DECEMBER 22, 2008 – downtown Los Angeles

Saturday afternoon was spent finding 11 caches in the west SFV. I want to compliment new cachers albackore and jayjen5 for their well made and very thoughtfully placed hides. It was a pleasure looking for and finding them.

12/18/08: The Santa Susana mountains as seen from Warner Center.

Sunday afternoon I found GeoCraig’s new series of 10 ultra urban “Filling in the Gaps” hides in downtown Los Angeles. Even on Sunday, traffic and parking were horrendous. Getting to all of the caches took 3-½ tough hours. I ended up parking 5x, up to a ½ mile away and then hiked among the skyscrapers. As others have suggested, maybe gopher caching on the Red Line (subway) would’ve been easier.

First up was Fort Moore Returns (GC1JVKJ). There was another cache here earlier this year but I was thwarted 3x by different urban outdoorsmen camped out behind the monument. The 4th time the requisite guy was sleeping so I snuck by but still didn’t find the cache. Today, as I expected, there was a homeless man encamped at GZ.

But GeoCraig hid the cache so that it was impossible for THIS urban outdoorsman to see me searching for it. I don’t think he even knew that I was there.

A little later, while searching for Central HS #9 (GC1JVKC) a security guard across the street pointed at me and made a cell phone call, presumably to summon the LAPD. So I left, but not before finding a very nice Motorola UHF walkie talkie in the dirt. I’ll make an effort to locate its owner. Anyway, I went back 3 hours later and found the cache. After I put it back the guard came out of his trailer, saw me again, and immediately made another call. So cachers beware!

I was amused by the juxtaposition of the secular and sacred; the massive & distinctive public high school directly across the 101 freeway from the equally massive and distinctive cathedral.

Further into the city at the Bradbury Building (GC1JVQW) cache I saw 2 figures in archaic clothes emerge and melt into the shadows. I’ve brightened the contrast on the right 2/3 of the picture to show them clearly. As a sci-fi dweeb I immediately recognized these men as time travelers. They’re dressed for the Great Depression (1929) but someone on the other end erroneously set the controls for the beginning of the OTHER depression. Note the confused look as the shorter one tries to verify time and place.

I turned away for a few seconds and when I looked back the travelers were gone. What could I do? Look for the next cache, of course!!

The MOCA (GC1JVQP) cache was within steps of this metallic monster.

It seems to be assembled from wrecked airplane parts.

Across the street…

An EMC cache, “Walt Disney Concert Hall 2.0” is over there!! Go up the stairs in the middle of the picture.

Another sight from almost the same spot.

Los Angeles City Hall. Yes, there are caches there too.

I walked back to my car and then drove to the last 3 caches of the series. (& HS #9)

I saw these bears after finding the last cache. No, I’m not in the van.

Thanks GeoCraig for putting together a very challenging series. I left exhausted but happy with 10 more smileys.