What a spectacular view! Was I there to see it?
Uh oh… is that what’s left of my mighty Prius?
There seems to be some confusion:
Was I out in the Landers desert? Or was I in Fontana with a different group of rabble rousers?
California Wildlife: Mountain Lion
HENDECAGON SHAPE
Am I invisible in this T-shirt after all?
Like Harvey, do I really exist?
(p.s. it’s nice to be missed!)
Credits:
two top photos are by Max Power
video by the VKs
Gene, Debbie, and Donald barely scratched the surface of the fun you can have when it’s wet outside.
When the Primm Valley Resort sent several of us offers for free nights, no strings, we booked our nights. Just because it turned out to be raining cats and dogs was no reason not to go. As it turned out, the big day of caching in the desert was sprinkly, but it never got too bad, so we stuck with plan A, and found over 140 caches along a couple of power trails.
Early in the day, OLdweeb found his 8,000th cache. That’s a big number!
f0t0m0m, OLdweeb, Ventura Kid
Most of the scenery was similar to this:
… and no one was around, even though the dirt road was under some kind of construction, and we skirted big ditches, equipment, and supplies to get to some of the caches:
The caches were named mostly for places, both familiar:
Sacramento, CA
and unfamiliar:
Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas
The rain served to illuminate some of the colors:
All in all, it was fun opportunity to get out and play!
Merry Playful Christmas to you all!
It’s one of the most distinctive landmarks in the world and it’s right in my back yard:
The Hollywood Sign
The easiest way to get there, and the one we took, is up the fire road at the north end of Beechwood Canyon Road, right near an equestrian center. I’d been up there a few years ago, so it was nice to get back and find the new caches along the way.
Follow me to Hollywood: Stage 1 – Not Too Hard
Follow me to Hollywood: Stage 2 – Harder
Another Hollywood Cache
Another Hollywood Cache 2
Here we are all set to go:
Albackore, Walrus310, deeznuts, OLdweeb, BWidget, Spoondoggie, Yours Truly
photo by Sissopolis
The sign is very prominent the whole way up to the top of Mt. Lee:
The Road to Hollywood
Spoondoggie showed us how to support the entertainment industry:
The fire road winds around the hill, affording panoramic vistas of the entire Los Angeles basin, Griffith Park, and the San Fernando Valley:
At the top, you’re above and behind the sign – a whole new perspective. To the right, the dominant feature is the Hollywood Reservoir, surrounding by hillsides nestled with luxury homes.
To the left, the Griffith Park Observatory sticks out of the neighboring hill like the proverbial sore thumb.
The antenna display at the summit is massively impressive.
On the way down from Mt. Lee, we took a detour to the neighboring Mt. Chapel for an older cache that’s been taunting me for years.
Return to Mt. Chapel
Albackore and deeznuts
In the spirit of gourmet caching, we enjoyed a great hike and great fellowship, then topped that off with great food at Chili John’s in Burbank. Albackore and Spoondoggie made studied decisions on what to eat.
It’s ALL very tasty.
Last week, I found cache #23,000. I think I have an average DNF rate of at least 10%, so this means I’ve NOT found over 2,300 caches. Some days are really worse than others, too. I took a road trip the other day, and DNFd three before finding one. Ouch. I even DNFd two while trying to find #23,000!
DNF 1
Fruit of the Spirit: Self-Control
Find #23,000, at last!
Gateway to Beaumont
To make up for it, though, are the easy breezy days of 100+ finds! I had a lovely day of 116 finds and NO DNFs on a run from Moreno Valley to Lake Hemet with OLdweeb and Albackore.
Find #1
2000 – Geocaching was Born
Up in to mountain scenery:
Find #116
1918 – Does Anybody Really Know What Time it is?
Where’s the next cache clump? Let’s go!
It’s been a long week.
I must admit that I did enjoy the satellite radio and the novelty of driving something different, but for someone that drives as much as I do, my car becomes an extension of myself. It has a comfortable fit. My foot knows exactly how to accelerate smoothly. The placement of everything is so familiar, I don’t have to think about where any of my stuff is.
I can also drive in the car pool lane by myself.
I missed that the most this week – this long week. I’m very happy to finally be back in my own saddle again.
As it turned out, my car did, indeed, have an actual malfunction. It wasn’t an extraterrestrial influence, just an inverter pump. The part was back ordered, and I ended up with a Dodge Carabiner until this evening. The Prius is all better now.
I’m hoping that my buddies are all better now, too – not the ones from the alien run, but the ones from the hike last weekend. We encountered some angry bees that cut our commune with nature short.
It was lovely while it lasted, though:
tozainamboku, sissopolis, Albackore, Don J, OLdweeb (invisible)
Ahhh, the sweet smell of nature!
Rust to Dust
C-Bear’s cache
CoooLToo
Emmy’s Cache!
Pack 100 Malibu Creek Cache
There’s more of the story on OLdweeb’s Blog HERE.
Seriously: click on over and keep reading! OLdweeb’s blog
He took some nice photos, too.
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Click on each cache title to link to see its cache page.
