Today And Yesterday And The Day Before That

I just found out that Robert B. Parker, one of my favorite authors, passed away back in January 2010. How did I miss that?

Someone left a putty knife in the bathroom at work. I'm afraid to ask WHY they left it!



For the record, we HATE that TP dispenser, hence the roll on the rail. Currrently, I am reading "Meet The Austins", by Madeleine L'Engle, on my potty breaks.

We got a new DVD player and I watched three episodes of "Good Neighbors" this afternoon. You should have been there!

Yesterday I went geocaching with the Gonzalo boys in Otay Valley Regional Park. It was their first time out. We only found three caches, but the lil' Gonzalo was very excited about the "treasures" he traded for.

The weather has been very nice, but I'm afraid it is going to warm up soon. After all, it's still summer, ain't it?

Last Day Of Vacation

Yes, it's the last day. Or rather, it's the FIRST DAY of WORK, because we be furloughed for a day. So, it's work, but I'm not there. And not getting paid. So I went geocaching at Fiesta Island.

It was the best of times, it was the worst...

I had PLANNED to break seven hundred today, but alas, the best laid plans, etc.

I found this can of beer, if you can call it that, at the OTL structure. I did not find the geocahe, however.



I left the can there, too. You can go get it if you want. The image is geotagged at zooomr.com, as are most of the ones I post.

At the next cache I found this weird thing, with some kind of liquid in it. Very scary! I took a picture and looked it up when I got home. Chagrin!



At the next cache, some five hundred feet away, I found that I had left my hiking staff (you remember, the one that I found at a geocache in MTRP?) at the last cache. I also noticed that my GPSr showed that the cache and I were under water. After logging the cache I proceeded back to the PREVIOUS cache to retrieve the stick!

Well, it went on all morning, walking and finding and walking and not finding. The fog started to roll in around 10 a.m., that was a bit weird.

There were lots of dogs and bicyclists, and even a couple of horses.

Eventually I went home.

The taillless cat sometimes hops in the tub. I don't know why. He hops right out again if I go into the bathroom. I had to stick him back in three times to finally get this "candid" shot!

Down To The Bay In Pants

I got up in the dark and drove the bike (Jamis) down to Mission Bay this morning. The plan was to beat the RC fliers to their field. I suceeded, making the geocache find just as a guy pulled in and started unloading his aircraft. Sweet!

I drove over to Mission Bay Drive, parked, unloaded the bike (Jamis) and headed up the drive to find several more caches.

Then I drove over to Railroad Avenue to find a couple more caches, driving and parking and driving and parking. Finally I got to a point where I could proceed on the bike (Jamis) all the way to the end of the Rose Canyon bike path, and a bit beyond. Cycling and finding and cycling and not-finding.

I found sixteen geocaches today, and biked not that many miles.

It was warm today, it's 84.4 °F right now (5:44 p.m.), with 25% humidity. Not as hot as the last few days, though. Yesterday the high was 94!

Be shoe to take the poll!

Oh, the entry title? I was wearing long pants, Dickies, while riding the bike today. Long pants that are a bit shredded at the right cuff.

There And There

A couple of days ago (August 17th, it was, ayevenar!)(I thought that was pirate talk when I was but a child)) I decided to head up to the Fortuna Saddle again and try to pick up those three powerline road caches.

I headed over to MTRP quite early, but it turns out they don't open the gate until EIGHT! So I had to park in the parking lot again, instead of the dam parking area. So that makes the walk a bit farther.

I headed out the Oak Canyon trail to the powerline roads, then choose the western-most one to go up. I'm glad I had both hiking staffs today, it was a VERY steep road, in parts. I found the cache there, so that was good.

There were not any clouds today, and it started getting very warm.

I summited the saddle, as it were, and headed down the other power line road. I had high hopes that the cache I could find on the big Fortuna Expedition would be located today, as someone else found THAT day. But, though I overturned every rock (I am sure) and mangled every bush (found a mouse foot) and examined every girder most carefully, I did not find the cache. Here is a picture of the area of my shame.



Yes, I edited the tower number. I don't know why.

I headed down the road (the steep and rocky road, there's a song title!) to the next cache, and found that one no problemo.

So then I walked back to the truck. And that was that.

Today, August 19th, I decided to do the Dictionary. Dictionary Hill, that is.

When you FINALLY get to the top there is a rather nice 360 degree view of San Diego. Here is the view to the south of Sweetwater reservoir.



I found these funny glasses'n'nose in one of the geocaches up here.



An improvement, do you thinK?

Once one has ascended the hill, one must descend the other side. I found a couple more caches over on this, the other side, and almost didn't notice these fine ham radio antennas!



Now I had to descend down into a valley for a couple of caches, then ascend back up for more. It was certainly a lot of ascending and descending! And it was very warm! I was sweating like a pig, and could hardly see through my sweat-filled eyes. It was just awful! At least I was finding caches. And not seeing snakes! Except for one rather rubbery one with a bison attached to its middle.

I just bought NEW SHOES yesterday, twelve bucks at Walmart. I'm afraid all this hiking around is doing my poor new sneakers no good!

