My Geo Caching Experience

2008-10-18T23:30:00.000-07:00

Just some fun shots while I was on the water investigating a island to put a cache on.

These are taken inside the tree house.

What a tree house Even if the picture is wrong-- Yes there are two.

These are the final pictures I have from the states. I will now continue my geo caching escapades on the island of Tasmania, Australia.

These pictures were taken as I was leaving the park for the night. I am awed every time I see such beauty.

Found this little friend while out hunting a elusive cache. I never did find it but he and I had a nice chat about the weather in the area.

Would you believe that this Palm is in the middle of a desert oasis.
What a striking contrast to the dry scrub shown in other pictures of this area.

Lot's more of the Lake. It seemed to be on every corner I turned

Just some updates

2008-07-30T16:39:00.000-07:00

Well it's been way to long since I updated this log so below you will find a few more pictures of one of my favorite areas to Geo Cache.

Well this picture seems to be a bit out of synce due to a finger on the lense but The focus should be on the large lizard being pointed at. This particular location is known for large lizards and snakes in the area and when we are searching my nephew bravely put his hand into a dark crevace that we wern't sure what he would find.

Guess all went well there.

This picture below is just a picture of the local faunna.

No this isn't upside down or sidways. It was a major crevace we had to look into to find a eluisive prize.

Again with the finger in the way.. Someone should teach this guy how to take pictures.
Anyway the shale is the main focus here. It was getting hot outside that day and this rock path wasn't helping much

Just another view of the area .

Hmm a road well travelled. This is the main road my nephew and I travelled a half dozen times or more to get to various caches along it's borders

Just thought this flower represented one of the many forms of wild flowers to be found.

From the tops of mountains we looked and beheld the wild beauty that is San Diego

Loved this tree.

Let's see. Nick (nephew), yellow shirt. My son, Wade in the cammies. Janice (niece) in pink. Mackenna(daughter) in blue and Taylor in Red.

Out for a day of caching with the family.

Would you believe that the next two pictures of on opposite sides of each other in the same area.

My nephew Nick high on the rocks retrieving a cache.

I just love the vista shot's. Don' t you.

I think the ground needs a drink.

Success we found the Cache.

The cross at mount Helix. What a wonderfull place to visit. I have lived in San Diego all my life and never visited here until I went geocaching in the area.

This flower is was sticking directly out of a stone work wall just above the cache location.

Another candid shot of the nephew with a cache.

The pic above is at the base of the rock picture below.

Apparently this is a exploding flower or in this case a Exploded flower.

Anthother series of vistas . These are from the top of Mt. Helix

These photo's are of the Mission Trails landscape in San Diego. Be sure to look at all of them since there are some remarkable difference's

The Lake below is in the Mission Trails Park in California. I find it very peacefull to just sit and watch the birds do their bit of hunting. The weather was good this time around. A little overcast to off set the heat.

Below is a interesting pair of images. The first one is a beautiful tree line I was getting ready to go a-hunting in .

But right behind me was the image below. This great big brown field. What a amazing contrast in the heart of san diego.

Here's a little friend I found as I was travelling along the road.

I found this spot most interesting. It was a oasis of a sorts. Quiet and Peacefull. I spent a few minutes here just listening and getting way from the heat that was just outside.

This was what I found inside the tree line pictures located above.

2008-06-06T20:45:00.000-07:00

So here was my thought. How could I get more waypoints to my gps so I didn't have to download them individually and then call the wife to see if there were any nearby where I happen to be.

Then I thought how kewl would it be to have some of that info downloaded to my pda. ie. hints etc.

So I let my fingers do the typing.

I ended up with Easy GPS which allows me to download large amounts of caches in a single hit. and send them from the pc to the GPS. I was giddy to say the least. I even ran straight out to test it.. not really but I had some shopping to do so I took it with me.

Lo and behold I was at Costco in La mesa and found a site 300ft from where I was parked.

I jumped so fast my wife didn't even get the chance to say where are you going.

Only one major issue. The link didn't tell me it was a puzzle cache so I'm looking at ground zero which is on a sidewalk heading up to a kaiser medical office.

