Hear Me Now?
Old Ridge Route - Sandberg Inn	Liebre Mountain
Whispering Pine
Nauseating Twists and Turns
Old Ridge Route - Backroad, Benchmark & Water
Quail Lake	Lebec
Osito Canyon	Whitaker Peak
Hi Karate!	Val Verde
Ma Bell - Castaic	Warm Springs Mountain
Lazy-Z-Ranch

[Note on April 28, 2008: I made a mistake on Saturday and didn't find a cache in the Newhall quad. Luckily, the missed quad was a close one and not located in the wastelands of the northeast corner of the county. After work, I drove to Santa Clarita and found a few caches in the Newhall quad. Dead End Oak is the qualifying cache.

I am also almost certain that the Piru Creek cache is MIA. I got an annotated photo from Journeymnn showing where he found the cache. It is in a place that I checked out several times. If it is really gone, I'm going to need to either ask for permission to replace it or go on a much longer hike to get the PiruMid View cache so I can get credit for the Cobblestone Mountain quad.]

Here are a few photos from the trip:

.

.

.

.

.

.

Corriganville

I had to go to Corriganville this afternoon to prepare for a Scoutmaster training session, so I decided to get the 3 caches in the area that I still need to bag.  It was quite a climb to Rin Tin Tin - Hunter Fav’s.  Somewhere along the way, I tweeked my right ankle, so it’s a little swollen and sore.

Here are the caches that I found:

Rin Tin Tin - Hunter Fav’s

Scooby Doo, Where are You?

Corriganville

Notice all the poison oak in the foreground.  This area is “Sherwood Forest” in the old Robin Hood movies.

The native grasses are going to town now.

I got the last cache right as the sun was setting.

La Jolla Valley and Mugu Peak–Point Mugu State Park

Today’s Hiking Group

EMC of Northridge, CA, Don_J, robb_dogg, OLdweeb, capdude, deeznutz® and Stacy, capsbug, Eagle Rock Rob, GeoCraig

I had a great hike today in Point Mugu State Park with 9 other geocachers. It was a 7-mile semi-loop. The day was cool and a little breezy–perfect conditions for today’s hike. We met at the parking area at the end of the hike, then drove east to the trailhead.

Here is my list of today’s cachers. I have cached in the area before, so I already had some of the caches that the others found today.

Welcome

Welcome to La Jolla Canyon

La Jolla Wash

Below the Falls

La Jolla Rocks

Surprise! Happy Birthday Lifesajrny!

Why Before The Y?

Just Another -La Jolla Cache

TroopMugu

Take a Break

See The Beach

Tr…Oops I placed another one.

Support Our Troop-er!

Sea Bees [can do view]

La Jolla Falls Fossils (Earthcache)

Point Mugu Turbidites (Earthcache)

Here are some of the photos from the hike.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Now a few photos taken by Eagle Rock Rob:

.

.

.

.

Find #3600 in Hometown Simi Valley

View from Rusty Lid

After dinner today, we decided to pick up some of the new caches that were placed for last week’s caching party. We were 10 for 10 until to got too dark to continue. Here are the caches that we did tonight.

Rusty Lid

Stache Cache

Sandelwood

Economically Depressed

Behind the Zone

Coventry, send the gate!

The Green Machine

Guess Brand

Bridges of Madison County

Peter’s Cache

It was nice caching in my own backyard. And Peter’s Cache is almost in my backyard. I think it is less than 300 feet away from my backyard.

These 100 have been an enjoyable run. Some urban caches, some good hiking caches, a few in San Diego, and a nice loop of finds in Santa Barbara County.

Poppies and Lupine near the Poppy’s and Lupin cache

Figueroa Mountain, Santa Barbara County

We had a great trip through the coastal mountains of Santa Barbara County. The 20-mile loop around and up Figueroa Mountain has more than 20 caches and some great views. Our timing was perfect. The wildflowers were blooming. We got a combination of lupine and poppies. The 20-mile trip took exactly 4 hours. We played tag with a group of bicyclists from Orange County. We would drive by them, then stop for a cache and they would ride by us. This continued all day and many of the bikers did the ride fast than we did the drive.

Here is a list of the caches that we found on the loop. We had 3 DNFs. If you don’t stop for as many photos as I did, you can probably do the trip quicker. But this is a great geocaching trip. Take your time with it.

No Gas

Horse View

Alisos & Happy Canyon

Spanish Moss

Pine Tree

Cracks & Crevices

Cachuma Saddle

Logging Finds on Figueroa Mountain Road

Peace and Quiet

Tranquility

Poppy’s and Lupin

Ranger Rick

Hilltop

Old Tree

Little House on the Prairie

Neverland

Willie and Fred

Adventure Pass

Now some photos of the trip.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

The M Trail

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting Michael, aka journeymnn, on the occasion of his #1000 cache. After doing all the work required for the Los Angeles County Quad Challenge, he wanted to do the final cache as his 1000th. He tried to do #1000 on Monday, but the cache was missing. Instead of finding a cache, he placed one–M–that’s M for 1000, M for Michael, M for Mystery. I replaced the cache yesterday and was on hand when Michael got number 1000 and a couple minutes later, #1001. Here is a photo of Michael and his 2-year-old son, J. Cacher, looking for the cache.

Yesterday was Michael’s turn to find my caches (3 of them), so today was my turn to find M.

Here are some photos that I took along the way.

.

Mustard Along the Trail

 

Entering the Poison Oak Forest

Approaching the Cache

Find #3500

On the way to work today, I found Giraffe Adjacent, a quick cache-and-dash nano. After logging it, I realized that it was my 3500th find.

I found my first two caches on May 6, 2001–Sage Ranch Park and Rocky Peak. While I found 2 more caches in the next few weeks, I really didn’t get caching again until April 2002. Over these 7 years, I have averaged 3.6 finds per caching day and have found a cache on 963 days of the 2508 days since that first cache.

I’ve enjoyed my geocaching adventures. This hobby has taken me to places that I’m sure that I never would have seen. I know southern California, and specifically Los Angeles, better than I would ever have imagined. I have a network of friends, most of whom I have only met via e-mail or perhaps a cell phone call, that are helpful and gracious. I’ve quit counting how many cases of poison oak I’ve gotten (I’m currently finishing up on my last rash). I’ve had one trip to the emergency room for a badly sprain ankle, but for the most part, geocaching has helped me work on getting and staying healthy.

So 3500 down and who knows how many to go. Actually the count is now 3511. I got a few at lunch and on my way home from work.

Tujunga Hills Caching

I stopped for a 4-cache hike this afternoon on the way home from work. It took 75 minutes on the way up and 30 minutes on the way down. Longer up because it was UP and I did the caches and took photos.

Here is the cache list, from lowest to highest.

Electric Slide

Geode Cache #1

Geode cache #2

Compound W

Here is the hike map:

Here are some of the views along the road.

.

.

.

.

.

A Long View toward Compound W

View North toward Compound W

Compound W Location

View from the Compound W

 

Ahmanson Ranch

I had some time this afternoon, so I hiked into the northern part of the Ahmanson Ranch area. It was a great day for hiking and caching—sunny, a light breeze, wildflowers and grasses.

Here are some of the views today.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

These are the caches that I found:

TACKLE ME

An OLd Foundation

Charred Oak Hill

Liar’s Lair

Twin Tanks View

Hang In There