Earthcaching

I checked out the Earthcache site sponsored by the Geological Society of America the other day. I learned they have a Earthcache Masters program. Here are the requirement for the Gold level:

Gold Earthcache Master
Visit and log twelve (12) or more Earthcaches in four (4) or more states/countries and have developed two (2) or more Earthcaches.

I have found the following Earthcaches:

11/11/2007 GCPTK9 Pillow Lava, Pillows Too Hard To Sleep O
11/05/2007 GC1772F Glendale Narrows
08/23/2007 GCPD2V Tufa Towers
07/07/2007 GC10YWK Virgin River Gorge Earthcache
07/05/2007 GCZ5HB Pygmy Mammoths of the Channel Islands NP
07/02/2007 GCZJMV Grimes Canyon Burnt Shale
06/01/2007 GC127EG Tar Pits Park
06/01/2007 GCZBY6 Morro Rock Earthcache
07/31/2006 GCQ7Z6 History in the Rocks Earthcache
06/30/2006 GCP80W San Onofre Breccia – Dana Point Earthcac
10/08/2005 GCPRZ0 Matilija Dam Removal
08/25/2005 GCPD3K La Conchita Landslides and also Wind Cave National Park and The Great Thistle Landslide.

I placed The La Brea Tar Pits in June 2005. It was one of the early Earthcaches. To qualify for the Gold Earthcache Master, I only need to place another Earthcache. I’m working on it now and hope to have it approved soon.

If you haven’t done any Earthcaches, there are great. Usually located in interested places, you will always learn a good geology lesson along the way.

Geocaching Ranking Tailspin

Today I noticed that my California geocaching rank is #100. Once upon a time, I was ranked #66 in California and in the mid-300’s in the world. It hasn’t been all downhill since then, but I have certainly been sliding downhill for the past several months.

I just haven’t been caching that much since August. July was one of my best months–121 finds. But my finds in September and October were only in the teens. I suppose there are several reasons for the slowdown—lack of new caches in my caching area, high cost of gas, busy doing other things. I still enjoy geocaching. I have just backed off a bit.

Tujunga Wash

I returned to the Tujunga Wash this afternoon on the way home from work to do another Earthcache–Tujunga Wash – Alluvial Fan and Braided Stream (GC17CFG). I really enjoy Earthcaches–the only remaining remnant of Virtual caches. Earthcaches are a special category because the exist to teach a lesson in geology. And they almost never disappoint as interesting caches.  TerryDad2  is the king of placing Earthcaches.  If you are interested in finding something more interesting than an Altoids can in a parking lot, check out Terry’s list of Earthcaches here.

I first visited this area in February 2005 to find fotomom’s Tujunga Wash Caching Trail caches. Most of them have now been archived, but some remain. I got one on 2/3/05 and then came back the next day and found 15 more. On another visit, I was trying to get across the stream to located another cache. I didn’t want to wade across and was having a hard time finding a crossing point. Finally I spotted a place where a good leap would get me to a log. So leap I did, only to have the log collapse. To keep my balance, I took one step backward into the creek. It was about a foot deep. One more step back, 5 feet deep. Luckily, I had a change of clothes in the car for a dry ride home.

Glendale Caching

Adams Square Mini-Park

I did some quick caches at lunch today in Glendale. Four were just park-and-grab parking lot or street caches. This Adams Square Park cache was interesting because of the site. The City of Glendale turned a circa 1936 Richfield service station into a small park–even restoring the original building as part of the park.

DNF Location

On the way home from a very nice weekend along the Central Coast, I stopped once again at the Arroyo Hondo Bridge cache (GCWR4T). And once again came up with a DNF. I figured it wasn’t there on the first visit and again decided the same thing on this visit. However, it was found only 10 days ago. So, apparently, I’m the one with the problem, not the cache.  GeoBigDogs, the cache’s owner tells me, “You have to look for the right clump of rocks.”

 

Back in the Groove–A Great Trip

I found more caches in one day than I did in either September or October. A great part of our visit to the Central Coast was our trip through Santa Rosa Creek Road. We picked up all the caches along the way and saw some great views. Here are the caches along the drive:

We Be Jammin
Up a Creek – Santa Rosa
A View with an Ocean
The Road to Adelaida
Top of the Hill
Turkey Shoot
Somewhere around 1948
The Duchess Of York’s 30 Curves
Begining or The End

And here are some of the things we saw:

 

 

 

 

 

GC1703A Auld Lang Syne Again

I got a DNF on the cache, but did enjoy the visit to the park.