Geocaching 2001

Trifecta Vista by Ken & Alex, 12dec2001 2pm

Was up here to check if the Monarch butterflies had returned yet (no), so I thought I'd check up on the cache. It's in fine shape. Reading the log entries was interesting.

Berkeley Geomeet #1, 15nov2001 8pm

The meet took place! About a dozen people showed up. Much beer was consumed.

Butterface by Choberiba, 09nov2001 4pm

Scouted this yesterday, but the GPS conditions were the worst I'd ever seen. Only four satellites in the sky, all in a straight line, two right on top of each other. Couldn't get accuracy better than 60 feet, and after a while couldn't get a lock at all. Today was much better, the eTrex brought me right to the box. Took nothing, left a package of radioactive ants.

ALGOR the alien by Carmen & Mark, 09nov2001 2pm

Finally got around to re-visiting ALGOR. Easily found this time. Took a Geocaching keychain, left a Pikachu superball.

Old Nike Site by Hasbro, 04nov2001 4pm

Wandered around in the brush for 20 minutes, but didn't find it. Fortunately I had another reason for the ass-kicking climb up this hill.

Island 1 by LooneyTunes, 04nov2001 3pm

"Best logbook ever!" Took a well-worn Mexican "1 onza" silver coin, left a Mellon Bank travel clock / calculator.

San Rafael Hill by bicyclingfool, 04nov2001 noon

Found the box fairly easily. I've always wondered what is up this hill, and now I know. Took a Speedvision pin, left a tiny ceramic rhinoceros.

Larkspur Trestle by Red & Steph, 04nov2001 11am

Didn't find it, even with the encrypted hint. I love the spot though. Dirty Harry! Yeah!

Berkeley Geomeet #1, 31oct2001 3pm

Scheduled a Berkeley Geocachers get-together.

Benner Canyon, 28oct2001 5pm

After a couple of visits to scout locations, placed a cache in Benner Canyon. It turned out to be surprisingly hard to find a good hiding spot.

Stinky Beach by Chris JuriCACHE, 23oct2001 3pm

This one was easy once I had the correct coordinates! Left a package of mutant flies, in honor of the supposed stench (smelled fine when I was there). Took Choberiba's pen!!!

Bullsi by timber, 23oct2001 2pm

Found this one on my second try. Good hiding spot. Left a Ninja suction-cup throwing disk, and took a nice green golf ball.

Stumped? by Chuguy, 22oct2001 3pm

I had to visit the park to collect GPS coordinates for my Nike Missile web page, so I thought I'd give this cache a try. But I was Stumped! The GPS wasn't being very helpful, claiming I was within a few feet in at least three widely separated places. I wandered around for half an hour and then gave up. I suck.

ETREXABLE 118 Bike Ohlone Greenway by Etrexably Me, 18oct2001 6:15pm

I don't really like cachoons, but I had to find this one because it's the closest cache to my house. And I admit it was fairly cute, once I found it.

Bullsi by timber, 18oct2001 6pm

Couldn't find it. Being familiar with the area, I figured from the title where this would be, but didn't see the cache once I got there. Nifty spot tho.

Berkeley Pedestrian Bridge by Chris JuriCACHE, 18oct2001 5:30pm

Couldn't find it. GPS was consistently pointing to a location where pedestrians are very unwelcome! I'll try again another day. [The coordinates were in fact incorrect - they were later fixed, and the cache was renamed "Stinky Beach".]

Hotsy Totsy by Choberiba, 18oct2001 5pm

I guess it's my turn for some torment now, cause I couldn't find it! The GPS was pointing south of the fence, or in the middle of the sandbox, or ???. Not a good GPS day, I struck out on three out of four caches I went for. I'll try again tomorrow, maybe the stars (satellites) will align better.

Volcanic Labyrinths by Buzbon, 09oct2001 3pm

A beautiful day for cache-hunting in a beautiful lesser-known park. Took a UC Berkeley "Crime Biter" badge, and left an Audubon bird call which I got at Trifecta Vista. After the cache I explored the rest of the park, and found four of the rock labyrinths, plus a spiral petroglyph at N 37.86037 W 122.20035.

The petroglyph has an interesting story behind it. Years ago, back when Sibley was called Round Top Regional Preserve, I was exploring just outside the bounday when I noticed a spiral carved into a rock. I looked around and saw another one. And another. There were dozens. In this one canyon, pretty much every visible rock had a spiral carved on it. A few years later I made another visit, and all but one were gone. Bulldozed away! I was shocked, figuring that an irreplacable native holy site had been destroyed. Well. A few years ago I was talking to the guy who made the rock labyrinths, and told him my story about the spirals. He said he had made those too! So, a little more recent than I thought. Still, the one that remains is pretty nice.

Love Child by Choberiba, 03oct2001 4pm

Very good hiding spot. Took me quite a while to find it. Left a bag of Hollerith punch cards and took a Cherry Coke, which went into the green can coolie I had just found at Surface Tension.

Surface Tension by Choberiba, 03oct2001 3pm

Easily found. Left a bag of Hollerith punch cards and took a beautiful lime-green can coolie.

The box wasn't quite closing - it may be slightly over-full.

CityCache2 by Jim Meehan, 06sep2001 6pm

Picked off this cache at the end of a very long bike ride. GPS was acting up but I found the cache anyway, by following the trails. Took the Canadian loonie, and left a temporary tattoo of a Komodo dragon.