I think I will be a bit more carefull next time. But it was a fun learning experience.

Now the next step was to find a way to get some of that info (wanted the hints) to my pda.

Couldn't find a program right away so I turned to my friends at cha cha.com and had them help me. And they did. Gpx Sonar. They sent me instructions on how to download a program that will transfer those files.

Not real helpfull as a whole since I can't see the whole file such as the hints or logs. Bummer.

2008-05-26T20:01:00.001-07:00

It was a beautiful day today out heading through the valleys of mission trails in San Diego. Looking a little dry though

Well here we are. The whole pack with the Prize in hand.. I told him he couldn't take it with him. So he settled for a shell casing we found inside.
Hey wait. I want pictures of you ransacking the loot. Just make sure you leave some I said.

Here is a picture at our cache earlier in the morning. My nephew who is been by cacher parter since I started. Right there next to QDMan. Here we are that the bottom of a very steep hill fighting the fox tails. I won this time.

Found at the base of this huge boulder wow. I hope that doesn't fall on anyones home.
An interesting bit of flora.. Looks like a seed pod.

2008-05-24T22:06:00.000-07:00

Well here we are at the infamous Mt. Helix home of the even more Infamous Mt. Helix Cross.

And oh what a view. Located high above the local cities of La Mesa and El Cajon. You can see for miles around on a a beautful day such as today.

Up here to see if I could find a couple of the local caches reported in the area. Found a few muggles and Some beautiful flora such as the one below growing right out of the wall.

No Luck however on the actual goals. The first one located on top of the site itself simply just eluded me for the time.

The other one I wasn't so brave to try to get. It seem to be down the side of a mountain a bit with no apparent trail.. I don't like those much.. afraid to get myself into trouble.

Maybe I will get some more nerve and head back for that one when I "rehike" the mountain top to find the first one.

Who knows. More adventures to come.

Good Hunting

Today's Find

2008-05-17T20:25:00.000-07:00

Well another adventure down in puzzle valley. My nephew and I decided to brave the 90 degree heat and go for a hike. We took on a local run In and out in about an hour or so.

The pictures this trip around were just perfect in contrast with each other. On one side along the river itself it was a bright beautiful green and all heat blasted shale and scrub sage.

But after a dehydrating hike.. I never seem to have enough water... I don't know.

We hiked the path following the trusty gps. And with the hint of the owner found the proper trails without any trouble till we got to the final 50 feet or so where my arrow showed go north but the hint on the site said go west. Hmm where to go.

So after a few circles around the north idea I finally went west. Lo and Behold the gps marked 10ft instead of 50.. Amazing how that works.

Well another conquered. See on the next hunt

The forbidden forest 1st and 2nd time

2008-04-08T19:31:00.000-07:00

Well this is very late but it at least it wasn't never.

These are pictures of where my friends and I did The Forbidden Forest by the DAK Girls. What a great time.

The first Time I went out it was under the watchfull eye of QDMAN and a faithfull companion. We hunted and spotted. We hunted some more.

This is one of the times where a GPS doesn't due much good to find your goal in the beginning.

But oh what a fun night.

It was so fun in fact that I took my family and friends out for thier first geocaching adventures.

Now I think they are hooked. We shall see.

What I'm trying to show here is the nice little spider that you can't really see
Faces, glowing the dark. Almost halloween-- I don't think so.

Daytime.. What a Difference

The night lights showing us we are not to far off the beaten path
Can you tell this is the Moon in all her splendor

More shots of the City Lights
So this was fun.. the light on top is a head lamp and the light on the bottom is a flashlight.. Or maybe it was a train.. I was takeing pictures. So I moved just in case.

MORE SPIDERS

This one just showing how real dark it was. Our First puzzle.. The infamous "BOX"

Now what was amazing it took 3 of us the first time about 10-15 minutes to solve it. And when I went back out with my brother, and brother inlaw they soldved it in about 5 minutes... Guess being a Scout Trainer pays off with education.

Well that's all for this one.

I've been a few more hikes since this one so I will post later.

My first Cache Placed

2008-04-08T18:43:00.001-07:00

Well it's been an amazing journey. I got told by this strange guy about all these wild adventures he did using something called a gps..