I did not find the last cache of the day, even though I spent AT LEAST 45 minutes looking. I was so miserable with the sweaty eyes that I finally GAVE UP and headed back to the truck. Unfortuately, there was no trail going DOWNHILL without going UPHILL, and I wasn't going UPHILL anymore, so I had to pretty much bushwhack my down down. Which did the sneakers no end of good.

Gmaps Pedometer claims I only walked 2.3621 miles today. Isn't there some kind of heat multiplier? I burned 303.6940419107505 calories, too! I'm not sure of the elevation gained and lost, though. You go look at it and figure it out!

Lastly, I was driving along when I noticed something in the rear-view mirror...



And no, it got away! It's still IN THERE!!!

No Bike Today

I was thinking about taking the bike over to Mission Trails and doing a loop of Fortuna Mt., but I am very glad I did not. I saw several cyclists there, and most them were pushing their bikes up extremely steep hills. Hills that I had trouble walking down!

I arrived at MTRP at six-thirty, and of course the gates were not open. So I had to park a quarter mile away on the road. More walking, yay!

Once I figured out how to cross the San Diego River without getting my feet wet, I headed over towards South Fortuna peak. I talked to a hiker about geocaching along the way, and along the way found a few geocaches.

The first one I didn't find was rated 4 out of 5 for difficulty and terrain. It was right on the edge of a rocky cliff. Some people mentioned a rope might be handy. From the pictures finders posted, I see that I was about ten feet above it. I DID find some sort of rock climber's log book in a crevice, though. I signed that!

At another cache i was lucky unnough to find a used sanitary napkin someone had stashed there. Nice!



The cache is under that small rock. Thanks, hikers! I did not have a trash bag with me, so I stashed the trash somewhere else under a rock, and washed my hands with liberal amounts of hand cleaner. I'll try to retrieve some other day.

Eventually I got to the top of the infamous Fortuna Steps. Very nice view!



It was foggy in the morning, as you can see. That is the Fr. J. Serra road up in the upper left.

Finally, the peak! I did not find the cache there, but I took some pics anyway.



I am staring at the GPSr, wondering where that darn cache went to.

A couple of view from the peak. To the east, sort of, San Carlos area.



And to the west, sort of, viewing North Fortuna peak. I'm not going up THAT today!



I made my way over to the Fortuna saddle and found the cache there. Made a side-trip down the power line road to another one, but did not find it. I talked to a couple of people about geocaching and hiking along the way. I probably saw nearly a hundred folks out there today, hiking and biking. Not all of them were carrying water, I don't think that was wise. I used two water bottles. It got a little warm after the sun broke through around ten.

It was pretty much all down hill from here. I think going downhill is nicer than going up hill, mostly. Mostly level is even better. I found several more caches, but not one that is on a power pole. I looked all OVER that pole, but I can't find it!

Later on I was walking along an upgrade A bicyclist passed me in granny gear. Then a running lady (with a backpack) passed him (and me) like he (and I) was (were) standing still. Would have made a more interesting pic, but I didn't get the camera whipped out until she had dropped to walking and he caught and passed her.



Well, that was about it. All that was left was to go DOWN the steep road to the river and then UP the steep road to the trailhead, and then along Mission Gorge Road to the Fr. J. Serra road where I had parked the vehicle. I was very glad to finally get back there, and I fired up the air conditioning on FULL!

You can look at my route on gMaps Pedometer.

It SAYS I went 6.32 miles and burned 865.9 calories. It does not say the elevation gain, but it looks like around 1,400 feet. At LEAST!

Oh, and I found thirteen geocaches and DNF four.

Oh, and here is a picture of the cat and my holey sneakers!



I gotta get new sneakers!

And I gotta go wash my feet!

Back In The Trenches

No, not work, but finding the remains of the 2006 MTRP Cache War. I headed out to Santee in the foggy morning. Possibly one of the last foggy mornings of the summer. I had to park in the dirt parking lot because the main gate was not open yet. So I had to walk an extra mile. Poor me!

I saw a guy walking FIVE Husky dogs. He needs a wagon to hitch them to!

I headed up Oak Canyon and located the caches there. Then I thought about it, and decided to go for "Y'all Gonna Die". Sounded ominous! It was at the top of the hill at the bend in a VERY steep powerline road. I have not idea how the power company vehicles get up there. Maybe they have bulldozers. I took three pictures while signing the cache log, and resting.

Looking to the north-west, we see the Highway 52 bridge over Oak Canyon. Those rocks were a LOT more impressive when I was down there in the canyon!



To the north we see power towers. I need to be over there at those towers, but first I have to descend THIS hill and climb THAT hill! Some Guy mentioned they left their walking stick at a geocache up there, and I want to find it!



And looking to the east we see the grassland of MTRP, and possibly Santee in the distance. I have to descend my hill and go up that road to get to those towers. I am parked on that very straight road to the right. Just so you know!



Well, when I got to that cache-in-question there was no walking stick, and I was VERY disappointed. I really thought I could get it, as no one else had logged that cache. But, it turned out someone HAD logged it, two days ago! I was too late!

