Geocaching Sunday

Got up EARLY (5 a.m.) to beat the sun to South Fortuna Peak. I COULD have got earlier, I find, as it was quite light by the time I got to the parking spot. Speaking of, I had to park a few hundred feet farther away because the park just ain't open this early.

I went DOWN the trail to the San Diego River, which was running a little high, about an inch over the top of the path, so my shoes got a little wet.  Surprisingly, they didn't leak!

Next I headed UP the big hill on what seems to be known as the San Diego River Crossing Trail, which is really a big ol' power line road.  I saw two young deer.  I held quite still, and they came within maybe 75 feet of me.



That was quite amazing!  Oh, and there are a few more pics of the deer on the zooomr site. Just click an image to go there.

I continued up the hill, picking up three caches along the way.  Up at the top there are a bunch of what I call telephone poles, but I guess they are really power poles.  I thought it was interesting that there were different size poles. This may be part of the Sunrise Powerlink project.




I don't know what that big tower thing is, but it was making a kind of roaring sound.

I didn't find one cache I hadn't found before, but I DID find another cache I have looked for twice. This time it was right out in the open.  So I covered it up with some rocks.



I made a panorama of the view from the ridge between the Fortuna saddle and South Fortuna peak.



Earlier I heard some rock music way off in the distance, I bet it was the Rock'n'Roll Marathon. On the trail right about here I met a guy with a radio blaring rather annoyingly.  Geeze, it's nature, people! Enjoy it!

I also found the cache on South Fortuna Peak, but with a hint from the cache owner. Said hint was a picture of him pointing at the cache, with a big grin on his face!



I visited The Adrenaline cache again, but no luck.  It's very scary, right on the edge of a 1,000 foot (800?) drop to the river.  Birds are flying BELOW you!  I'm gonna need some help with this one, maybe someone with a ROPE!

Going down the dreaded Staircase I met up with a lady who claimed to be hydrating with coffee. I said I don't think it works that way!

I didn't find the last cache I looked for, but the second-to-last, that was an experience.  I read what turned out to be the wrong hint, so I was looking for something on the ground.  I spotted something in some big boulders nearby, and took this pic.  On maximum telephoto, mind you!



OMG, says I, it's my first rattlesnake!  I moved around the other side of the boulders to see if I could get a better pic.  I took a couple of pics, which didn't focus correctly because of bushes in between me and the snake.  I was NOT going to get too close!  I wondered why the snake was just sitting there.  Maybe it was dead?  Then I look at the cache notes, and realized I had been reading the wrong hint.  And then the name of the cache made sense. "Heart Attack".  I poked at the snake, just to make sure, mind you.  It was rubber.  Look at the picture again. You can see the Bison container just sticking out of the bottom of the snake's belly, and you can even make out the fishing line securing the snake to a stick so animals can't move it around.  Heart attack, indeed!

After all that excitement I headed down the hill, made that last Did Not Find, then headed home.