Bernal Hill by Noah, 03sep2001 5pm

Scored this one on the way to a Labor Day BBQ. Took two Chinese coins and left a tennis-ball-sized desk sculpture made of black marbles.

Back Atcha, Looney Tunes! by Chris JuriCACHE and Jake, 29aug2001 3pm

After failing to find it in a previous attempt when the GPS consistently pointed ten feet offshore, this time I found it instantly right where the GPS pointed. Shrug. Bad GPS juju I guess.

Took a small plastic pill box and left a nice sea shell from Hawaii.

Back Atcha, Looney Tunes! by Chris JuriCACHE and Jake, 25oct2001 4pm

Couldn't find it. The GPS consistently pointed about ten feet offshore. The tide was pretty high, about +5 feet, so I guess this cache must be low-tide only. Either that or it has washed away!

Sniff / Safe Deposit, 20sep2001 3pm

Reworked the old Sniff cache into the new Sniff / Safe Deposit.

Dog Day Afternoon by Chris Juricich, 25aug2001 3pm

This is a beautiful park where I bike often. The hiding place is excellent, I circled around for 15 minutes before finding it. I left a little desk toy made of marbles, and took a Canadian $5 silver coin. Wow! That's the nicest thing I've gotten from a geocache.

Since taking a picture of the cache would give away the hiding place, I instead took a (bad) picture of a nearby bird's nest.

Hangin' Out Near Alcatraz by Chris JuriCACHE, 16aug2001 8pm

The box is indeed in a clever spot, and is empty. Worth a visit anyway.

No Escape!! by Chris JuriCACHE, 16aug2001 6pm

Cool, my first first find. The box is very well camoflaged, I circled around it a couple times before finally spotting it. The trail gets a lot of use, so act nonchalant when you retrieve and re-hide it. I took a Chinese luck coin, and left a geometric paperweight made of blue and yellow marbles.

Trifecta Vista by Ken & Alex, 11aug2001 7pm

This is the replacement for Trifecta Reading Room. An excellent new hiding place, just off the main trail and yet invisible to non-players. I left a wind-up game and took the Audubon bird call.

New Growth by O-man, 29jul2001 5pm

Interesting area. I had explored this maze of trails just last year, and so was able to guess which one the cache would be on. The GPS put me about 25' short of the cache; I just kept looking and there it was.

The poison oak is reaching out into the last bit of trail, so be careful. Next spring it may become impassable.

I left some old punch cards and took two childrens card games, which were promptly donated to a nephew.

Olde Growth by O-man, 29jul2001 4pm

The GPS took me about 35' past the cache, and it took me a few minutes to work my way back and find it. Beautiful area, nice hiding place, with seats and everything!

I left some old punch cards and took a plastic coin and some dinosaur stickers.

Admiral's Reading Room by O-man, 28jul2001 4pm

Easily found. I went straight to the obvious landmark, and then consulted the GPS and backtracked some. It put me about 20' west of the actual location so I had to search around a bit, but the brush is high enough that you can peek under it so this was easy.

Once again I forgot to bring an artifact to exchange, but I had to take the adventure checklist left by Team miEx, so I will do penance by re-visiting and bringing two books.

ALGOR the alien by Carmen & Mark, 28jul2001 3pm

The GPS was jumping around a lot, there was a lot of poison oak in the area, I looked for 20 minutes and didn't find it. I'll have to try again another time!

Deceptive, 22jul2001 3pm

On a road trip to visit a friend in Seattle, placed the Deceptive cache.

SF-51C, 28jun2001 2pm

While on a bike trip gathering coordinates for the Nike Missile web page, placed the SF-51C cache.

Old Sniff, 17apr2001 5pm

After a few preliminary trips of painting and cairn-building, placed the first Sniff cache. It went missing three days later.

Second Growth by O-man, 10apr2001 5pm

Easy to find. I've been up on this hilltop many times before, it's a great site. The previous time I was up here, 12 February 2001, it was covered with snow!

I left a Sun Microsystems yo-yo and took a beautiful chartreuse superball, which I apparently lost on the way home.

Trifecta Reading Room by Ken & Alex, 19mar2001 1pm

Made a preliminary attempt on 16mar2001, and got within 400 feet twice. Returned on foot instead of bike and it wasn't too hard to find. Nice little meadow, with some Douglas irises that should bloom in April. Also, in December through March look for Monarch butterflies here, it's very close to one of their winter hangouts. Watch out for poison oak, though! And ticks!

Took "Red Mars" by Kim Stanley Robinson; left a 1960s copy of "The Paradox Men" by Charles Harness.

TRIFECTA by Carmen & Mark, 05jan2001 5pm

This was the first cache I went for. It's in a large brushy field near the Berkeley marina. I know the area well, it's criss-crossed with trails and I bike there fairly often. To find it, I programmed the coordinates into my Garmin eTrex as a waypoint and then used the "goto" function. I was holding the GPS with one hand and steering the bike with the other - I should probably buy Garmin's handlebar mount. When I got within 60 feet I dismounted and proceeded on foot. The eTrex took me right to the cache.

I forgot to bring an artifact to exchange, so I just wrote in the log book and re-sealed the cache.