If It's Sunday, It Must Be Memorial Day

I went on a major hike (for me!) to find a puzzle geocache that I had solved over a year ago.  It has been preying on my mind!

As I was walking along a dirt road I encountered two large dogs, huskies.  At first I thought they were coyotes, then I thought they might be wild dogs, but they had collars and eventually their mistress came along, with a third husky, and we had a conversation about dogs and walking and coyotes.

There were many wildflowers about.  I saw this one.  I shan't try to name it.

A view of a body of water.  It was a cloudy day, which made for pleasant walking.  Unfortunately I had decided to wear my heavy coat with hood, because of the intermittent drizzle.  I was sweating like a pig.

Where's the heavy jacket w/hood?  I took it off at this cache/rest stop to try to dry off a bit.

A kayaker on the large body of water.  Not too many boats out today.  I probably saw seven the whole time.

This cheap Walmart bike with a VERY rusted chain was sitting not all that far from the end of the "trial".  I can't imagine someone rode it there.  I could barely walk it!  The tires still had air!

A panorama of the view from Fletcher Point.  Not quite 360 degrees, more like 180, maybe.

Link to topographic map of area.

Link to Google Images for some more pictures taken by others.

Picture of big water from other direction (Looking east-ish).

Old Glory waves in the breeze.

 
I walked around 6.5 miles on the main route, and some piddly amounts here and there in other places.  I found seven geocaches, and didn't find one.

It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, but it was still quite a walk. 

Back To The Pond

I went geocaching in Lakeside, along El Monte Road, this afternoon.  It was very tricky trying to figure out how to access various areas. Yesterday I reconnoitered the parking situation but couldn't figure it out.  This morning I used Google Streetview to check things  and decided to park in front of the old water building on El Monte Road. 

There was one gate with lots of NO TRESPASSING signs, but it seemed to be trying to keep me out of a signed legal trail, one that horse riders were using, I could see a couple!  Plus, there was horse poop! So I went in!

At one point I realized I had misplaced my walking stick.  I went back a couple of caches and spotted it resting.

Selfie with costume glasses from a geocache.  Decided to stick with my bifocals.

I found a green cowboy on the loose.  Who ever heard of a green cowboy?

View of the area, to the east, including Hanson Pond.  Fake smile.

This cache needs to be moved, a "geo-path" has developed.

California thistle (Cirsium californicum). And in focus!

I walked about 4.6 miles (felt like 5!!) and found 16 geocaches.  One cache was missing, but I found the log sheet, so I signed that and reported the missing container to the cache owner, who emailed me to say they would run right over and replace it.

Pretty Much Yesterday

I managed to snip the palm of my hand with the scissors the other day, and for some reason felt compelled to document how it happened.  So just visualize me cutting the tape a little to forcefully here.

Yesterday I happened to discover some geocaches in a spot that I didn't think there WERE any caches, and by George they were brand new!  So after work I went after them.

I took a picture of each and every one, so...SPOILERS!  Well, since I'm not telling you where they are or the names, you would have to put in some effort to figure that out.  Plus, most of you who might read this are not in the hobby anyway!

A nice large container to start off.  I took the First To Find dollar here, but left anything that was in any of the other caches.

Pretty cute hide in an interesting place. And it's in the theme, believe it or don't.

I've never seen a fence like this.

Lots and lots of flowers were blooming.  I took several out of focus pics to share here.

Another cache. Took me a while to spot it, the coordinates were off a little for me.

Another pretty flower group, but is that poison oak back there?

Icky, is that the cache?

A grinding hole, it looks like.

Another kind cache in them, took me a couple of thinks to get it.

A sort of view of the general area type of picture.  Oak trees and grasses.

Oh, over there.  Nice!

This one was pretty funny!

And this one was pretty cute!

A couple of some pretty flowers.

Wow, I think this one is in focus!

A patriotic windmill?

Probably my favorite of the day.  That expression is because I'm thinking, "I sure wish I knew what kind of plants these are around my feet!"

Scarlet Bugler, I'm guessing.  I had to look that up, I was thinking "trumpeter"

Lots and lots of foxtails!  The socks may go in the trash.

The last cache, which I found 152 feet off the posted coordinates (Fixed by the cache owner very quickly).  Found by dumb luck, let me tell you.  Also found some poison oak while floundering around, I sure hope I don't come down with THAT!

So, I got ten First To Finds today, a personal record that surely will never be exceeded by me.  It's not everyday one comes across a new series of caches.

These were exceptionally well done, I enjoyed discovering each one.  I just wish it had not been foxtail season!

Before This Day

Thursday was Pre-Bike To Work Day, with a one-way ride for me, because of...reasons.

Friday was Bike To Work Day.

More pictures at My Bicycle Musings

Saturday was the Transmitter Hunting event at Lake Murray.  I wandered around quite a bit and didn't find anything, but a couple of very helpful guys give me a bunch of tips and let me follow them around so I got the five finds.  On one of them I was very close, but the others I was way off.  I DID spot one transmitter itself before I noticed the orange tape marking the spot.

A link to San Diego Transmitter Hunters website.

It's REALLY HARD to take a selfie while holding a phone in hand, and an antenna with a radio in the other!

Don't I look a joy to be around!

I figured it would be better if I DIDN'T look at the camera...

I walked about 5.4 miles.  Boy, are my feet sore!

Koolhydraten

I'm not quite sure how many grams of carbs are in each piece of chocolate, but it sure tastes good!

Of Sprints and Belgian Chocolate

I found this video on Youtube.  You can see my hat at about the 35 second mark!

Tour Of California Sprint #2


A lovely person brought me this wonderful gift all the from Belgium.  How sweet!

And the fragrance was HEAVENLY!

And that was ALL I ate, just two sections.  I swear!

Maybe tomorrow I'll post the nutritional listing...

Hey, you DID click on the thumbnails for the BIG picture, right?

At The Races

I am not sure what I did most of the day, but I DO know I vacuumed the house.  And the keyboard. Which sorely needed it.

Matt came by today and we went to breakfast/lunch at D.Z. Akins, then came back to collect the hat, then went to watch the AmGen Tour Of California pass by on Navajo Road, there being a sprint there.

The riders pass so quickly that I really did not see anything.  I shot a little movie (missing the lead group, of course) but it's really to big to foist upon you.  So here are a few pics I took, and some stills from the movie.

Less and less traffic is coming through as we get closer to H hour...

I think the riders were just coming into El Cajon at this point.

We moved to a spot on the other side of the Big Green Things (which I think are called "kites", but I can find any documentation for that).

When a working photographer hops off the back of a motorcycle you know the riders will be here soon!  I can't explain why half the people in the picture are facing the other way, though!

These four are all from the video I shot.  The peleton arrives!

I missed the leading group, a few seconds ahead, because of technical difficulties (read: I pushed the start button twice instead of once, and didn't notice the video wasn't videoing.

Very noisy with the helicopter above, and people whooping and yelling and banging on the crowd barriers (that white thing in the lower left corner) and ringing cowbells. The usual stuff.

The pack was really moving here!

Here I was trying to snag a good view of the photographer on the back of the motorcycle.

I you were watching the television broadcast you might have seen me on the side of the road via that photographer!

That's all for now!