OP's Geocaching Page

OP's Geocaching Page

What's Geocaching you ask? I've just discovered it. It's been around for a couple of years. It's basically high-tech hide and seek. You go to geocaching.com and find caches in your area. You then can either just print out the coordinates or get fancy and download them straight into your GPS unit. The website has varying amounts of information about how to reach the spot. There's also some encrypted clues. You then go off and seek out the cache, usually a tupperware container or Ammo box, suitably hidden in some location which you find with your GPS receiver. In it are typically hidden various little goodies and a logbook. You are asked to note your visit in the book, and if you take a goodie, to give one as well.

Since the end of "Selective Availability"(the military used to have exclusive use of the most accurate version until a couple of years ago) the positioning accuracy is about +/-20ft or so. That's what Garmin's website says. Garmin is the manufacturer of my GPS receiver. In fact, when I walk around with my receiver, I see the numbers changing every 8ft or so.

Link to caches in our area

I'm going to use this page to log my Geocaching finds.

Date Activity

1/5/2002 Henry's Trail cache. Our first Geocaching outing in Griffith Park. Was unable to locate this one! Didn't spend that long looking for it, and it could have just been more hidden than we thought.

1/5/2002 "Chapel by Saros". Found this one without difficulty! A tupperware container. Contributed a refridgerator magnet.

1/6/2002 Planted my first cache. I called it "Verdugo Views" by Mr Spanner. I submitted the info an hour ago, and it's already on their site! There happened to be an old Ammo box left lying around in our garage, so I used that. Took it up in my backpack on my bike. Rode up the Sunshine Canyon fire road. Descended via what I call the Poison Oak trail (drops down to La Tuna Canyon. There wasn't much PO today, but it can be really bad along this single track.

1/6/2002 "Teasel's Tuna Troll" . Tried to find this on the same bike ride. It's at the bottom end of the Poison Oak trail. I was hopelessly missing it. I was also rather tired. I didn't read the directions enough, but was just blindly looking at the GPS which seemed to freeze up as I went up a narrow ravine. Now I look back at the website, I see I was well missing it. Have to go back for a second look!

1/7/2002 "Coldwater Cache" . This one is the very closest to our house. We walk in this park a lot. It was my first mult-cache, meaning the directions point to one spot, which then gives directions to a main cache where the goodies are. Donated screwdriver, took a police car.

1/9/2002 "ICP #1" . Another multi-cache which took me hiking way up to the top of the Verdugo Mountains. I knew exactly where this was going to be going. Struggled to find the first one, but did in the end (not quite what I was expecting!) The main cache was an easy find. I was pretty sweaty by the time I reached it. This was the first one in which I inputted the location of the 2nd point into my GPS as a "waypoint" and it did a pretty good job of leading me to it. There's an arrow on one page and it just points to the way to go. Traded the police car in for Scary Nail Polish!

1/10/2002 Decided to have another look for Henry's Trail cache as I was driving past Griffith Park. Didn't have my GPS or the coordinates with me, but remembered the general area. Found it OK this time.

1/14/2002 Created and placed another cache which I called "DOOWYLLOH by Mountain Goat". It's a multi-cache and takes you up a steep single track on Cahuenga Peak, and ends up behind the Hollywood Sign. Thus the name as you see the sign backwards.

1/20/2002 Rode my mountain bike up to the top of the ORIGINAL Magic Mountain for this one: Big Steve's The Other Magic". A delightful ride, not too steep, and very remote.

1/20/2002 On the way home from above, stopped by to bag Dexter Pog off Little Tujunga Road. A short walk up behind a ranger's station, gun fire in the background constantly from a nearby shooting range.

1/21/2002 Dragged Dr Eve 1400ft up Echo Mountain above Pasadena to get the Echo Mountain cache. A great hike we've done a few times before.

1/21/2002 On the way home from above, did a detour into the San Rafael mountains to get the Cerro Negro cache. We'd never been in the San Rafael mountains before. They're surprisingly extensive. Cool motorized siren just near cache. I took pic and submitted it to geocaching.com

1/25/2002 I needed to be on the west side by the evening, so I thought I'd do a ride in the Santa Monica Mountains on the way over. I planned to do a loop to bag Rustic Rest Stop and Swingin' Sullivan" starting from Mandeville Canyon/Westridge, riding up Westridge, them up Sullivan Canyon, then back down fire road to Capri and onto Sunset back to my car. It didn't quite work out this way as I had dead batteries in my GPS, then half way round the trip I realized I had good batteries in my camera in my backpack. I visited both caches, but only found the one at Sullivan.

1/27/2002 In storm-threatening black clouds, hiked up the Verdugos to bag Twin Valley Vista, which was an easy find on the single track down to La Tuna Canyon.

4/14/2002 Hiked with Bryan up Bailey Canyon to try to find The Cabin Cache, after hunting for 10 minutes, we moved on. It was seemingly in a streambed and could have been washed away?

4/24/2002 Hiked in Griffith Park to find Hollywood View - Griffith Observatory, an easy find once I'd got the right trail. I'd approached from above, rather than from the Observatory, and that had me bushwhacking for a little bit. There's usually an easier way.
5/22/2002 Rode my bike from home to find The Hollywood Reservoir, an easy find, buried in leaves!

