Some hiking and some caching...

So I've almost been doing this almost for a year!  I've found a total of 81 caches so far.  I think that's a lot, but then I look at other cachers profiles and some are up in the thousands!  Lots of world travelers.  Maybe someday...

Anywhoo - I thought I'd start off with a few tips I've learned in my almost year of doing this.  Probably the hardest lesson I've learned is this is not something you can always find quickly.  When I 1st got started I was obsessed with finding all the caches on all the trails.  My boyfriend was getting really impatient with me when all he wanted to do was go on a nice hike.



Yet I would be running off into the bushes Hell bent on finding that cache.  Then getting super frustrated when I couldn't find it.



Now, as one cacher told me once when I asked for advice, "You don't have to FIND THEM ALL".  Ha!  So, I've relaxed a bit and tried to simmer down my competitive nature.  I've also realized when we're doing a quick hike after work or something we need to finish the hike, not spend forever looking for them.  If we have time to kill I can hunt away.  My boyfriend is much cooler about it now that I'm being less of a nutball.

I've also learned kind of what to look for.  Urban caches are very commonly hid under lightposts or on those big green power boxes.  So usually if you see an Urban Cache, most likely you'll know where it is.  Trail caches are always trickier it seems because there is so much that can hide them.  I've also learned I need to be way more aware of my surroundings.  I was ready to plow right through some bushes when my boyfriend had to stop me so he could do a quick check for poison oak, or other harmful plants.  We both also almost stepped on a sleeping snake once too.  So - lesson learned.  PAY ATTENTION.

I'm excited to actually try to do some adventures to just go look for caches.  There are so many!  (Hence - you don't need to find them all).  They have Mystery Caches, Earth Caches, Virtual Caches, Multi Caches along with the regular ones.  So I want to get more of those under my belt too!

Here's the latest along with some pretty hiking pictures!

The the 1st one was on our way home from the trip we took to the Grand Canyon, which you can read about here.  There weren't any actual caches in the Grand Canyon, but there were some virtual ones.  Unfortunately my phone reception was not having it so we couldn't do them.  But on the way home, there was one at a rest stop we stopped at so Elise and I stealthly grabbed it!  We brought it back to the car to log and leave a swag then re-hid it with teamwork!

Rest Stop Cache!

I meet up with my dear friend Cesar sometimes and we have dinner then take his puppers for a walk.  We tried to find one in the park by his house, but no luck.  I actually think it may have been taken.  But we did find one at a community garden behind his place!

Cesar, Leroy and Socks with our Cache we found!

The boyfriend and I took a beautiful warm hike in part of the Chino Hills Park off a street in Yorba Linda.  It was gorgeous!  We didn't have a good luck caching day due to all of the overgrowth.  I think we actually looked for 4 or 5 but only found 2.  We did see where we think some may be, but we'll have to come back when the overgrowth has died off.

Pretty leaves! NOT Poison Oak

Can you see the cache?  That's the only reason I went after it, was we could actually see it

Goin in!

Got it!

Such a pretty day!

The snake we almost stepped on

We had hiked up this damn hill in search of this particular cache, but no luck!

My love doing the leg work retrieving this particular cache

💗💗💗

Another Friday evening we took a walk around his neighborhood, through some of the Weir Canyon Trails, but also inter-weaving through some trails around his digs.  Found a couple of caches!  (There was one straight up a damn hill, but neither of us had the energy for that.  Maybe another night)

The boy spotted this one!

Found ya!

One weekend I found myself with a free day and it was beautiful outside so I pulled my bike out of the shed, cleaned her up and took a ride looking for caches!  I found one right away, then found one that was actually ruined.  I found the log, but the container was no where in sight and it looked like it had been broken up.  So I hid the log and emailed the cacher who hid it.  It worked out great!  He went out the next day, found it and fixed it right up!  Cachers helping cachers!  Yay!  I then spent forever trying to find this one, but there were alot of people around.  I ended up chilling with my friend (who lives around the area) for a bit then when I headed back home I tried again - and found it!!

This one was called "A Crooked Path"

Check out that camo!!!!

Rad!

Found you after the 2nd attempt!

Leaving some swag!

The last set of caches in this blog are my mom's birthday last weekend!  We took her out to lunch to Lazy Dog in Orange, and before I took her home she was down to look for a couple of caches in that area.  One was brand new!!!!  The other one I had been eyeing the area and figured I knew where it was and I was right!

The brand new one!!!

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Been wanting to grab this one for a while!

So as you see - I'm still all in.  Loving it so much!  I find myself glancing at my app every time I'm anywhere with a little time to kill.  Love hunting them on hikes with the boyfriend as well.  Yay Caching!!!