Saturday, May 3, 2008

Here Comes Some Fun Geocaching

I haven't had much time to geocache in the past couple of weeks but there is some big time fun on the horizon.

First is the flash mob event on Coronado Island in San Diego. Next Saturday is WWFM III and we will be in one of the most beautiful areas in the world for our first flash mob. This event is being put on by the folks over at PodCacher. If you didn't get a chance to read my previous post about it, you can check it out here.

Second is a trip up Mount San Jacinto for a hike to the summit and some mountain top geocaching. There is an earth cache, a virtual cache and 6 active regular caches listed on the "top o the tram" bookmark list. Click the image of the mountain for a great photo gallery.

I am actually planning a hike up San Jacinto via the infamous Cactus to Clouds trail this October. This trail is considered one of the toughest hikes in California. You gain over 10,000 feet of elevation. That's actually more elevation gain than you get on a typical summit trip on Mt. Whitney. (Whitney is the highest peak in the lower 48 states.)

The wife and I are planning on taking the "easy" way up in June. We will ascend the first 8400 feet inside the comfort of the Palm Springs Ariel Tram. From there it's a 5.5 mile hike up the remaining 2000 feet to the summit. We plan to spend the day exploring our share of the 54 miles of available trails in this great state park. (Hopefully the fire danger does not close off our summit attempt) The temperature at the tram station is typically 30 degrees cooler than the desert floor. That means this summer we can cruise up the mountain and hike around all day, even camp in 70 degree weather. NICE! Come winter time we can ride up into the snow without having to drive in it.




Needless to say, there are some very exciting events coming up for us. I am very excited to get into my new hobby of hiking and climbing. I have to say that I have always wanted to climb a mountain. My family spent a lot of time out in nature while I was growing up. Geocaching has been the catalyst into pulling the trigger on some real hiking and camping adventures as an adult for me. I actually started a new blog that I will dedicate to these non geocaching adventures. I only have a couple posts on it so far but feel free to check it out here. These two hobbies will often go hand in hand and I will be sure to share those adventures here.

4 comments:

Paul Myers said...

Welcome back. I was beginning to wonder whether you'd abandoned the geocaching blog entirely.

If we're able to get out next weekend, we'll probably be doing the Orange County Flash Mob. My youngest loved the one we did last November, so we'll probably do this one as well.

P.J. said...

Sounds like a blast. I did my first 4.5 terrain this past week and really enjoyed it. Not sure I want to summit a mountain anytime soon, but I do like the challenging hikes. I just need to have better shoes, I think. :)

HooHaa!

HooHaa Photos!

tonka_boy said...

Beautiful mountain. I walked up a hill once... but I got tired. Then I came down.

Not quite as inspiring as your story.

MotherPucker.ca said...

Oooh... I'm just starting out, but hope to one day be brave enough to head out to the Canadian Rockies for some geocaching...

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