I still had four more caches to look for, so trudged up the hills and down, all the way to the 52 and back, then up another canyon for the last cache. And I found--The stick! Can you spot it? No, it's NOT that wooden one, that's mine. HINT: It is blue.



Oh, and be very quiet, there is a bird sitting in the bush...

After that I was so full of joy that I was not even very disappointed at my SECOND shot TODAY at not-finding that Gnarly oak cache.

For my parting shot at MTRP I placed this Jack In The Box antenna bobber (found on the side of the road while walking) in a like-looking crevice.




I found nine caches today, and walked 5.38 miles.

Hot Day

Today, oh frabjous day, I put together a geocache-expedition and headed out to Santee around nine. The sun was out, and brightly shining.

It was hot.

The first cache was near Fanita. I was supposed to park on Farrington, but confused it with Weld. So there was a bit of wandering around until I found the correct street. The finding of the cache was the anticlimax.

I then headed to Big Rock Park. What can I say, it's summertime, and the kids are at the park. I just hope they were not creeped out by the old man wandering around mumbling at his "cell phone".

As I was making the turn from Bik Rock Road to Mission Gorge the engine died. Oh, you guessed it, the Fuel Pump Safety Switch had tripped. Yeah Ford! No emergency lane, of course, but there were not any cars coming. I coasted to the side of the road, with the emergency blinkers on, and leaned over to reset the switch. One would think something as critical as that would be nearer the driver. Truly a defective part. I ought to get an advocate to talk to the Ford people.

Anywho, I headed over to Mission Trails Park -- The Dam End. I parked near the trail up the K. Peak, saw a coyote crossing the road as I was loading up, and then hiked halfway up the hill to the cache. It's a puzzle cache, that's is why I didn't get it that last time we wuz up here. It only took me five hours to solve the puzzle. Or rather, to drag the answer out of the puzzle. It involved a code invented by Sir Francis Bacon. ANYWHO, there was a large pile of branches on the cache pile-o-rocks, whiched I brushed away (get it?) with my big stick. I saw a likely-looking crevice, and there was the cache. I pulled it out, and, out of another RATHER NEAR crevice, a large rat jumped out, looked at me, and ran off through the bushes!

As I was going down the trail I happened upon three girls who were looking at something on a boulder. I asked them what they were looking at, they said a lizard. I told them about my rat sighting. One of them said, "He is just trying to scare us!" "Eek!", I'm sure one of them said. Then I told them about seeing the coyote earlier.

I returned to the truck and moved it down the road to the parking lot at the dam. I filled up my water bottle and headed out the Oak Canyon Trail. After a goodly bit I fired up the GPSr to see how far north I was. That was when I found out I had left all the cache coordinates and descriptions back in the truck. All I had was the cache list and and aerial map. I decided to go looking anyway. And you know what? I found them all. Who needs a GPSr?

Not completely true. One cache I found turned out to be a "rogue" cache, placed by a kid named Trevor. It doesn't seem to be on the geocaching.com website. It was placed about five feet from the "real" cache. So I have to go back for that one.

I'm already planning the next trip!

P.S. It was very warm in Santee, I was sweating like a pig. Not that there's anything wrong with that! An occasional cooling breeze was nice, though. The Weather Underground says it was 88.3 °F at 11:20, with 8% humidity. I guess it is hotter if you are climbing hills!

Cross Word

I found I can do more of the Reminisce magazine crossword puzzle than The Reader crossword puzzle before I have to resort to the intertubes. And in ink, too!

This shows how old I am!

Monday At The Seashore

After three days of no geocaching I drove down to the San Diego River channel to do an epic geo-search. I found a little boat.



And saw some seagulls on the jetty.



That is Dog Beach over thar on the left, across the wide San Diego River.

I found sixteen caches, probably a new one-day record for me. I did not find one cache. But I did a yeoman job on beating the bushes for it!

WRong Again!

Ignore the previous post, I am completely deluded.

Counting

I got that idea about how I should have taken a picture at each of my geocaching milestones, as they were, and how I could AT LEAST go back a do that, for my virtual, as it were, geoscrapbook, so I copy my cache list out of geocaching.com and pasted it into a spreadsheet. I plunked a formula into a column, so as to give me a count. The count was one more than the geocaching.com count. I spent three hours trying to figure out how that happened. Well, one hour was spent trying to figure out how to delete objects en masse.

Anyway, turns out that in 2005 I found certain cache, then the cache owners moved the cache and changed the name, but it still had the same "GC Code". So, geocaching.com counts it as one unique find, but I've got two find logs on it.

So that is going to throw off my milestones, as previously announce, by one. If I ever manage to go take those pictures they will be according to the count on my spreadsheet.

So THERE!

Of Spiders And Sunflowers

Finally finished all the caches on the east side of the dump! Due to poor planning there was a bit of going DOWN hill, then UP hill, then DOWN hill, then UP hill, not to mention the UP and DOWN to get UP there in the first place!

Saw a deer, and a tarantula. You've SEEN deer, here is the tarantula!



It did not scare me, but I could not remember if tarantulas can jump. This one did not, though.

I saw that giant sunflower again, too!



That's about it for today!