He traveled through mud caves and into strange valleys full of things called muggles.

Since I have learned the pleasures of such travails. I reached out try to recreate my own version of the treasures I have been finding as minimal as they are at the moment.

I ventured out into the parks and the streets to no avail. I was in search of my perfect location for my 1st cache.

I went even so far as to go back to the same park 4 times. After that I changed my name.. I am now Re Hike Mike.

Alas as I was out enjoying an evening with my family I spotted it. The perfect destination.

I went home and prepared. I grabbed the garmin and went back out.. Scared a muggle in the process and got my mark.

Drove at the spead of light (traffic) to check google earth and geocaching.com to ensure I met all the requirements this time.

Sucess. It met the distance requirements.

Now here we are only a few days later and I am seeing 3-4 hits a day on the cache and even travel coin.

And I thought my love of Geo Caching couldn't get any better. Wow It multiplied 100 fold. I now rush to a computer any chance I get to see who has logged entries.

What a great community I have become involved in. I look forward to meeting some of these people at cache sites world wide.

Thanks again to all who support this cause.

Happy Hunting

2008-02-27T19:48:00.000-08:00

Well after many a long day of waiting here is the journey of Wuv Twoo Wuv. Truly it was a journey of love, hate pain and joy. The pictures aren't in order by any means as they were just taken to enhance the trip blog here. The initial part is just a few pictures at the very bottom however you can read the whole story of my journey

So I hope you enjoy.

When I began my actual journey it was the first clear day after a 3 day storm here in sunny San Diego

Or maybe not....

Below is just a short video taken of one of the many Streams I had to traverse over the many days of hiking to fulfill my task of saving the Princess

I bet your wondering what this is.. or maybe why did he take a picture of it. Well if you seen princess bride than you may remember the Tree. well I think this this is a camouflaged version of the tree. Do ya think so?

If you look very carefully here you can see where I slid ... almost fell flat on my kiester... that would have hurt.

Oh look here's another one of those secret entrances.. Or maybe It was just a pretty rock formation.. You decide.

Anyone for a swim. This is the highest I've seen the water level.. Kinda scary But good for the environment

It's purple What more needs to be said.

Had to cross this part twice.. and since I was only wearing local tennis shoes.. Well let's say wet socks are not my idea of fun

This is piece of green below is where the San Diego fires were. It's nice to see Mother Nature is so resilient.

Hmmmm Muggle Prints.. May need to be careful as I go.

Different Muggle Tracks.. Now I know I'm being watched.

Well to wrap up the photos Here's just a couple more of the after affects of the rain in puzzle valley

Now for the full narration of my journey.

It began when my wife and I finally decoded the first of the five parts of the puzzle.

I drove to the what my wonderful Garmin GPS And yes this is the one I have. said I should start.

I found the perfect spot to park. I'm sure that's where everyone else who has started this trek may have parked too.

Anyway off into the jungle I trekked. To the south and East/West I went trudging along.. Into the bush.. literally climbing over tree branch and waist high scrub along with a small stream easily jumped.

I must say at this point it was about 8am in the morning when I began. I was cheery and anxious to find the first of these caches. So off I went wondering why the heck QDMAN would have done this much work for a cache.. didn't seem his style.

But I persevered. for two excruciating hours on the wrong side of the road. Yes I said the wrong side of the road. Up to the top of a mountain down into the valley's back around again.. Up over more hills and through more scrub..

I was getting discouraged. So I decided to do the sensible thing and call my wife to have her check my location..

She logged in to http://www.geocacheing.com/ and said yep you should be right look for the big trail (service road) Well I didn't see any service road So I thought well I give up. I will go home and try again.

So back to the car I headed. With a lump in my heart. I was failing. So new, So naive.

Then as I was looking across the road I stopped to check my location again and realized that as I traveled back the car I was getting closer to my goal.. Hmm novel concept follow your gps and it's compass.

So I called the wife again and told her I was going to give it another go.. She hmphd and haa'd and let me go.

So off I went.. onto the little bitty tiny service track I was hunting for into more chest high scrub that I had to literally plow my way through the ravine and into deeper and deeper plant growth..

