Thursday In Bonita

I loaded some geocache coordinates into the GPSr today and went a-searching in the Bonita/Sweetwater Lake area. I used the baseball fields parking lot as my base of operations and went east, west, and north, picking up a total of ten caches today.

I spotted this lizard hiding in a crack in an old fencepost. Shades of Journey To The Center Of The Earth!  One of three old fence posts (how come spell check doesn't like "fencepost" with an "s" on it?) I looking at. But not the right fencepost. Of course.



The cache, of course, turned out (after MANY minutes and two sessions of searching, coming AND going.) to be in the FIRST fence post I had looked at. It was covered by a spider web!



There were LOTS of horsies about, as Bonita is a big horsie area, and all these caches were on horsie paths.  There is even a horsie bridge over the freeway!

Passing the stables I noticed several horsies had their eyes covered. I wonder why?



I also saw a rambunctious mule, which reminded me of Kelly and his mule, whose name I wish I could remember.

Afterwards I went grocery shopping.

The vehicle did not die once, even though I tempted it by driving on the freeway!

Oh, here's a map of the area I just made, JUST for you! The green circles show the caches I found today. All the other smileys are from other caching expeditions. I see I actually found ELEVEN caches today. W00T!!



OK, that is all, you can go now. Thanks for visiting!

Wednesday

Got me some Hello Kitty stuff for Christmas!

Floormats:



You can't see it from here, but now I know that one side of the truck is narrower than the other side. Who knew?

Antenna Ball:



Thought I better document it before someone steals it. Can I put a GPS locator in it?

I also got the relocation kit for the fuel pump shut-off switch.  I guess my son doesn't want me to die if the engine suddenly shuts off on the freeway.  Too bad FORD doesn't feel the same way.

Anyway, I manned up and installed it today.



I have NO idea what this clip is supposed to clip on to. So I clipped it on to a likely tab. Too bad the FORD instructions did not have wire routing instructions. Maybe with a picture!



That black clippy-thing there, I have NO idea what it clips to.  Again, FORD, maybe better instructions?



This thing holds the kick panel in. Could not get it out in one piece, so had to break it. Thanks, FORD!



Neoprene pieces supplied by FORD to seal up the old screw holes. I would have thought a couple of short bolts would do the job more securely.  I have no idea what that weirdness is over to the right, and I'm not crawling under the dash again to find out!



I fired the vehicle up and it ran ok, so I guess I'm good. Time will tell if it is really fixed!

Needlenose

Hey, I was just looking at 12 Tools Every Man Should Have in His Toolbox at The Art Of Manliness and they mentioned that a flathead screwdriver can be used for getting a broken light bulb out.  After turning off the electricity, of course!  I'll share a little tip I picked up in the war.  Needlenose pliers. Stick the tips in there, pull the handles apart, spreading the tips tightly against the inside of the brass base of the light bulb. Rotate the tool and the brass base of the light bulb will screw right out.  How about that?  Just MAKE SURE THE ELECTRICITY IS TURNED OFF!!

As it said in the article,"trust me" on this.

Went For A Hike Today

For various reasons we need not go into here, I decided I better go for a geocaching hike today to maintain my aura of awesomeness. So I hiked up and over Kwaay Paay peak to find a couple of caches I was missing. There are actually three caches I needed, but since I am not a "pro" member anymore, I didn't have the coordinates for the third one.  More about that later...

I drove over to the trailhead, passing the HORDES of people going up and down Cowles Mountain. Shot this pic while waiting for the stoplight. See the little ants on the trail?  There is NO place to park along here.



I parked at the trailhead on Father Junipero Serra Trail, road, and headed up. It's pretty steep in parts, and flat in others. Mostly steep.  Lots of rocks and ruts.  I finally made it to the peak in about forty minutes. I ate a granola bar and drank some water. I located a trail heading back down the other side that wasn't marked "Do Not Enter", and made my way down. I went down a couple of false trails (more later), but eventually found the correct one.

The first cache I looked for was Splashette, named after a geocacher.  I looked for about thirty minutes and didn't didn't find it. That was disappointing, but I headed on to the next one.

The next cache was named Middle Earth. It takes its name from a nearby rock climbing route. I spotted it easily, to my relief. It had a bit of water in it, so most of the stuff was damp. I dried it as best I could.



Looking DOWN into the canyon.



The view is pretty impressive. If it wasn't so hazy, you could see all the way to Pt. Loma!



OK, so that is not really looking towards the ocean. More to the south.

