I’m still recovering from my multiple trips back and forth to San Francisco, and the exhilarating, yet exhausting, opera performances, but I did get in a few caches on my final leg home.
I was inspired by GeoCraig’s post on his completion of this challenge to take a look. A couple of years ago, I had an 8 mile radius cleared out and only 20 caches left in my 10 mile radius! Now… er… I have over 100 unfound in my 5 mile circle…
I live smack dab in the center of the San Fernando Valley, which is both an advantage and disadvantage compared to where GeoCraig is centered. The advantage is that I won’t encounter any extreme terrain. The disadvantage is that there’s a much higher probability that new caches will pop up while I’m in the process of getting them all found, so I’m chasing more of a moving target.
Game on!
I started out with my fun, yet admittedly feeble, effort today, by taking a drive down to the Balboa Park area for SEVEN finds. That means I’m down to 111 (until Albackore or OLdweeb or the Ventura Kids or f0t0m0m or Team Perks or some such decide to hide a massive spew of urbans to taunt me).
The food they grow in the neighboring field is sold at the farmer’s market over on Hayvenhurst:
I’ve never seen a gate with a ladder:
This is the flood control dam for the Los Angeles River. I recall seeing parts of the Valley under water as I watched CNN International when I was living in Vienna around 1991.
Looking back at my car from the other side of the park:
The last three were quick park and grabs along Woodley Avenue on the edge of the Balboa Park Bird Sanctuary and near the golf course. Jeff rocks! That he does – kudos again on his epic SFV Scavenger Event! OH NO…Not another LP skirt This hide was really funny. I took a photo, but don’t want to spoil it. Dog-Fish Chapstick
The wildlife area:
Actual wildlife:
The golf course:
This was an unusually good day for me, as I had zero DNFs and needed zero lifelines. Onward!
After well over 25,000 finds, there are still amazing and surprising things to discover while out caching! The Pet Cemetery
The Los Angeles Pet Cemetery is one of those places, indeed. I was completely unaware that any such place existed, and it’s been here since 1928.
Follow this link -LA Pet Cemetery- to learn more about the cemetery and its history. It looks like any other cemetery at first glance.
There are new flowers everywhere, so this is a very active place.
Near the entrance is a charming garden…
…with a large stone homage to The Rainbow Bridge:
It was difficult not to get choked up as I walked around. Some headstones were quite large!
These are two from what was the first section of plots, dated 1929:
Some had photos of the pets, much like some human headstones:
I even found one in Chinese, near this tree covered in wind chimes:
The music from the chimes added to the peace and charm. At the back is a small mausoleum, also dated 1929.
It’s decorated with some really beautiful stained glass:
f0t0m0m explored a different corner of the cemetery, came across some famous horses!
We even found Rudolf Valentino’s dog.
There were a few graves for cats and horses, but most were dogs. I don’t know if I’ll put my cats here to rest, but it’s certainly something to consider. It was wonderful to come across this unusual and significant bit of Los Angeles history and culture, in any case.
I didn’t get much caching in this week, but I did enjoy a pretty good variety of caching activity. The different types of caches and places to cache are one of the best things about it!
I solved some new puzzles that had popped up near my house, and all three were unique. One even featured an aspect of the piano keyboard that was new to me!
I got to O’Melveny Park for a short hike long on views. It’s one of several places I know of near my house where I can drive for 20 minutes, walk for 5 minutes, and feel completely away from the city and people (even though it and they are still all around).
Geocaching with EMC of Northridge, CA 