6/9/2002 Hiked up one of my favorite trails, the Crescenta View trail above La Crescenta, to place a new cache called Crescenta View Cache by Mountain Goat. I made it fairly easy to find, since getting there is quite an effort - 2000ft up and 3 miles each way.

6/11/2002 A quick walk from Colfax Av in Studio City to find Big Brother, on the path alongside the empty concrete LA River, right opposite the set for CBS's "Big Brother" set.

6/12/2002 Just off one of my regular bike rides in the Verdugos, I stopped to find Moonbase KROQ, up by the red/white antennae at the eastern end of the Verdugos

Back to Spannertech

Date	Activity
1/5/2002	Henry's Trail cache. Our first Geocaching outing in Griffith Park. Was unable to locate this one! Didn't spend that long looking for it, and it could have just been more hidden than we thought.
1/5/2002	"Chapel by Saros". Found this one without difficulty! A tupperware container. Contributed a refridgerator magnet.
1/6/2002	Planted my first cache. I called it "Verdugo Views" by Mr Spanner. I submitted the info an hour ago, and it's already on their site! There happened to be an old Ammo box left lying around in our garage, so I used that. Took it up in my backpack on my bike. Rode up the Sunshine Canyon fire road. Descended via what I call the Poison Oak trail (drops down to La Tuna Canyon. There wasn't much PO today, but it can be really bad along this single track.
1/6/2002	"Teasel's Tuna Troll" . Tried to find this on the same bike ride. It's at the bottom end of the Poison Oak trail. I was hopelessly missing it. I was also rather tired. I didn't read the directions enough, but was just blindly looking at the GPS which seemed to freeze up as I went up a narrow ravine. Now I look back at the website, I see I was well missing it. Have to go back for a second look!
1/7/2002	"Coldwater Cache" . This one is the very closest to our house. We walk in this park a lot. It was my first mult-cache, meaning the directions point to one spot, which then gives directions to a main cache where the goodies are. Donated screwdriver, took a police car.
1/9/2002	"ICP #1" . Another multi-cache which took me hiking way up to the top of the Verdugo Mountains. I knew exactly where this was going to be going. Struggled to find the first one, but did in the end (not quite what I was expecting!) The main cache was an easy find. I was pretty sweaty by the time I reached it. This was the first one in which I inputted the location of the 2nd point into my GPS as a "waypoint" and it did a pretty good job of leading me to it. There's an arrow on one page and it just points to the way to go. Traded the police car in for Scary Nail Polish!
1/10/2002	Decided to have another look for Henry's Trail cache as I was driving past Griffith Park. Didn't have my GPS or the coordinates with me, but remembered the general area. Found it OK this time.
1/14/2002	Created and placed another cache which I called "DOOWYLLOH by Mountain Goat". It's a multi-cache and takes you up a steep single track on Cahuenga Peak, and ends up behind the Hollywood Sign. Thus the name as you see the sign backwards.
1/20/2002	Rode my mountain bike up to the top of the ORIGINAL Magic Mountain for this one: Big Steve's The Other Magic". A delightful ride, not too steep, and very remote.
1/20/2002	On the way home from above, stopped by to bag Dexter Pog off Little Tujunga Road. A short walk up behind a ranger's station, gun fire in the background constantly from a nearby shooting range.
1/21/2002	Dragged Dr Eve 1400ft up Echo Mountain above Pasadena to get the Echo Mountain cache. A great hike we've done a few times before.
1/21/2002	On the way home from above, did a detour into the San Rafael mountains to get the Cerro Negro cache. We'd never been in the San Rafael mountains before. They're surprisingly extensive. Cool motorized siren just near cache. I took pic and submitted it to geocaching.com
1/25/2002	I needed to be on the west side by the evening, so I thought I'd do a ride in the Santa Monica Mountains on the way over. I planned to do a loop to bag Rustic Rest Stop and Swingin' Sullivan" starting from Mandeville Canyon/Westridge, riding up Westridge, them up Sullivan Canyon, then back down fire road to Capri and onto Sunset back to my car. It didn't quite work out this way as I had dead batteries in my GPS, then half way round the trip I realized I had good batteries in my camera in my backpack. I visited both caches, but only found the one at Sullivan.
1/27/2002	In storm-threatening black clouds, hiked up the Verdugos to bag Twin Valley Vista, which was an easy find on the single track down to La Tuna Canyon.
4/14/2002	Hiked with Bryan up Bailey Canyon to try to find The Cabin Cache, after hunting for 10 minutes, we moved on. It was seemingly in a streambed and could have been washed away?
4/24/2002	Hiked in Griffith Park to find Hollywood View - Griffith Observatory, an easy find once I'd got the right trail. I'd approached from above, rather than from the Observatory, and that had me bushwhacking for a little bit. There's usually an easier way.
5/22/2002	Rode my bike from home to find The Hollywood Reservoir, an easy find, buried in leaves!
6/9/2002	Hiked up one of my favorite trails, the Crescenta View trail above La Crescenta, to place a new cache called Crescenta View Cache by Mountain Goat. I made it fairly easy to find, since getting there is quite an effort - 2000ft up and 3 miles each way.
6/11/2002	A quick walk from Colfax Av in Studio City to find Big Brother, on the path alongside the empty concrete LA River, right opposite the set for CBS's "Big Brother" set.
6/12/2002	Just off one of my regular bike rides in the Verdugos, I stopped to find Moonbase KROQ, up by the red/white antennae at the eastern end of the Verdugos