Los Gatos and Campbell
April 10, 2004
We're addicted to geocaching. The search is a lot of fun, plus we get to explore new areas that we normally wouldn't just be driving around in. Today we did a few caches close to home. We did five caches after lunch, and finished our sixth after dinner, just after dusk. I only had my camera handy for the last one.
Secret Walkway #2 - Gato de Callejón
| This one was just off Lark Ave. We've driven by the walkway a dozen times but never noticed it. It's in a nice quiet neighborhood in Los Gatos, just off Highway 17. Since this was the first time we've done one in such an urban neighborhood, we were concerned that the neighbors would wonder what the heck we were doing there, but that didn't deter us. It's not like we were the 1st ones to be trampling around their neighborhood looking for some sort of treasure. The cache was hidden in a little cubby hole. It was a micro-cache, which was just a sign-in log. Our 1st cache of the day, and happily, a successful one. |
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Our log:
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April 10 by
| I don't think I enjoyed this one very much. First off, it was rated with a difficulty of 1 star, so I assumed it would be easy. I don't want to have to crawl under a bunch of bushes and rummage though leaves that might have been pee'd on by dogs for a 1 star. The park was decent, but there wasn't much of a view of anything so there wasn't anything spectacular about it. Plus, we weren't very concealed if anyone came to the park. Luckily, the park was empty, so we still ended up spending about a 1/2 hour looking, unsuccessfully. I doubt we'll be back. |
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Our log:
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April 10 by
| Our 3rd attempt, 2nd failure. When we got to the coordinates, we were behind an American Tire shop and in somewhat of a industrial/business park. There was someone working in the parking lot so we didn't even get the chance to search very hard. After we got home, we looked on the website, cheated and saw what we were suppose to be looking for. Now I'm really curious to see it and find the cache even though it's a micro. |
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Our log:
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This park was a lot nicer than Oakhills - bigger, more trees, and the cache was hidden in a more secluded spot. However, there were a few people sunbathing not far from the area, so we had to be a little stealth about our wandering around. I did pick up a stick and tired poking around, but didn't succeed. After we got home and read more on the website, I just didn't poke around in the right place. The cache owners have pictures on the website, and that gave us a better idea where it's actually located. I never even ventured to that part since I thought the geo-muggles would see me from there. I think we'll be back to try this one again later. I wasn't nearly as frustrated with this unsuccessful find as the Oakhills Playlot. |
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Our log:
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This cache is tricky. It's difficulty level is 3 and required a lot more planning than we had done. The original coordinates lead us to a bridge walkway over Highway 85. The actual cache is within 528 feet of the given coordinates, and to find the cache, you have to figure out the formula to this equation: GPS + (K * CACHE) = HIKING The cache is at these coordinates: N 37 15.ISC W 121 56.SGS, so it's a matter of finding out what I, S, C, and G equals. Jimmy's thinking about doing a program that will automatically figure this one out, if he does, then we'll attempt this one again. Just another sign that really geeky people, especially in the silicon valley, do geocaching. However, our trek across the bridge was fascinating. Neither of us had ever walked across one before, and I'm sure we looked pretty crazy to non-geocachers slowly walking across a pedestrian bridge over the 85 freeway holding an iPod and GPS trying to find the coordinates to some random location. We tried looking for clues while we were up there (freeway signs that might hold a clue), but couldn't figure out what Mountain View 85 and Santa Cruz 17 would do with anything. Well, even if we don't try to find this one again, it was clever and a fun attempt. |
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Our log:
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| Yay!!! It was nice to
end the day with a find, especially since we struck out the previous 4
times. After Secret Walkway 3, we went home for a bit but after a day of
geocaching, our stomachs started grumbling earlier than normal, so we headed
to El Burro in the Pruneyard in Campbell. After dinner, it was still a
little light out, and we had our GPS, iPod and a flashlight, so we
decided to do one last geocache for the day. Since the title said troll, we knew a bridge would be involved, so when we got to the park, we immediately headed to the bridge that leads to the Los Gatos Creek Trail. Trying to be discreet in a park full of families was hard. It especially looks suspicious when a couple wanders into the brush underneath a bridge! It was dark under there, so we had to use our mini flashlight to do any searching. Jimmy found the booty quickly though, within 2-3 minutes after we got under there. It was pretty funny whenever we would hear someone walking/running/biking over the bridge. We'd freeze, turn off the light and not say a word. Once, a dog and its owner walked over us and we thought for sure the dog would smell us but he's not worthy of the title of dog, he never sniffed us out. The container was small, but not really micro. It held a few small items, and within it a small troll with orange hair. We left the a wooden parrot and took the marble, put the cache back in its safe hiding place, and waited till we couldn't hear anyone walking/running/biking over the bridge before we made our exit. As we left, we straightened our clothes and put away the little baggy of booty! Dear god, if coming out from under a bridge doesn't look suspicious, I don't know what does. As we left, a man doing stretches definitely saw us and was giving us the eye. We just kept on walking. ☺ |
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Our log:
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The Campbell Park Troll |
