[GeoStL] How I spent my summer vacation or

My So. California caching trip!

My wife and I left for CA on Tue. Sept 17th and came back last night (Monday).

I downloaded waypoints from Geocaching.com with a 50 mile radius using a San 
Diego, LaJolla, and Palm Springs zipcode. This resulted in 800+ waypoints (some 
probably duplicated), but still..... Then I started looking up and printing 
some cache pages. Most of the caches in the outlying areas (dessert) that were 
2 or 2 1/2 stars indicated to take at least a gallon of water. So I limited my 
search for 2 1/2 and below. 

We stayed at Ramada in SD the first night. They had broadband access in each 
room at $10 for a 24 hr. period. since we would be leaving for Palm Springs 
early the next morning, I used dialup.I guess they are catching on to people 
using the phone for internet. It was 50 cents for the call (normal) but after 
15 minutes it was an additional 7 cents/minute. In Palm Springs we stayed at a 
Hyatt. The had a bank of computers, fax machines and printers for rent. 
Internet access was 49 cents/minute. I stuck with dialup the whole trip, 
connecting at 12K up to 49K depending on the area.

My intent was to go caching early in the AM (7-8) and get back by noon to beat 
the heat and do quality time with my wife playing tourists. It seems like most 
of the caches in town (San Diego and Palm Springs) are Altoid tins or virtual 
caches. In the desert they were all in ammo cans. City cache ratings were about 
the same as ours, but the desert cashes were a different story. I think the 
placers of the desert caches assume we all have a 4x4 to drive close to the 
cache. The walk may be flat for a 1-1 but I sure wouldn't call it path where 
"you could ride a standard bicycle or push a stroller on this trail", as in the 
example for a 1-1 cache on Geocaching.com. Then there's the clues for the 
cache. One used "unnatural frones", another used "Oak tree" (looked like a 
holly bush to me), another was a "Manzanita bush". And then there was 
"Beavertail, prickly pear and barrel" cactuses. When the whole area is cacti, 
they all look alike to me, and they all have sharp stickers. I think Myotis 
helped with these clues! :-) With the desert temperatures of 100+, Shorts were 
fine, except for all the cuts and scratches I got from the bramble bushes. Lots 
of sticky cactuses, but I knew enough to stay away from them.

Locating the cache area or parking area was the real challenge.Everyone in CA 
operates in max. mode while driving. The interstates (3-5 lanes) all have 
shoulders but none of the exits are numbered or mile markers placed on the 
highways. The main highways, (non-interstates and major roads) have no 
shoulders! There is a 3-4' wide bike path instead, which make it tough to pull 
over and try to determine where the exit to the cache is. Naturally it's the 
exit you just passed but with the curves and hills (and divider) you can't just 
make a U turn. It's hard to read that little 1 1/2" x 3" GPS screen when the 
traffic is whizzing by at 70 MPH.

I ended up with 2-3 per day because most of my time was spend driving around 
correcting my wrong turns and exits. One easy cache I was going to do Sunday 
evening was just off an exit on I-15 on an access road. Little did I know that 
the exit was also for the Qualcomm Stadium and the Padres were playing that 
night. It took me almost a hour with the police, one way roads, and closed off 
roads to get back on the highway! I had my laptop with Mapsource loaded but 
it's still hard to look at the laptop at 70 MPH with cars on both sides and the 
sun hitting the screen. Again, there was no place to pull over to get your 
bearings.

I did get some good ideas for handling virtual caches without requiring an 
email with the answer and even placement of a "cache" and treat it as a virtual.

I had some "no finds" once I found the correct area to search or park, but I 
still enjoyed the hike because they were "non-tourist" areas and the scenery 
and terrain was very different than in MO.

Gas prices in San Diego were $1.75 for regular but in Palm Springs it was 
$1.44. Guess the rich people need a break. It was 104 (17% humidity) in Palm 
Springs, the "coolest" that it had been all summer.

Now I'm ready for some good old Missouri caches again. 

Rich

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