Geocaches Just Around the Corner

I’ll get to the caches around the world later, meanwhile, I headed out earlier this week for an afternoon of caches near my house. I’ve had a goal for a long time to clear out a 10 mile radius, but I’ve never gotten that completely done. I do manage to keep about an 8 mile circle clear, though. This baker’s dozen had sprung up fairly recently, including some nicely designed ones by a newer cacher, Minifish.

I took notes and photos as I went, to give you an idea what a “normal” caching experience is like. (ha!)

Take the Cannoli
behind a honeysuckle bush near an indoor target practice range
found in about 2 minutes, 1:30pm, 79º

Ramp
unusual and deserted place with an abandoned ramp where a loading dock used to be
found in about 3 minutes, 1:40pm, 79º

Skirting the issue.
quiet side street
found in about a minute, including one “wrong” guess, 1:50pm, 79º

Deep Freeze
teeny ammo can stashed in a sign

I met the cache owner at the next cache, as he’d noticed my logs. ( I was posting from my iPhone as I went; I love doing that, because then I have no “homework” when I get home.) He’d gotten a lot of flak about putting cache in a No Trespassing sign… (duh)… and it’s now archived… but because the sign itself disappeared! Go figure. I love these itty bitty ammo cans, though.
found in about 5 minutes, including a call to a life line to save myself the agony of the previous finders, 2:10pm, 77º

Pachinko
studied the logs and the area to find this one similar to an AgouraCharger hide, done with a simple, yet deceptive mechanism
found in about 3 minutes, but then spent a few talking to the cache owner, Minifish, who pulled up just as I discovered the secret of the hide, 2:20pm, 79º
The cache is right behind him!

Caribbean Jerk
curious installation on a quiet side street
found in about 30 seconds, as it was the first thing I touched. Sometimes I’m good at this. 2:35pm, 79º

another quick fix
this was an awkward hunt in a mini-mall parking lot, and I needed a lifeline to get me to look in the right place with the coords all over the place… not such a quick fix for me…
found in about 7 minutes, 2:55pm, 79º

pi eta – iota epsilon – theta
needed another lifeline, although I should have spotted this dang nano. Sometimes I’m not so good at this! The parking lot itself is bleak, but the sunlight dappling the mountains to the north was spectacular
found in about 7 minutes, 3:20pm, 79º (but breezy and feels cooler now)

Very Opinionated
Ahh….. quick and easy magnetic altoids in front of Vons grocery store
found it in about 5 seconds, 3:25pm, 79º

Bad Boys!! Watch gonna do??
Love the flat caches, and it was a bit of a search before I went to that idea.
found it in about 10 minutes, while I fielded a lifeline from Spoondoggie on a cache I haven’t found yet, 3:40pm, 79º
I forgot to take a photo here.

UCKY Commute – Another Dead End
Another quiet side street, and someone has llamas in their yard nearby
found it instantly, 3:45pm, 81º (still feels cooler, as it’s shady and breezy)
Looking back from this cache toward the previous cache just down the street:

UCKY Commute – By The Eucalyptus Tree
Wandered around for a long time under the trees. Eucalyptus are particularly bad for scattering the GPS signals. After finding someone’s stash of bad videos, I called for another lifeline, then found it rather handily.
this took about 20 minutes, including the short hike, 4:15pm, 77º
Urban horse trail:

A Moving Experience
A short walk up one of the canyons in Porter Ranch led me to a container with a funny pun on it, but I won’t give it away.
found instantly after a 5 minute walk, 4:30pm, 77º

time – 3 hours
mileage – 27 miles from my house and back to my house
lifelines – 4, all to Garagedude
DNFs – none, thanks to Garagedude

Have a great caching week!

More Geocaching with my iPhone – nice software update!

Here is a series of videos I did the other day to show you some new feature in the iPhone Geocaching app – maps and field notes are really marvelous now!

New Mapping in the App:

Driving with the map:

Using the compass:

At a cache, looking around:

Next cache:

Second waypoint, and creating my field note:

Submitting the field note:

Accessing geocaching.com in Safari on my iPhone to complete the logging in:

The field notes are on the profile page, not the cache page:

The field note is posted:

Cache found and logged in, in the wild, all on my iPhone:

Blooming bushes and bees:

Burger time!

Happy techno caching!

