More geocaching!

On Saturday, the usual suspects—me (annevoi), David (FifiBonacci), and Alastair (Mimring)—headed up to Henry Coe State Park to find another of the 100-Mile Hike caches. This one was our sixth. We need three more. But the likelihood of our getting them all before the hot days of summer is slim, since it looks like Alastair will be off to Tanzania soon for work.

Nonetheless: six down! three to go! We are making progress! This one was perhaps the longest hike in the series, 14 miles, with serious elevation changes. It was a workout. Yet we got all 42 of the caches we sought, so yay for that. However, we somehow forgot to note the keyword in the 100-Mile cache that was that day's object. Yikes! It was the whole reason we were out there, to get that one scribbled word!

Fortunately, the cache owner, Ullii/Julie, was most accommodating and surrendered the word (it was, aptly, "up") without us needing to beg. So we were left with a sense of accomplishment and many happy memories. Here are a few photos from the day:

Winter Pond: the cache is at the base of the post David is leaning on

Just some beautiful scenery: the newly leafing oaks were splendid!

The wildflowers were out too: here, vetch.

An oak. There was a cache here. Perfect place for one.

Mimring trying (in vain) to capture the glory of the
wildflower-bedazzled setting.

Just lovely, no?

One thing I love about geocaching is that you tend to be
lured off trail, to magnificent spots you wouldn't
otherwise have visited.

New oak leaves. Late this year.

Sidalcea malviflora (“checker mallow”)

Up in a tree, cache in hand—
does it get any better?

On our way back down. There's a cache in 
that tree on the left. Just saying.

Unfortunately, when we got back to our car, we found a ticket for $71.50—because in our eagerness to get on the hunt, we'd forgotten that this might be a fee area? Yeah. It was. Which makes every one of our 42 caches worth (...calculating...) $1.70. Next time I'll try to exercise more situational awareness. Dammit.