Red rattler or is it? we were not really sure it was real. It was near the 3rd wp of a cache we didn't find after crossing this creature's path. The trouble was the clue was 'snakes egg' we tossed a couple of pebbles at it and after one landed on it the snakes seemed to move but it never rattled. We were to scared to get closer. So we gave up and found 3 caches else where. Cachers round here can be pretty sneaky and another cache on Black mountain is in a fake snake but not a rattler. So what would you have done? 

Mindless Vandals

My dd car got vandalized last night while she was staying overnight with friends.

It's so awful! The mindlessness of it.

They smashed all the driver's side and the back. Luckily we have good insurance and only have to pay $100 and not the $1410 that it will cost to repair. They even smashed the tiny triangle quarter window, which alone cost $200 because of it's shape. The back window is $800.

Poor dd has only had the car 6 months.

We had to knock out all the glass so that dh could drive it home and put it in the garage and it will take 5 days to get the glass.

So now dd is trying to learn stick shift so she can borrow my car for school next week.

Four other cars and a limo also had their windows smashed too around the neighbourhood.

This is the back window. 

J's car had the drivers side and the back window smashed by some mindlless vandal during the night. 

Hunt for Red October

It took three visits to the preserve to find the 14 wp and final cache of this reincarnation of an old cache called Chupy #4 The Walkabout. The first visit I knew that the first wp would be up a very steep trail to the top of the mesa but swore I would not go down that way whatever the cost! True enough after a couple more wps it looked like that going back down was on the cards, however we know the area quite well and knew of an alternative albeit longer way round and as the evening was drawing in knew that was the way we had to go not only to find the next wp but to get back to the car. When S found the wp we punched in the coords and ironically it pointed back the way we had just come. But the light was going so it was back to the car. Our next chance to collect a few more wps was on Wednesday, the park is still 'closed' but it has not rained for days so we felt ok to continue our quest.
It was 3/4 mile as the crow flies to the new wp we had just entered but that would mean going up and over and down the mesa so we walked around found the next wp which again was up another steep slope but luckily a zigzag path made it easier. I noticed that a couple of caches we had not found were close by so while S concentrated on the main objective I set my GPS to goto the nearest cache and we passed right by it so we were able to stop and find it. a very clever hide that we had not come across before. Next wp led to another famlier area where an archived cache used to be but we came to a Y in the trail my GPS said the another cache was just off to the left but our prime objective was to the right, so we split up I found the cache and S found the wp. We met up and the next co-ord led down into the canyon past the pond and up the other side so we decide that again it would be better to go back to the car the long way round as time was getting short and there was no telling where we would get to if we carried on. When we were home we studied the map and decided to approach the park from the north instead of the east and I found a cache that had the parking coords for that side although the cache it's self was one of the 3 or 4 puzzle caches that I can't do. Grrr.
As I sat looking at this puzzle cache I suddenly found the answer! Sunday we made our way to the new parking area, as we had never been I used the GPS to direct us for the first time. It was so cool beeping at every juction even when we missed a turn it directed us to do a u turn as quick as a wink!!
To be continued!!

Found the Jeep TB in the cache Hunt for Red October 

Clever Waypoints

Gosh, where did March go. In like a lion and out like a lamb and no bloggings from me.
Sunday evening dh and I thought that as we had the extra light we would have another go at a geocache that we could'nt find the second waypoint for, and yes I did put a note to that effect on the page.
I got a nice email from the placers with a further clue so even though it was somewhere I thought I'd already looked...
Even with the clue it took a while to find the co-ordinates for the next waypoint, very clever use of existing signs. The next wps were all different and very clever but it was getting dark by the time we found the fifth one, not knowing if the next was going to be the cache or yet another wp we decided that going on was not a good idea and turned back. As we were walking along a trail by a lake it had not only got dark but also had that damp misty feeling and there were bats flying around us too. we set a good pace and were very relieved to get back to the car!!
We plan to finish the cache on Wednesday evening, luckily it's in a beautiful area with lots of birds to watch so well worth a third visit!