My Live Blog – Posting as I go Geocaching

I posted as I went today, using Loopt to update Facebook and Twitter. I entertained quite a few people with my photos and entries. All of the photos were taken by iPhone, so could post them immediately, so the quality and detail is not superb, but it’s in the moment. Note: some of the time stamps are guesses, but they are all in order! Here we go….

preparing to go caching and “live blogging” – stay tuned…. 9:37am

Logged in a travel bug to take with me @ home. 9:40am

My usual break of eggs (free range) toast (cracked wheat) & milk (no rbst) @ home. 9:49am

That would be breakfast… @ home. 9:51am

coakford @ emcofnorthridge
Where will you go caching today? 10:00am

@coakford
Around the San Fernando Valley and Burbank.

Supplies for my urban caching in the San Fernando Valley @ home. 10:03am

The cachemobile & the day after a rain in LA means gorgeous clear skies @ home. 10:10am

@flicka47 heading out now! 10:12am

flicka47@emcofnorthridge Cool, will keep tabs on your progress 10:14am

flicka47@emcofnorthridge Cool ,I drove as a courier in LA for abt 5 yrs,should be able to follow your progress fairly easily. Have fun! 10:15am

Ready to roll, jazz on the radio. No video on iPhone so that will be on the blog later @ home. 10:22am

First stop new cache Pennies From Heaven @ home. 10:24am

Arriving @ GC1N482 it has a clear hint & recent finds @ Los Angeles, CA. 10:38am

Doesn’t mean I can find it right away LOL @ Los Angeles, CA. 10:41am

aHA! Vegetation hide also logged in live on geocaching.com – One! @ Los Angeles, CA 10:49am

It’s near a recycled Circuit City @ Los Angeles, CA. 10:51am

Carpe Diem GC1FXER in Mission Hills right across from where I bought my Prius (just pd it off!) @ Los Angeles, CA. 11:05am

Instant find – yay! @ Los Angeles, CA. 11:07am

On the way: Mission San Fernando @ Los Angeles, CA. 11:16am

Next cache Well Bred found in the heart of San Fernando @ San Fernando, CA. 11:26am

@coakford need help with King of 31! under the sign or by phones? in Los Angeles, CA 11:48am

Oops never mind – found it! Duh… & my favorite container, too (spoiler photo) @ Los Angeles, CA. 11:57am

[nice, empty freeway]

Daily Prophet bonus cache! @ UPS Store @ Los Angeles, CA. 12:27pm

Platform 9 3/4. @ Los Angeles, CA. 12:29pm

I revisited the Daily Prophet since I’d missed the cool themed bonus cache! Just logged GC1JNA4 Burbank Fire St12 @ Burbank, CA. 12:43pm

Just logged quick find @ Burbank Fire St. 14 GC1JNA6 Time for lunch @ Chili John’s nearby! @ Burbank, CA. 1:05pm

Having chili spaghetti in this classic diner @ Burbank, CA- 1:20pm -
Amy Engelhardt likes this.
Kristy Montgomery at 1:26pm March 5
mmmm…..i’m hungry…that sounds good.

cinderellasarah@emcofnorthridge Oops! Typo! What classic diner is it? Looks fantastic and I work in Burbank… 1:30pm

@cinderellasarah Chili John’s! Burbank & Keystone 1:33pm

Lunchtime reading RT @weirdnews: Sea lion wanders to Mexican restaurant http://cli.gs/10Vn7T 1:34pm

Onward! (burp) next is a puzzle multi cache GC1JTP4 Cypher Me This – wish me luck… @ Burbank, CA. 1:49pm
Greg Blocher at 1:56pm March 5
LUCK!!!!!

Well, I’m zeroed out @ the corner of an apt. bldg no obvious hide@ WP1 & not comfy searching… Help? @ Burbank, CA. 2:04pm

A recent log left a bit of a hint about succulents. WP1 in hand – whew! @ Burbank, CA. 2:09pm

Hey! I interpreted the puzzle correctly, drove around the corner, & spy it there. Fun! @ Burbank, CA 2:22pm

Nice that a tool is provided! @ Burbank, CA. 2:23pm

flicka47@emcofnorthridge Yeah! Congrats! It has been fun following you around town! 2:31pm

Found a magnetic one in a tree – LOL @ Burbank Firefighter Training Center @ Burbank, CA. 2:41pm

GC1N1JA Burbank Park Pacific is near this monument to aviation history. @ Burbank, CA. 3:01pm

Time for just one or two more caches. Hope this has been fun for y’all! @ Burbank, CA. 3:05pm
Kristy Montgomery at 3:07pm March 5
can we go to the mountains? can we? can we?

