Today, I drove counter-clockwise around Utah Lake. I ended up with 53 finds, another personal best. It was a hot, dry day. I kept the windows down–I was getting in and out of the car so much, the air conditioning wouldn’t have helped too much.

Here are some photos of the drive:

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Here is a list of the caches that I found:

I was in this area Saturday and again yesterday doing cache maintenance and finding two new caches (Historic Stagecoach Trail–The Phoenix, Backdoor to Corriganville, and Vee . Even though the grasses are drying out, there are still some good wildflower blooms.

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Today was a fine day of geocaching. I needed to return to Piru Creek to get the Cobblestone Mountain quad and to finish the Los Angeles County Quadrangle Challenge cache. There are a number of caches in the area that I also wanted to get, so we got an early start. We did the caches in the Gorman area in Peace Valley and the northern part of the Old Ridge Route before doing the Piru Creek cache. I had planned on also doing the caches along the southern section of the Ridge Route, but we had a change in plans after doing the Piru Creek cache. So I had 42 caches between 8:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. Then added a few more for a total of 47 caches–a personal best for one day of caching.

Completing the LA County Quad Challenge cache was a nice way of completing the day. The work of visiting the 81 quads that make up LA County was worth it. I enjoyed seeing the diversity of the county–mountains, deserts, coastal mountains, and, of course, plenty of urban areas.

Here is a list of today’s caches:

Yesterday I “completed” the Los Angeles County Quadrangle Challenge cache. I say “completed” because I still haven’t earned the Find. I DNFed the Cobblestone Mountain quad because the Piru Creek cache is MIA. I will need to revisit that area before I have truly completed the challenge. I have, however, cached in all 81 quads that make up Los Angeles County.

Here is a list of the caches that I found yesterday:

It’s been a great adventure. LA County is quite a place. We typically think of Los Angeles County as the large urban area that it is. But it is much more. Beaches, coastal mountains, deserts, snow-capped high mountains–LA County has it all.

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.

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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:

[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:

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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.

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.

Here are some of the photos from the hike.

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Now a few photos taken by Eagle Rock Rob:

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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.

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

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.

Now some photos of the trip.

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