I am bloggin this a day late because I didn’t have a moments rest the entire day. For some strange reason I woke up without the aid of an alarm clock at 4am. Maybe I was excited like a little kid on Christmas morning, but I willingly got out of bed and thought I would be able to use this time to ensure I had everything I could need for the hike. I packed my bag that I had packed the night before two more times just to be sure and made some sandwiches. Packed the car and made it there with coffee in hand with enough time to spare.
Once in the area I began to think that I was completely lost and almost turned stopped to double check the GPS, since I had used latitude and longitude to plot my trip which based on previous experience can take me a bit out of my way. Then I saw a red prius in front of me and remembered that another GBA member Calipidder has a red prius and sped up to see if it was possibly her. As I got closer I realized it would be impossible to see inside the car, but I got lucky, a California plate with a Michigan frame. It was her.
I got to the location and started towards everyone then was hit with half a dozen names in ten seconds. I was saying to myself “I am not going to be able to remember all of these names”. The hike was about to start and everyone starting asking each other who brought GPS’s. I thought this was a group of GPS enthuisists? OK, maybe we are just doing the hike then and no caching? We started off and it seemed like a long hike before our first cache. One person pulled out an ammo can out and proceded to hide it. So far this was an easy hike. Nothing like the Army, I could do this all day!
The day pressed on and everyone was enjoying themselves. I at one point got a little carried away and climbed to the top of a small peak thinking it was easier to get a cache, only to find the cache was 10 feet to the west and 100 feet less in altitude…, they signed my name for me. Then shortly later everyone was having some discussion over where to go and stopped a couple of middle-aged ladies to ask them for directions. It wasn’t until they were almost ready to leave that I realized, a group of 8 hardcore GPS users, which are representing the group “Geocachers of the Bay Area” one of the largest regional specific GPS groups in the world, were lost and asking for directions.
After we found our way again, we finished up some parted ways and went home, the rest went to go have “Gay 90′s pizza”. I kid you not. www.gayninetiespizza.com. Shared some stories and brought our day to a close. Hiked a total of 6.98 miles (11.23 km) and gained 1,305 feet (397 meters) in elevation change at the East Bay Regional Park Distribution in Sunol, CA.
After finally getting home, I laid down and instantly felt my mussles let out a feeling of relief. I was sore and tired and didn’t even know it until that point. The instant relief from laying down sent a slight burning feeling throughout my entire body and I had forgotten how it felt. I loved it! It has been too long since I have done a workout like that. It didn’t last long though…
As soon as I was getting comfortable and unplugging the laptop so I could lay down, my wife called. She was grocery shopping with her mother and the car wouldn’t start. Claiming it was the battery I grabbed some jumper cables from my roommate and drove to Safeway. I tried to start the car and it was the weirdest things I have ever seen.
The battery wasn’t dead, headlights were bright like normal, everything worked, but when I engaged the starter I peared out the door and looked for some bright lights in the sky as it gave me the impression that a UFO was flying overhead and I was about to be abducted. I never seen anything like it, the started clicked like a dead battery but the guages flashed rappidly primarily the needles on the speedometer and tachometer. Not knowing what else to do, I attempted to use the jumper cables, nothing changed though and I quickly gave up for fear of some possible electric issue in my Mother-in-law’s car damaging my own car.
My Mother-in-law has a brand new Toyota Camry that she bought only 6 months or so ago. The car is obviously still under warrenty but being 7pm on a Sunday night there wasn’t much we could do to enact on that warrenty. I tried calling some roadside assistance to see if they could help, but the 800 number I got from my insurance company is no longer active… ??? (USAA, now I have to see if they went bankrupt and if I have insurance). Every direction I turned either said sorry or pay money. We gave up and I instantly became their chauffer for the night. No problem, I can drive them home…, um NO!
I had to drive them to Kinko’s so that they can wait for a fax, then make copies of some documents online, then mail them all to Korea. They are doing this on a Sunday night, because its Monday morning in Korea and they are on the phone with them trying to get everything arranged. It’s ok they keep telling me, Kinko’s is 24 hours…, I don’t think they understand what I meant by hiking!
Once they were done, it was nearly 10 and I was beat! Mom decided to thank me by taking me to Nation’s for hamburgers. I wasn’t hungry but my wife gave me a dirty look telling me to accept, she was hungry and otherwise wouldn’t of gone to Nation’s. (I am also know understanding they are considering buying one of these stores and want my opinion on how they are. Great food, but open to 3am will draw a crowd they don’t want to deal with).
Around 11:30, I am finally getting home and able to rest. This little nitch inside me is telling me that I must check twitter, but 5 minutes and I am happy enough to call it a day and pass out. 4am until 12pm, I haven’t had a day that long in a while. It’s not even noon yet today and my eyes are burning already, the worse part…, my latest class doesn’t get over until 10pm!
Here are the pictures I took in Sunol yesterday. While mine are geo-tagged (you can look at the map and see where they were taken) they were also taken with a cheap camera compared to the other cameras that were out there.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/adium/sets/72157609252051941/
Friends pics, if you can’t make it out I am the one wearing a red t-shirt.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jeffreypierce/Sunol2008_11_16#
http://flickr.com/photos/53807584@N00/sets/72157609255635069/
http://calipidder.com/zenphoto/bayarea/Sunol08/
Thanks to everyone for the amazing hike. I hope to do it again soon!