Again I am thinking what was QDMAN thinking. So after another hour of this I called again and said we have to figure out something..

She agreed.

As we chatted awhile I remembered a comment by QDMAN about him using Google Earth to find a few of his first cache's So I said to the wife As I hike would you please take a look.

She agreed.

By this time I had finally realized that the major service road I wanted was at the top of the Ravine not at the bottom where I was.

On I went up the side of the ravine battling rocks, scrub brush.. With little thought for what might be lurking below my tennis shoe'd feet.

My legs by now burning with the exertion of 3 hours of hiking through very rough terrain.

Success I have reached what appears to be a main service road. And would you believe from the vantage point I was then standing on I could see where the road actually reached clear back to about 500 ft from where I entered the ravine. Called the wife again and apologized for yelling at her when she told me I should have been following the service road all time.

Off I go again to track the service road watching as the scenery and ability to travel becomes much easier to navigate and my position gets closer and closer to it's goal.

Seeing muggle homes to my left and scrub to my right I kept right on going. Getting more and more tired.

Then the most dangerous thing happened.

I was identified by a local dog. Barking enough to bring out his owner I had to stop and detail why I was trespassing on private property.. (which I had no idea I was on).

I showed him my Gps explained my plight.

Chuckling he pointed be back up to the service road where apparently I had veered off of inadvertently. Once again back up rocky/bushy terrain.

Waiving goodbye to the nice muggle and thanking the powers that be that it hadn't turned out worse I set off.

Reaching the top I called to check in as I promised I wood. I got great news. The wife had figured out how to use Google Earth to assist me in tracking where I was and needed to be.

I rattled off my current location in which she entered into Google Earth. And presto she gave me literally step by step directions on how to attain my goal.

From that point it was off to the Races. I hit my target and was able to with a very anti climatic ending go home.

From this point on as I continued to hike the remaining parts of the puzzle over the next several outings to solve the puzzle I trekked out using my cell ,a bluetooth wireless headset and my wife stationed behind a pc with google earth to guide me home.

With the exception of one day of hiking after a 3 day rain storm as the pictures above show and a couple of hints from QDMAN, the rest of the hiking went by uneventfull.

Thanks QDMan for a great time Tracking the Princess in Wuv Twoo Wuv

Princess Bride is one near and dear to my heart.

Santee Lakes, A hidden Pearl

2008-01-24T19:34:00.000-08:00

Well I hope you all will forgive me I have been a little lax in my blogging about my latest geo caching adventures.

Below you will find a treasure I had hitherto only heard about. Santee Lakes. These man made lakes set in the middle of Santee are a joy and a pleasure to have gone hunting (geocaching) at.

Here are some actual photos taken from a small paddle boat that some friends rented for the small birthday party I was attending.

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It's peacful quiet views are a wonderfull place to enjoy a quiet afternoon or let the kids go run to their hearts content.

Complete with play equipment and fishing area it's a joy for the family to vist. All while still looking for the 2 or 3 cache's around the area. This one was actually quite easy to find as the clues where a little to spot on.

It was however a way to put another notch in the geocaching belt.

My next blog entry should prove to be quite the read as I endeavored to solve a serious puzzle .

Until then Enjoy.

Our 1st DNF (did not find) of 2008

2008-01-08T22:09:00.000-08:00

Well took the family out again to a small local park like are here in the San Diego area. It's a quaint little spot dead in the middle of El Cajon Ca.

Good for the locals in the office buildings nearby to have a pic-nic lunch and enjoy the beautiful San Diego weather.

Well I did see on the clues that there was another person also could not find the cache so I decided to take a chance any.

Well no such luck but we did have an interesting experience.. We parked the car in the lot adjacent to the park. Unloaded all 4 kids and the wife, Checked the clues and went hunting.

Hmm must beware of the muggle sitting on the park bench knitting.. yes Knitting.. a nice little old lady just enjoying the warm winter's day.

But guess what.. Ground zero was on or around the spot where she was sitting..

There went that cache for the day. We decided to to take trip to more kid friendly park for an hour or two to see if she would take off. Didn't want to disturb her or anything.

