Supplemental: “805 Magazine” Article

This is the nice article published recently in a local magazine featuring both me and GeoCraig:

805 Living_Pursuits Dec 09

It’s a .pdf file, so the link will open the document separately on your computer. It’s not large – only 3 pages – but let me know if you have any difficulty accessing it. Enjoy!

Happy New Year!

First of all I want to thank all of you who read my blog! I’ve been posting my geocaching adventures each Thursday for two years now, and have watched my subscription numbers gradually get bigger. Writing about my experiences makes it even more fun to go out and find caches. I really appreciate all of the comments, too – please keep ’em coming, and feel free to make suggestions.

I wrapped up my year of geocaching with two runs in the Pasadena area. On Christmas day, I headed out with OLdweeb, tozainamboku, and BenH57 for 40 urbans and a gourmet Chinese dinner. OLdweeb covers it very nicely in his blog , and got much better pictures than I did that day. Do click the link and check out his post!

OLdweeb’s blog post

A couple of days ago, I headed back out to the same area to do a hike through the adjacent arroyo with f0t0m0m and the Ventura Kids.

A splash of color:

An archery range:

Um, NO, Steve, the cache is NOT in there!! Fail!

By the way, I got a heads up that our record of 413 caches in 24 hours has already been broken – in Denmark and Sweden no less! Here’s the comment posted on my blog about it –

Author : Team Mojito
Comment:
Yesterday (28. december 2009) the danish geocachers Picht and Elmbaek found a record breaking 480 caches in 20 hours. 251 in Denmark and the rest in Sweden. 2 hours transport between the found places included in the 20 hours.

… and here is one of the logs from that day:

Fundet sammen med Picht. Vi tog til Nordsjællands Powertrail for at tage en bid af denne. Men da vi efter 7 timer havde fundet samtlige 250 cacher besluttede vi at fortsætte dagen i Halmstad.
Fundet som nummer 384 af dagens 480 cacher!
Tak MercedesBenz for cachen. 
Elmbaek. #8035

These are the same guys, Team DK08, that set the record in Sacramento a couple of years ago, back when that was a mere 315! I’ve asked them to write a little about their crazy day, and will post that when I get it!
Meanwhile, you can check out the two power trails they did. This is one of the caches in Denmark – PT#250 – Nordsjællands powertrail and this is one of them in Sweden – Halmstad PowerTrail “HPT B75”

Of course the city of Pasadena is all about New Year’s Day and the parade. It takes a couple of weeks for all the setting up:

This is the famous corner of Orange Grove and Colorado Boulevards that all floats and bands must negotiate:

This is normally a lovely tree-lined, wide-lawned scenic thoroughfare, now transformed into a jungle of chain link and bleachers:

I’ve been to the parade in person a few times, but this year I’ll enjoy it from the comfort of my living room as most Americans do… then I’ll head out for a short hike to start the year off in the wonderful local scenery. I took this photo in the hills on the north end of the San Fernando Valley this week as I hiked up to A Day At The Speedyway
:

May your new year take you to marvelous places!

Christmas Caching

Ah…. the rush is over and the holiday is here! What better way to celebrate than by geocaching?

I’ll be in the Bakersfield area today, meeting my sister to exchange presents, then finding a few basic caches before returning south through the Grapevine and over the Tejon Pass. The weather is dry currently in Southern California, so it should be clear and beautiful.

‘Tis the season for snow on the mountains surrounding greater Los Angeles:

(taken on a hike with f0t0m0m last week)

‘Tis also the season to be on the lookout for decorations. I think these folks bought out the local stores for their front yard!

(taken on the recent run with OLdweeb)

I was not available to participate, but f00tm0m and the Ventura Kids joined some cachers in San Luis Obispo for the local Christmas parade, and were part of the geocaching float, which was also a geocaching event, of course!
Cachers on Parade

(video by the Ventura Kids)

I’ll be geocaching on Christmas day with a few of the locals around the Pasadena area, then heading to Monterey Park for dinner, probably Chinese food as those restaurants tend to be open on the holiday. If anyone cares to join us for all or part of the festivities, just let me know – or just show up! I’ll be logging in live on Twitter and the list will have a public bookmark. (Check GC14XB6 to find that.)

I hope you all have a wonderful, cacheful holiday!

**************************
Luke 2:8-14
8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Out and About with OLdweeb

First, I have some cool news: GeoCraig and I are featured in an article in this month’s issue of 805 Living, which can be found at most major supermarkets in Southern California, including Gelson’s, Vons, Ralphs, Albertsons, and Pavilions, as well as Blockbuster Video and at many high-end retail locations throughout Western Los Angeles, Ventura, and Santa Barbara. 805 Living is also available through subscription. I should be able to get permission to reprint the article here soon!

OK, so I went out for a short day of caching with Ken, aka OLdweeb (On Line Dweeb). He refers to himself as the low energy cacher from outer space, akin to Quisp cereal. We basically cleaned up about 20 around the San Fernando Valley that one or the other or both of us needed. The centerpiece of the list was one honoring Bwidget’s 5000th find!
The Widger 5000

It was a glorious day, as days are here right after it rains:

Of course, Ken did his standard “my GPS is a cel phone” trick while I signed the log, if any muggle was visible within 500 feet:

See his blog for his various entertaining rants, but Ken confessed to be rantless that day. Hm. A rantless OLdweeb. I’ll bet that if he reads this post here on the WordPress website, he’ll have something to rant about. Hee hee…

C’mon, Ken… dare ya to click over!

😉

… or better yet, maybe he’ll tell us of when – back when he was kid – he saw a baby chimp running loose on the streets of Sylmar…

California Highway 25: Magical Scenery

The Wikipedia page does not do this road justice. I’ve driven up and down California dozens of times on the 101, 5, 33, 99, but never had cause to take this winding, rural side road until recently. As part of the Delorme challenge, f0t0m0m and I headed up almost to Santa Nella, over to Hollister, then down this stretch of striped asphalt to check off another 5 pages. We stopped for gas and sandwiches in the mini-burg of Tres Pinos across the street from this cache:

Tray’s Pinos Hotel

then headed south for a few more:

54 Miles
Don’t Blink!
Paicines Reservoir
Road End
Top of the Big Dipper
Oldtime Cowboy Movie
Are we there Yet III?
Stop Staring at Me!
A Green Valley View
Old School
Welcome to Pinnacles
What a View!
25-59-35
Trading Corrosion For Erosion
Key to San Ardo

Empty country roads are among the best places for caching. I hope more are placed along this one – I’d love a reason to come back! Enjoy the journey with me:

The day concluded with a couple of caches near Harmony, just north of Morro Bay:

You Are Here – this was an outstanding camo job
Classic California Coast

I wish you blissful caching.