After finishing up I looked around a bit for the cache I didn't have the coordinates for, and to see if I could figure out the trail down, in case I ever wanted to come back up. I THINK I figured out the trail, but I didn't find the cache. I didn't really expect to. If I just had that pro membership...

I decided to play with the GPSr "trackback" feature, and headed back up the hill to Splashette. I looked around for another half-hour, and was just about to call it quits when my poking stick struck something. Something odd.  It was the cache!



Well, NOW I was happy!  It was not till I got home that I found out that Splashette is the pro-level cache. So I can't log my find!  It was the OTHER cache, the one I didn't have the coordinates for, that was a regular cache that I could have written them down, uh, for. I mixed them up when I was looking at the map.  Why did I have a pro-level cache already loaded in the GPSr?  Because I used to be one of the exalted!  And I will again. I swear it!  And why was the other cache not in there. Well, duh, I don't know.

Using the trackback feature on the GPSr kept me from getting off the track a couple times. It was interesting to see that it tracked my false trails from the way down, too.



I really have to stop biting my nails!

I have not seen any other people on the trail, except for a couple of rock climbers way off in the distance.

I made it back to the peak, and headed back down again.  Here is a section of the trail I thought was real cozy.




Across the canyon are some outstanding rock formations. The rock climbers would like to be able to do them, but the park guys won't let them.  There's a geocache up there near the top, I've looked for it a couple of times but no joy, yet. I heard you may need a rope to get to it, and I don't have a rope, nor the experience to safely work with one.



And here is another steep section.



View of the 52 and the dam area.



I decided to name this rock "The Big Rock" 'cause its big and it sticks out in the trail.



A few feet down the trail I found another rock, which I shall call "The Even Bigger Rock", as it is bigger and also stick out into the trail.




Right about here I sighted my first human being, a woman coming up with two walking sticks. I told her she was the first person I had seen today, and she said it was like having your own private place.

Here we got the 52 and Mast. You can see the trail head where I parked. Down there by that green arrow!




I met a guy and his well-behaved dog, and later on a man and his small child, who had a very nice walking stick.  I picked up some trash along the way, but didn't have a bag for larger stuff like water bottles, so I had to leave them Next time!

Some baby dropped his Nuk.  There is one unhappy kid out there!



The whole hike took about three and a half hours, and probably covered 2.5 miles. It is claimed the elevation gain is 865 feet. Doesn't sound like much!  And yet I am beat!

Well, I don't THINK I left anything out, so that ought to just about do it!

Off My Butt

Yes, I got off my butt and went geocaching today.

I had to chauffeur C. to church, so since I had to fire up the vehicle anyway, I decided I should go find me some caches.  I've had my eye on one in a little canyon off of Fairmont.  I've been there before, on the bicycle, but didn't find it. It has been logged as "found" since then, so I decided to make the trek. I figured out I could park in one of the guests spots at the apartments across Fairmont, so I did, then made the dash across the four lanes of road. Not too much traffic on a Sunday morning, thank goodness. I hiked up the canyon to the spot, but yet again didn't find anything. Crud!

I decided to head out to Casa De Oro for another couple of caches I didn't find the first time.  I drove up the 8. Traffic was nearly at a standstill near the Lake Murray intersection, so I made the clever decision to bypass it by taking the off ramp.  Oh, no, that's where the accident was that was slowing traffic!  There was an ambulance there, tending to someone, but the police had not even arrived yet.  Of course I was in the wrong lane, but someone kindly let me in.

I headed down the frontage road.  I was behind another car that was stopped at the trolley station crossing, where the gate was down.  We waited about ten minutes, the gate did not go up.  The car ahead of me finally eased their way under the gate.  I motioned to a couple of pedestrians to raise the gate for me, and they did!  I don't know what all the cars behind did, though.

I continued over to the on ramp near Guava. Fortunately I yielded at the yield, as a rice-rocket came zooming up the ramp at probably seventy mph!  I myself wound it up to five grand to merge onto the freeway, and then made my way to Bancroft to look for them caches.

I found the first cache, hidden just as I suspected it would be, and had looked for the last time.  This time I spotted it. One down!

I drove over to the other one.  Fewer muggles around today, so I made the find quickly. I had to wait out a guy filling his propane tank before I could put it back, though.

I drove back to see how the trolley gate was doing.  It was now working, so I drove back on the 8. This time there was an accident on the Fletcher Parkway off ramp!  A car was piggy-back on another. There were two Highway Patrol cruisers, and a lot of glass on the road.  The car was smoking from the engine compartment, probably radiator fluid.

I, of course, did not bring my camera on this trip, so no pictures.  So much for getting on the news!