Well back from the park. and yes she was gone but so it appeared was the cache. We double checked our clues and yep our 1st dnf for the year.

Oh well. It was fun to be on an outing with the family.

Until next time Good hunting

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My Geo Caching day in Juian, California

2008-01-06T09:31:00.000-08:00

Well I'm a little delayed in posting this latest entry so please all forgive me.

This is a post about My family trip to Julian, A small mountain community just about an hour outside of San Diego. It's a beautiful drive through through the local mountains as you can see below.

Along the journey through this great area you can also seen signs of the fires that ravaged the area in 2000.

I'm sorry the picture quality isn't the best here but you can see a monument to the travesty that was generated by those fires.

I Failed to get other pictures of all the new growth in the area due to the fact that the kids were getting ansy to get out of the car and run for a bit.

Having 4 kids in a car for more than an hour is asking for trouble.. lol.

We'll we made it into julian with out any major issues . The picture to the left is of the kids posing for me just past the the first part of the Multiple cache we are in search of.

A little history about where I travelled before reaching this point.

We reached town ok and started to unpack.. Kid after Kid to climb out of the car.. Grab the Stroller out of the back of the van and move on. Ok so where to go.. grab the diaper bag and start to move.

Oh wait did we check the gps.. yep It says go 500 ft that way, muggle speak for head north by norwest to gps co-ordinate .. n123.1455.266 by w 123.456.565 . Well you get the picture.

So up I went walking up the hill. And as I walked up the hill I started to realize that I was walking into a private neighborhood. A classic 1st timers mistake I think..

So I stopped to look at the direction sheet I had printed. Skipping over all the little details I shlould have read.

So the Gps reads go 500 ft that way ... well that way as the case was pointed right to through the middle of a small trailer park.. again I am stumped. So down the hill I went. To see what I could find.

And I watch the meter so wrong direction so I alter direction to try again and again walking around and around in circles.. Are you dizzy yet.

Well I finally stopped back at the car to sit and do a thorough read of the instructions.. What A guy I am.. Can't read instructions to save my life.

So while reading I have a epifany.. The clues are on small placques such as the one shown below.

So once we found it. I figured it's all down hill from there.. The clues on placques throughout town. Shouldn't be that hard.

But as obvious as that I still didn't pay close enough attention and continued to walk around town and out to one of the roads leading out of town spending at least an hour of toatally useless walking around town. Useless only in the fact that the scenery was beautiful but I was trying to find a cache..

So finally with another treck back to the car to rest and eat. and try to figure out where I need to be.

So me and my geo caching nephew decifered the clues and off we went.

Up to the cemetary where a couple of famous people where said to be buried and a few of the clues were supposed to be.

Well we finally found all the clues, notwithstanding the hour or so I spent walking up and down roads that were no where near the places I should have been or even the half a dozen private residences I treked up to thinking maybe they were special or something.

I was honestly about to give up on the last one when my nephew said let me take one last look.

And Lo what did he find but the final cach.

What a great experience we have had.. A time to learn and grow together as we hiked with children and ourselfes through such a wonderfull little town filled with history and uniqueness.

I am so glad to have been shown the way of the Geo Cacher. My thanks to My mentor who shall remain nameless as I have not gotten his permission yet to print here in my blog.

Until next time. Happy Hunting

Geocaching with my Nephew

2007-12-31T21:59:00.000-08:00

Since I started Geocaching I have taken only two trips the second one I will blog about here.

The trip started out going back out to the first place I was taken to geocache. I figured that since I am still so new to the whole game I thought it would be easier to manage.

On the concrete path amidst a steel tunnel we began our travels ...

We will walk in peace amongst the birds, the bees and the trees...

Ahh aren't we proud his first "Cache"

Onward young Padowan. To your next find...

I know that secret lair button is here somewhere..

The path well travelled is the path worth taking.

Well now as I'm sure any good geocacher has found is that not all the paths are straight. So goes our story. I had programed my gps to go to the next location which I knew was just to the north east of us. However as I looked the system says go south.. So thinking maybe I had remembered wrong I trusted our handy dandy compass and we travelled south.

And low and behold where did we find ourselves but below our beloved starting point looking up instead of down.

