Opera Box

This is the 2nd cache on the list in my quest to maintain my puzzle caches, and I also plan to post pages here with help in solving the harder ones.

The Opera Box
The Opera Box puzzle is easy, though, as all the answers can be found with your favorite search engine and most are on the Metropolitan Opera website in their collection of synopses. There is one “trick” question, but it should not pose any significant obstacle.

The hike to the cache can be started at the posted coordinates for lovely hike up Cheesboro Canyon, or start at the north end of Las Virgenes for a shorter hike up the next canyon over. That’s the route I took this time.

The weather was perfect for hiking:

I found my cache in perfect condition right where it’s supposed to be:

It’s not far from the boundary between the Ahmanson open space and the area maintained by the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area:

The side canyons feature old signs marking gas pipes:

… and the trails are crowded with these guys:

… which is why Wile E. was here looking for lunch!

Here’s a closer look, thanks to my nifty zoom lens:

I don’t see these guys very often, but I know they see me ALL the time!

Nothingness No More

Since my “Nothingness” cache had not been found for over a year and a half, I decided to give it a look. It was also a great excuse to hike out Towsley Canyon and through The Narrows again. The bad news was that this cache is either washed away or inaccessible without some serious equipment:
NOTHINGNESS (part of GCX8QP dgreno 10K challenge)

Here’s one of the spoiler photos I took when I hid it, and it’s barely discernable as the same hillside.

The good news is that the canyon is consistently scenic and interesting, and there were a couple of new caches to find on the way back.
GeoWillie's Cache
GeoWillie's Ranger Station Cache

There are old oil seeps along the trail:

… and a new one down below.

There will be hundreds of new frogs soon:

The wildflowers come in all shades of purple:

… and the sounds in the canyon are nature’s best music!

A Flash Mob, Cache of the Week, and a Very Nifty Video!

Once again, geocachers from around the world gathered in their respective towns simultaneously on June 4th for a World Wide Flash Mob!
https://sites.google.com/site/wwfminfo/

The gang in Orange County did a Mentos/Diet Coke fountain:

(video by Pacholik)

The greater San Fernando Valley and Conejo Valley cachers all went Hawaiian and I even won the FTF prize drawing, a bison tube that I now get to hide somewhere.
WWFMVIII-Get Lei'd in Calabasas

There was a nice $5 bill in there, too, and I think I’ll leave it for the FTF of my new cache, whatever/whereever that happens to be. Come to think of it, I have two cats that don’t have caches yet, Biff and Frederick!

My favorite cache this week was a bison tube, too, an evil hide placed in a pullout in a manner reminiscent of my Nothingness cache. I was proud of myself for not DNFing this one!
Washer or Dryer?

The piéce de resistance, though, is this fabulous video. It’s the best geocaching video I’ve seen to date, and I look forward to more creative work by The Travel Bugs!

8 Years of Geoacaching

I celebrated this milestone and my mom’s birthday by taking one of my favorite road trips all the way up the state of California to Yreka.

I found a few new caches in town with my Dad. Here he is in Discovery Park…

… where I played on this swingset as a kid…

… and where we enjoyed learning new bits of history at the cache there:
"A Mighty Town"

We also enjoyed a stroll around Greenhorn Reservoir, where the weather was perfect for taking in the views:

The mountain out there is Goosenest.

The wild flowers are in full force.

The rest stop just north of Weed has an earthcache about the ancient rock formations made by Mt. Shasta, and bit of more recent history on display nearby:
Ancient Mt. Shasta Debris Avalanche

This was also Memorial Day weekend, and I’m truly grateful for the folks that defend my country and our exceptional freedoms. Without them, I would not be doing what I do.