by Yrium also known as Charles F. Simons

A year is a long time when talking about geocaching. Considering the little I know today about the outdoors and hiking, I don’t even know what I was thinking of when I first stepped off pavement in May of 2001 in search of my first geocache. I was hunting Bikedog’s original TECC 76 geocache and quickly ran into trouble. My wife and my nephew, both un-nicknamed at this point in our geocaching careers, walked the short distance from the Elfin Forest parking lot to the creek crossing. The GPS clearly was telling us that we had to cross the creek so we took off our shoes and socks and forded the creek filled with chilly water. Then we walked about 200 feet further down the trail and the GPS was telling us we should cross the creek again. Whaaat? Hummmm… I guess we should cross the creek again, so off with the shoes and socks and once again we traversed the creek. Then we walked a little further down the stream and… Yep, the GPS was telling us we were on the wrong side of the creek again. It seems that things in nature aren’t arranged in straight lines! I wonder if Euclid was ever informed of this fact? Maybe he would like to change a few geometry textbooks. Totally discouraged we gave up our hunt for the day and came home to log my first of many purple frownie faces. My newbie mewlings for aid were answered by a few of the journeymen cachers of the day, one of which was Vagabond. Which brings me to this log.

I have to admit that I am guilty of one of the seven sins. I’ve often been envious of Vagabond’s long staff. No, get your mind out of the gutter, Vagabond isn’t an adult film star, I’m talking about his Bamboo hiking stick he takes with him everywhere. I always thought that I’d hidden my envy but I guess not successfully because the other day Vagabond emailed me saying he had just obtained a few Calcutta Bamboo shoots that were still green… Did I want one? “Duh… Yes” I replied in my response email, “What do I have to do? Where do I have to go?”. Since he was planning on being in Escondido on Sunday we agreed to meet at Bikedog’s TECC 76 NEW SPOT.

Gromit and I arrived at the Elfin Forest parking lot about 20 minutes before the arranged meeting time. My plan was to get a head start on the trail to the cache, that way Vagabond wouldn’t have to match his pace to that of my slug like progress. I figured that in twenty minutes I could get halfway to the cache and Vagabond would catch up with me and the wonderdog right about the time we got to the general cache area.

Vagabond with staff
I can remember a long time ago when Vagabond caught up with me on the initial day of a cache being available. I heard a voice yelling in the distance and I spun around and looked. All I could think of is "Why is that fisherman shouting at me? does he want to show off a big fish he just caught?" Turns out it was Vagabond with his long pole.

Letting Gromit out of the car I told him to wait a moment while I grabbed the rest of our supplies. First I hung the GPS around my neck followed by my camera, and then I jammed my trade items and cache write-up sheet in my pocket. Following this by walking to the back of the vehicle where I took my old hiking staff, a converted shovel handle, out of the car for the last time. I have to admit the shovel handle suits me pretty fine. I hope my cacher friends won’t think I’ve gone Hollywood when I show up at the next cache hunt sporting a nifty bamboo staff. I can just hear them talking behind my back “Oh that Yrium… Thinks he’s a big shot now that he has a Vagabond approved bamboo shaft… Who does he think he is? Lets call him Mr. Pretentious cacher from now on.” Banishing my negative thoughts from my mind I give the wonderdog the signal that it’s now time to hit the trail. It’s a crisp morning but the sun is warming up the air quite fast as we start off.

Coming upon the creek I see that I won’t have to doff the footwear this time around. Those mysterious trail gremlins that maintain the walkways have improved the creek crossing in the last year. There are a series of conveniently placed rocks leading straight across the stream. Euclid would approve of their placement. I gingerly started across with the aid of my shovel handle and was about a third of the way across when I noticed that Gromit was stopped at the third rock. I’ve marveled at his Wallenda like tight-rope walking abilities in the past, but the third rock was placed inconveniently for his next paw to get to. I could see the mental gears revving up in his head just like mine did the last time I played Twister and Right Foot Yellow came up at an impromptu time. Gromit quickly made up his mind. Time to change this slow sedate river crossing into a belly flop contest! With a mighty leap he abandoned the rock crossing and arced out over the water before causing a prodigious splash. The wake from his plunge in the water caused ripples to wet my reeboks! “Hey Gromit! Splashman and Splashette would be impressed!” I told him “Just be sure you don’t lay down and get mud in your belly fur, I don’t want to have to tie you to the luggage rack on top of the car for the return home. I don’t have any fake antlers to attach to your head so I’d probably get pulled over”.

Traveling down the trail we reach the boundary between the TECC area and private property. The trail doesn’t change in the slightest as you pass this way. In fact I wouldn’t have noticed at all if someone hadn’t put up a sign. If you’ve read many of my logs you’ve probably noticed that I have a penchant for strange or unusual signs. This one caught my eye as it differed from the normal “NO TRESPASSING” signs that you usually see. This one said that you’ve reached the end of the Escondido Creek Conservancy and proceeding further would be considered a trespass. My sharp legal mind instantly seized on a salient point. If I continued down the trail it would indeed be a trespass… But nowhere was there any sign of a NO TRESPASSING sign! I figured it would be safe to proceed even without having Johnny Cochran on retainer.

Not quite a no trespassing sign...

Gromit and I are about a couple of hundred feet away from point zero when we are haled from behind. It’s the esteemed Mr. Vagabond coming on fast. I planned my departure time with great skill or maybe I was just plain lucky. If a picture was taken of our meeting on the trail I’m sure the caption would say INFIRM MEET DECREPIT! We said our hellos and Gromit got a pat or two and then we continued to the general cache area.

I was pretty wrung out by this time so I kinda nonchalantly threw my carcass to the ground and pretended to be looking for the cache in my immediate area while Vagabond wandered hither and fro searching. I figured that he would find the cache pretty soon and I wouldn’t have to exert myself at all until I had to uncap my pen but Bikedog had found a pretty good place to hide this cache. After awhile I started to feel guilty for my park statue impersonation while Vagabond was beating all the bushes trying to flush out the cache so I moved about ten feet and pretended to search again. Vagabond was canvassing the entire area like a Florida election official looking for a dropped chad and I started to feel guilty again so I moved another ten feet and searched my immediate area for appearances sake. Voila! I found the cache. Just goes to show you that life is not always fair. Vagabond covered 95% of the area searching but I was the one to find it. And then after I found it I couldn’t quite reach it so Vagabond came to my aid and retrieved the cache. Like the gentlemen he is, he handed it to me so I could do my log entry. I took a little plastic figure that looked to me like Boris Badenov posing as a crossing guard and left in its place a georged dollar bill and five of my ‘Yrium’s Pals’ trading cards. The ones I left are #2 in the series. Bet you can’t collect them all!

Vagabond made his log entry and did his exchange and we put the cache back. He then informed me that it was his 300th find! I didn’t know I was going to be present for a milestone event of such magnitude.

All I can say about our trip back to the trailhead is Vagabond has the patience of a Saint. He never mentioned our slow progress walking back to the cars. To tell you the truth it didn’t seem to take all that long because we had a wonderful conversation all the way. Its amazing how much shared experience we’ve had in the last year going for the same caches at different times. I’m glad we shared this one at this time.

Thanks Bikedog for the cache. It was a good hide as usual.