Much to my chagrin I realized that I had told the system to go to our starting waypoint instead of our 3rd destination. However despite the wrong turn we we were rewarded with this beautiful seen.

Now at this part of the journey I gave my young apprentice a choice, go home or continue on your maiden voyage.

His choice was clear go forth and geocache...

So as the Sun set's on our journey we droppe a Australian coin as our gift to the community and with our prostesting limbs which have hiked a goodly number of miles this day

We bid you adieu ...

Takeing my nephew on his first Geo Cache experience

2007-12-30T19:08:00.000-08:00

Although this post is being written on the same day as my first post the event actually occured 30 days later.

We started out my second and his first experience in a local park here in San Diego. We actually started by going out with the family to have a little fun with the new Garmin as shown below
.

We pulled over just a few hundred feet from where the 1st of 4 caches in the area was to be found.

We hiked down the small road away from the park while the wife and kids enjoyed a small picnic lunch.

So as my nephew and I cruised along the local road trying to avoid being obvious that we were planning on tracking through the local shrubbery in search of a tiny little cache hidden somewhere close by we chatted about the new world of geo cacheing I had stumbled into.

Well it only took us about 5 minutes to find our central point of reference.

It was an interesting experience since neither of us had any idea of what we were looking for. And since I had a experienced geo cacher with me the last time it made things a bit easier I think.

So we tracked around for a good 15 minutes or so digging through the bushes. We eventually triangulated where the cache should have been.

However we did not have any luck finding it. So after several cell phone calls from the wife wondering where we were we decided to give up and go onto #2 Cache.

So back up the road we trecked into the park central.

Leaving the wife and kids behind, which I later found out she was not happy about, my dad, my nephew and I went trecking around the Park.

Now a small description of this park since I didn't think to take pictures.. It's a big open meadow essentially surrounded by local area brush with small service roads and a small area for the kids to play on the play equipment.

We attempted to find the three other cache's that were supposed be located in the area. I would estimate a several mile hike around the outside rim of the park. Still now luck in reaching our goal of at least one cache that day.

With the first two still unfound I attempted to call my experienced teacher and ask him what to do since I was getting very discouraged.

His advice was not to worry since it wasn't uncommon to have abandon cache's and to just chalk it up to a good time with family and mark them on www.geocaching.com,where you can find all the cache's you want, as Did not Find. Now this will alert the owner that either it's been stolen or too hard to find.

So that's just what we did.

We then spent a little time at home and off to our next adventure. For me it was a revisit of the very first cache I ever went on and for my nephew his second adventure in geocaching. It was to be a better experience for both.

Be sure to read the next post to find out what happend. And this one I will include pictures.

Until then Peace be with You.

My first Geo Cache

2007-12-30T18:34:00.000-08:00

I have decided to create this blog to talk about my new found hobby of Geo Caching Which for those who don't know geo caching is here is a good description

Geo caching is an entertaining adventure game for GPS users. Participating in a cache hunt is a good way to take advantage of the wonderful features and capability of a GPS unit. The basic idea is to have individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the internet.

GPS users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches. Once found, a cache may provide the visitor with a wide variety of rewards. All the visitor is asked to do is if they get something they should try to leave something for the cache
My first real experience with this new found hobby was with a friend from church who I knew went on these incredible outdoor adventures. I begged him for months to take me out and show me what this "geocacheing" thing was.

Well in December We finally went out. Myself, and My friend "Randy" and a associate from Randy's work. We did a 4 mile hike around a ;local wildlife preserve; which took us about two hours to complete.

Our goal was to complete what is called a multi-cache. Which is where you start with a initial starting point and continue using longitude and Latitude coordinates given as clues by the previous cache until your final destination point is found.

Wow what an experience.. The walk may have taken two hours but I don't think I even realized we were gone that long.At this point I had only two thoughts, First, was wow it's over already And second was when can I go again.

This is the GPS unit that was given to me as a Christmas Present. I found it exremely easy and intuitive to use. I read briefly over the manual but was able to figure out how to use it without it.

Good Luck on your adventures and tune in later for more on my Geo Cacheing adventures