After a dentist appointment in Santa Monica, I decided to come home to Simi Valley via PCH and Topanga Canyon. It was a nice day for a hike so I decided somewhat at the last minute to go for a geocaching adventure along the Summit to Summit Motorway. I’d never hiked this area, so that was an added bonus.
011111 was the first stop of the morning. It was a fairly quick find and set the pattern for most of the finds today. #2 was Gone to the dogs. After looking where it was supposed to be, I quickly found it where it doesn’t belong. Catalina View Two and Catalina View were also quickly in the found column; however, no Catalina Island today. Too much haze and fog. You wouldn’t even know the ocean was out there today.
Don’s Rock ‘n Roll is a simple, straight forward hide that took me too long to locate. I was on the wrong side of a tree that was blocking my view of GZ. Once I moved around a bit, it wasn’t a problem. Ramble On and Side Tracked finished off the caches along the Motorway. I noticed that there are several caches in the drainage to the east, so off I went.
I didn’t quite understand the meaning of Don’s I’m Gonna Crawl until I got close to the cache. I thought it might have something to do with crawling up a steep trail. The title actually refers to the easily method to approach the cache through all the tree limbs. As I neared the cache, I saw an empty match container, without a lid. The log was nearby. I’m claiming the FTF because the two that found it were clearly non geocachers. Who knows what brought them to GZ.
After I’m Gonna Crawl, I bushwhacked my way back to the trail and took it down the hill to a creek crossing. After that, I couldn’t locate anything that looked like a trail, so I went cross country to Beeware. This cache hasn’t been visited successfully in over a year, so I didn’t have much hope on locating it. After trying to make my way carefully around and through some very sharp thistles, I was lucky enough to stop right next to the cache. It was a lucky find because it is an cammoed tube and was on the ground almost completely covered by oak leaves.
My next goal was to find the trail. I headed up the slope toward the ridge line and found it without too much trouble.
I walked right by Partridge Family because I was busy looking at the wildflowers and a hawk that was looking for his lunch. Fortunately, I didn’t have to back track too far for the find. I did find Bunny Hop in bad shape. The lid was off and the cache was full of water. I can’t understand why it is so hard for some people to make sure caches are secure before leaving them.
It was a great morning hike. No DNFs, too. And a FTF to boot. It took 2.5 hours to do the 2.9 mile hike–somewhat slower than my normal geocaching speed. There was a little more than a 1000-ft elevation gain and loss. Some of the “up” was a 45 degree slope. I recommend this hike. I had a good time.
[...] morning, I was on a short hike above Toganga Canyon. (Check it out here.) I stopped for a rest and a quick snack about half way through the hike. I was sitting on the [...]