First Monday Of Summer Vacation

After not doing anything all weekend, except reading, of course, I decided to take a crack at those geocaches on Fortuna Peak in Mission Trail Regional Park. So I got up early and headed over to Tierrasanta.  I found an EXCELLENT place to park, and headed out from there. It was REALLY foggy. At the first cache one was supposed to spot some certain rocks where the cache was, but it was so foggy I couldn't see which way the rocks were!



I had to get this cache on the way back, after the fog had lifted. I DID see this strange contraption, though...



This cute little cache utilizes an old Velox bicycle tube repair kit. Or maybe it's for tubular bike tires, the ones racer's used, with the integral tube. I'm a Rema man, myself, but I do like the Velox rim tape.



I think this spider is listening for radio signals from outer space...



I could HEAR the traffic on the 52 as I headed up the trail, but I couldn't SEE it.  When I got to the ridge above I could see down into Santee as the fog was clearing on that side.




But on the west side it was still socked in.  There was almost a rainbow.



A little more, almost there!



Strangely, the fog was moving from right to left in this picture, for a while. Fortuna peak up there.



I finally made it to the peak of Fortuna Mountain, and started down the other side.



I only saw one person on the way up here, a trail runner passed me as I was rummaging around for a geocache just off the trail.

Down on the (relative) flats I came across this geocache with some sort of nest on it. I'm just glad it wasn't inhabited!



I also saw a couple out hiking, for a total of three humans today!

The last cache of the day was way down in a valley about five hundred feet from where I parked. Horizontal feet...add a couple of hundred more UP and a couple of hundred feed DOWN!  Plus a couple of hundred MORE to follow the trail! It was situated on an ant nest. The little red ants were mightily upset when I pulled the top off of their nest!



I posed myself picking up a piece of trash, a mylar balloon. I had the backpack on by one strap, and it slipped off. I was too lazy to re-pose the shot, though! Anyway, as they say, Cache In, Trash Out!!



Finally I was done for the day and headed directly up the hill (not following the trail) to the vehicle. I could see where a pipeline had been buried and followed the fairly-clear path, not having to bushwhack. So my trail-cutting wasn't a TOTAL sin.

As soon as I opened the door to the vehicle I fired it up and turned the AC on FULL BLAST, so by the time I got unloaded it was pretty cool. A relief, as I was pretty warm! Sweatin' like pig. And so I headed home.  And on the way home I saw this RV with its steps hanging out.  Hope none of those silly lane-splitting motorcyclists run into it!



Oh, and in case you are interested, you can view the route on Gmaps Pedometer. Just click HERE!