Cache #10 is at a hidden park by the 170 freeway in N. Hollywood on a street split by said freeway. @ Los Angeles, CA. 3:25pm

Recount: that was #9 gotta find one more! @ Los Angeles, CA. 3:27pm

Awwwww a Christmas cache! @ Los Angeles, CA. 3:35pm

CacheAdvance@emcofnorthridge Thanks for allowing the vicarious caching today! 3:41pm

shawnmcguirt@emcofnorthridge been enjoying your caching post! 3:45 pm

shawnmcguirt@emcofnorthridge great to see what other cachers are seeing and doing! 3:46pm

Bonus cache! This is an odd dead end street in N Hollywood & where they shoot “The Office” – kewl! @ Los Angeles, CA. 3:51pm

Calling it quits & joining the locals for weekly cachER maintenance. Was this fun? Comments? @ Los Angeles, CA. 3:59pm

Kristy Montgomery at 4:12pm March 5
I for one had a GREAT time from my sickbed-I am exhausted! can we do it again tomorrow? xoxox kiki

I’m looking to find more creative ways to blog about geocaching. Comments and suggestions are welcome! Cache on….

Experimenting with “live blogging”

I’ll be posting my caching day today as I go! Interact with me live on Facebook or Twitter. I’ll post the stream of tweets here and perhaps some of the comments here later today, too.

Cache Maintenance – A Journal

Wednesday evening, 7pm
I’m procrastinating. I’ve been procrastinating this for, oh, weeks now, really. I have three caches that need reconstructing and two that need to have the logs replaced.. oh and one more I need to hike out to check on to see if it’s still there. It’s probably not, but my sense of honor and my habit of being conscientious demand that I still go look. OK, so tomorrow, I will finally get to these things, starting with making the new cache containers for the three missing ones.

Oh, yeah, I have to do my taxes, too. I should have started them last week as well… but that’s another subject.

Thursday morning, 8am
I’m awake. I’m thinking about doing cache maintenance. I should probably actually do it today. I need to ask Albackore what he used to stick dirt and rocks to an Altoids tin for an evil camo, as I want to do the same. Then I need to get 2 decons prepped with camo tape, and reprint the puzzle clues that belong in there for my “Mouse” cache.

The Mouse

Cinders
Marmalade
Orson
Amberson

10:30am
I got the information on the glue: Gorilla Glue. I’ll have to make a stop today to get some. I did a workout and studied some Japanese – next, it’s time to shower/dress/eat – then… maybe actually touch a cache container? Or… will I still procrastinate?

1:30pm
I got the 2 decons loaded with the log books, requisite clues, token trade items, and camo taped:

Before:

After:

Now to get out there and do Actual Owner Maintenance!

7pm
Amazing. I did do cache maintenance! I replaced two log books:
Behind the Red Barn
It’s behind a real feed store.

Time Warp
This is my favorite Los Angeles anomaly: an old unused barn in the middle of the high-priced suburbs.

After getting the Gorilla Glue and vinyl gloves at OSH, I drove up to the scenic Palisades area on the north end of the San Fernando Vally, and replaced the two caches that got burnt up in recent brush fires, Amberson and Orson (linked above). Here’s a photo of the trail head, showing the burnt stuff and the new growth.

After all this hard work, it was time for cachER maintenance! I met up with a few of my usual suspects at BJs Bar and Grill in Canoga Park for drinks and appetizers.

RobbDogg and his Piranha beer:

Spoondoggie, with basketball background:

BWidget has a beer, too:

OLdweeb opts for iced tea:

Yours truly, with her Tanqueray 10 martini up with extra olives:

Appetizers!

Capdude and Capsbug joined us, too. Cheers!

8:30pm
Got all my finds from yesterday logged in, and got this blog ready to publish!

Well, I still have to do my taxes, but maybe I’ll get to that tomorrow, along with the camo job on the third cache that needs the super duper glue stuff I got today. Or… maybe I’ll procrastinate and mess around on Facebook.

Until next week, cache on!

OH – and here’s the link to the newest Amberson cache:
Amberson