Clearing Out

I had one more geocache to find north of the 52, plus one just south of the 52, so I headed out early this Sunday morning to make the find.  First I had to decide whether to walk or ride the bike.  I decided the bike, although MUCH faster, was too much hassle.  So I walked it.

I left the vehicle at 6:34 and arrived at the first cache at 7:30.  I saw quite a number, I thought, of runners and cyclists out this morning.  Even some bird watchers!  After finding the cache I headed back south.

I got to the "Grasslands Intersection", as I call it, at 8:07, turned right and headed west. I saw an enormous black bird, probably a crow, that sat on it's fence post and stared right back at me.

I got to the second cache at 8:40.  I decided to head on south-ish down Oak Canyon, since I was already IN Oak Canyon, and I didn't want to go back up the enormous hill I had just came down.  Oak Canyon is a fairly pretty place.  Lots of rocks and cozy little trails.  I'd love to see it with some water flowing.

I got back to the vehicle at 9:36, for a total travel time of 3 hours (and change).  The distance walked was 7.6 miles, for an average of 2.5 miles per hour.  Which seems rather slow, to me, but there you are.

Today And The Other Day

Apparently I forgetted to blog about my little hike and geocaching expedition up to Kwaay Paay Peak on the 25th.  I hiked up to the top, turned on the GPSr, and discovered I had walked 500 feet past the cache, so I had to go back down to get it.  That's like, THREE football fields worth of extra walking!

After finding the cache I started back down, making one rest stop along the way.



On the way down I petted two dogs, and saw a guy wearing the same "Bike To Work" shirt as I had on, under my usual flannel.

Now, this morning, I had to find a couple of caches on the other side of the road.  One, an easy find on Mission Gorge Road...uh, where am I going with this sentence?  I don't know. Anyway, it was, as I said, an easy find.  The next one was quite a bit farther (had to look up "farther" vs. "further") of the hill.  With plausible deniability (spellcheck does not like that word) I made my way up to that one, made the find, and took a couple of pictures at what I've assumed was a horse corral, but now I realize is a people corral, or view point.

At the "corral".  Boy, those pants look baggy!



And that reflective piping makes it hard to stay in stealth mode!

A view from another angle, towards Point Loma in the overcast distance.The hill is Del Cerro, I suppose, and that Drive is Jackson.



That's about it for today!

Huh

I was just watching a television segment about remembering the American soldiers who died in World War II and it occurred to me that I do not know anyone killed in a war, but I know three four people who were killed by other people.

North Of Mast

I headed out this morning, in the truck (Not the bike, TT!!), to pick up a cache that someone thoughtfully placed out in the middle of nowhere, where I've been before. How rude!

As you can see, it was a bit overcast to start out, but it cleared up after a couple of hours.

Looking south towards Cowles Mountain.



Looking south-east towards El Cajon.  Them rocks down thar are very popular with rock climbers.  And idiot party-people, to judge by the graffiti.



Why did I choose this route?  I gotta go UP that road, then DOWN the ridge to the left!  Came back cross-country, to the saddle down there at the bottom of the hill.  Very few stickers, thank goodness!



Humping it up the hill, about three-quarters of the way up.  Had to stop a couple of three times to let the ol' heart slow down!



What kind of ants are these, Matt?



Got a two-for-one at this cache.  One hanging, upper right, one on the ground, buried under leaves. Emailed the cache owner so he can deal with it.



To sum up, three caches found, 2.4 miles walked (Is that ALL?)

I am now at 1,499 caches found.  Not a lot, compared to many, but not bad, either!

My Cache-Found-Every-Day-Of-The-Year (non-sequentially) Goal has kinda gone bust. June I cleared, but not July.  I'll try to knock off a few days each month, and NEXT YEAR, for sure, I'll fill in the calendar.

Oh, and a confidential question to the white van on the freeway with the bashed-in side cargo door--Did you get that from not signalling when you change lanes/merge?

Out To MTRP

Got up early and drove out to Tierrasanta so as to look for geocaches that evil people had placed after I cleaned the area out the last time.  Thanks a lot, guys!

I put new batteries in the GPSr before leaving.  When I got to the trails I found I kept getting a low battery warning.  I cursed whoever put old batteries back in the box.  Fortunately, the batteries  managed to last the whole trip. Later, when I got back to the vehicle,  I found another battery box in the backpack with the word "NEW" on it.  I am chagrined.

Saw this rattle snake in the bush.



I disturbed this Cooper's Hawk that was in a bush. It flew over to the fence and gave me the evil eye.



 While examining the bush (wrong bush, as it turned out) for the cache I noticed this dead rabbit in there.  I guess the poor birdie was trying to eat its breakfast!  Sorry, birdie!



Eight caches found for the morning!

TIL

Today I Learned my high school history teacher was Dr. Death on the pro wrestling circuit. Wow!

I vaguely remembered a rumor he was a weight lifter (Bench press, 1949, 420 pounds), but I find he is ALL OVER the internet, and there are even a couple of Youtube videos.