Caching in California 2013
We have been in the Bay area now for nearly 3 weeks and I have not yet posted any pics or stories. In past years I posted lots of stories of our daily caching and hiking in the Santa Cruz Mountains. This year our caching has been mostly in Silicon Valley industrial parks and on trails in wooded areas throughout the area.
WE have been caching 5 or more hours per day and our find count rarely gets to 15. However, our DNF count is very high, partly because they can hide in places that we cant because of our snow, and partly because they have some very inventive cachers. I cant count the times we have stood at ground zero with no visible place to hide a cache, and sometimes it isnt a micro.
There is a cacher here named tattletales who only creates inventive caches. each one is different and challenging. They are all in urban areas and most involve much construction. I dont know how he managed to make some of them. They all had us smiling. The first day that we tried his caches we found 10 and DNF 5. That night he sent us an email with hints for the 5 we missed. Even with the hints and help from our son, it still took us a long time to find each one.
He has a cache in a padlock which you can only open when you find a magnetized key inside a fence post, if you even know that the cache is in there. Caches are in tiny knots in fence that you cannot see, but can access by pushing a nail though the fence; the nail is nearby.
He has a cache in a squirrel feeder. Here is a picture of the feeder. Click on the picture to enlarge
On the side of the feeder is a little door hiding a puzzle game shown here
The pieces are various lengths and you have to move them around trying to expose a little dowell. When you finally find the dowell you pull on it and to your surprise, the bottom of the feeder opens up and a small lock and lock cache falls out. Scared the heck out of me.
Here is one that I think may be one of the best caches we have ever found.
You come to this chain link fence and GZ is right in the middle of the gate. The cache is small and there is nowhere to hide a cache of that size.
Here is a picture of the center post of the gate
We managed to find a way to raise the center post
And then it all became clear
The cache was attached to the cement slab into which the post fit.
Here is one where we looked a long time in bushes without luck. MA finally noticed that the blooming flower was actually fake and the cache was part of its root. Here is a fuzzy photo that I found online.
http://img.geocaching.com/cache/log/37391cd4-569f-411b-a60a-5e4c63046219.jpg
The plant ia a Bird of Paradise, I love seeing those when down south.
Nice adventures, Ma&Pa.
Yep a bird of paradise. Cache is called Flightless Bird
http://coord.info/GC3WJ06
And yesterday we did 15 caches. 9 finds and 6 dnfs. The DNF’s were mostly caches by catomcat that we had tried in previous trips here. Our logs said YEARLY DNF.
Going to be 15 C and sunny today, so we may do a few short trails and some park and grabs.
Just a reminder for those who want to hide similar caches.
Fundamental Placement Guidelines
Geocaches are never buried, neither partially nor completely.
If one has to dig or create a hole in the ground when placing or finding a geocache, it is not allowed. :0)
I think we all know that, including cachers in the area but they are enjoying them so much that they are keeping quiet, just like the cachers in NB are being quiet about a few caches that break the guidelines
We went for some tattletales caches this afternoon. They were all incredible and unique, each in their own way. The amount of time and effort to create these caches must be enormous
One incredible cache was a rocket theme. The first part was a four inch diameter plastic pipe which surprisingly did not contain a cache but kind of cylinder with a handle. You were required to grab the handle and pump up and down and look to your left where you spotted a bison tube with an attached tail being launched from a high thin tube attached to a fence 25 feet away. The log was in the bison tube, which we enjoyed launching a few times.
At many of the cache sites, they create and set up props based on the theme of the cache. For example, here is one of the decorated roots at a snake themed cache.
A cache with a magic theme had the camo’d cache guarded by a dozen ghouls created with natural items including wood, moss,shells, etc.
One cache was a large bottle inside a wooden bird house. The problem was getting at the cache because all the sides and the roof and the base were all screwed in place. There seemed no way to get at the cache. But we did.
Another cache was a large wooden box. When we opened it, we found a container with swag and trackables but no log sheet. The wooden box also contained a small wooden compartment that had no method of access or so we thought. There was a plastic button in the top of the compartment but it seemed to have no effect, no matter how much we pressed it. We then noticed that access to the log sheet was by a drawer that opened on the outside side of the wooden box but there was no handle to open the drawer and get at the log sheet. Some logic and some manoeuvering unlocked and opened the drawer and gave us the log sheet. Very intricate and well built.
These caches are well worth a trip to california LOL
Just got an email about one of our DNF’s today
*************
Hi from Tattletales!
Concentrate your search on the white post with the concrete. The reflector has the tool. Sometimes the rainy weather makes it stick. As you face the post with the concrete near you, there is a small pebble on the right side of the concrete that can be pulled out. Stick the tool in that hole.
Best wishes,
Tattletales
Don and Sandy
OK This one is California related but off topic, except to say we did more tattletales caches but I wont bother describing them.
Here is the OFF TOPIC part.
We are in Silicon Valley and it is incredible some of the perks provided by some of the companies. For example: there is a rail service running thru this area. If their employees, take the train to get to work, many companies, such as GOOGLE and YAHOO, offer a free shuttle to get their employees from the train to their office.
There is a tech company called EVER NOTE with headquarters in Redwood City which has some of the following perks. Must be a great place to work.
*The company has a policy of unlimited vacation time.
*Every employee is required to take one real vacation trip per year and the company will pay $1000.
*There is a small kitchen area on each of the 4 floors of the HQTS with free coffee, pop, snacks,etc.
*Lunch is catered and free. There is a different menu theme everyday. Recent themes have been Japanese, cajun, thai, BBQ, greek, african, east indian, chinese, italian, etc.
*If employees lease a hybrid or electric car of any make, the company will pay the lease
*The company will pay for a maid service for your home twice a month.
*The HDQTS is a four story building with no offices, and glass meeting rooms.
*There is an exercise room on the main floor with all kinds of equipment and a shower room.
*On the main floor there are a number of treadmills set up to accomodate laptops, so that employees who wish can use them while working.
*Every employee is allowed one fully paid week long trip to visit one of their branch offices anywhere in the world.
*Employees are encouraged to attend meetings for areas other than their own in order to become familiar with other aspects of the business. They are expected to participate in these meetings and not be spectators.
*There is a vending machine in the building with computer accessories, such as mouses, keyboards, sticks, etc. To obtain one of the items, the employees simply swipe their employee cards in the machine. No Charge.
*The building is not far from the train station. The company provides bicycles for employees to ue to get to and from the station.
Final California item
Friday we did some caching and picked up the remaining tattletales caches. One of them was really interesting.
We were in a commercial park for tech companies. GZ was located in a small area under some trees between two large parking lots. There were about six large patio stones spread out under the trees, connecting the lots. There was no sign of a cache but that was expected with their caches. As usual we checked the hint and the past logs for any help that we could find. (We found that we had to do this with most of the caches in California because their hiding style is different from NB)
Finally I checked a suspicious sprinkler head here which I opened up to reveal a small metal ring which happened to be attached to a cord. I gently pulled on the cord and we heard a snapping sound a distance from me. I pulled again without result. We then had to search the area to see what had happened. A tiny llittle drawer had come out from under a patio stone about 10 feet away. It was only large enough to hold a bison tube. The drawer was spring loaded and we puahed it back in place and pulled on the cord to watch the drawer spring out from under the stone. A marvelous set up.
OFF TOPIC. We went for Dim Sum at a jam packed popular restaurant today where we were the only caucasians present. I got another lesson in using chopsticks
PAul