The California Coastal Run

It’s great to be out geocaching! What more can I say? It has been too long and we really needed to get out and about! We were on another great adventure with Geo-Jeeper (Cynthia & Mike)

Friday, April 4, we drove up the coast along Highway 1. We are bound and determined to complete the Northern California Delorme Challenge this year. It was a beautiful day to drive along the coast and pick up several quads along the way. It was also a beautiful day to take pictures.

We headed south to go north. We worked our way over to 101 south and then picked up CA Highway 1 North near Sausalito. We were trying to figure out the last time we actually drove up Highway 1 from this location. Basically, we haven’t--or so we thought. As we drove along we racked our brains and eventually decided we had been here before. We decided that a long time ago we had been to Muir Woods and to Bodega Bay. Regardless, we were properly impressed with the wooded surroundings--the eucalyptus trees were beautiful. At one point we passed fields of purple bushes. We finally decided they were heather. Of course our cameras were in the back of the car! Isn’t that the way it always is?

We started with Quad 103 (Stinson Beach) and headed up the coast through 93 (we already had this one but we covered it again), 92, 82, 72 and finally 73. We just picked caches along the highway. They were not difficult caches, but they led us to some very interesting locations. The views of the ocean and the coastline were incredibly good.

We stopped for lunch at the Rivers End Fine Dining in Jenner. The selections were a little out of our taste range, but they did have a burger and fish and chips so we were happy. We did have a lovely view of the ocean and one bird that was entertaining us by “riding the airflow”. He spent a lot of time hovering outside our window.

After lunch we made a “Stop for the Sea Lions”. We found the cache quickly, but then we spent some time enjoying the Sea Lions sunbathing on the beach below. They looked like rocks on the sand. Every once in a while one would move. We took lots of pictures, but the sea lions were all too tired to entertain us. One of them finally went into the water, but mostly they slept.

A little further up the road we were headed for “Amazing View but Watch for the Cows”. As we approached the coordinates for the cache, we ran into cows all over the roadway. Ok, we didn’t actually run into them, we approached with caution. They didn’t seem to be bothered and kept munching away on the grass. One cow stayed in his lane and kept meandering up the road. We eventually made our way through them. Cows in the road--seems to be a routine when we are on a quad run. On one of our last big quad runs, we were right in the middle of a bunch of cows being herded down the road. We have also encountered cows on other trips. I guess we should just expect to see them in the road from now on.

The further north we traveled, the grayer the skies, but the more yellow the poppies. It was probably the contrast, but they were pretty.

We finally reached the little town of Gualala. This is where we were supposed to eat lunch, but I had my info wrong. Too bad, we would have a few more choices here than we did back in Jenner. We were concerned about this cache (JJRQ) but we had no trouble finding it. I guess some previous finders felt intimidated by the people inside the building and didn’t look hard enough. We figured the people inside must know about it, so we walked right up and retrieved the cache. We will have to wait until next time to try out the lunch places.

Finally! A light house! If you go to the coast, you have to go to a light house. Right? We thought we had found one before but it turned out to be a solar light (with a cache inside) along the side of the road. “Lighthouse Stay” was actually on the road to a lighthouse. We went all the way to the end and took the required photos of the lighthouse. As lighthouses go, it wasn’t so spectacular, but at least we saw it! We didn’t go into the museum as we have one more quad and we are running out of time. We still have to make it to Ukiah tonight.

Our final quad took us to the town of Mendocino. One of the caches was out along the cliffs and required a pleasant walk to get there. I’m glad we chose to make the walk. We did enjoy some beautiful sights. We also found an excellent coffee shop here. Sorry---it wasn’t Starbucks or Peet’s or any of the other well known coffee houses. It was Moody’s Organic Coffee House. The coffee was excellent! We recommend it to others and will stop by again the next time we are in the area.

The day actually ended in Ukiah at the Holiday Inn Express. I think this is the first time we have stayed at an HIE that wasn’t full. It was kind of eerie. There weren’t many cars in the parking lot. If we wanted to be ridiculous, we could blame it on the fire truck parked outside sounding his siren now and again. Our guess is that a firefighter from somewhere else, or a relative of one of the local firefighters was staying here with us. He had two children. The fire truck showed up to entertain the kids. They got a tour of and a ride in the fire truck and, of course, got to listen to the siren several times. No one offered us a ride in the fire truck! Maybe next time.