DECEMBER 30, 2012 – “Uneventfully Short Series,” Victorville

OK, so I had a miraculous recovery from knee surgery. The surgeon said that after 4 days of rest, I would “be gimpy for 4 to 6 weeks.” But I walked very carefully the next day and drove and did errands on day 2. On day 5 my limp was completely gone. I never needed crutches, a cane or painkillers.

Today’s day 11 and I went on a mini cache run to Victorville. My goal was to find 26 caches to reach 1,200 for the year. Heading N on the 15, I exited at Stoddard Wells Road…and saw that I was still 3 miles from the first cache. I got back on the freeway & drove to another exit for Stoddard Wells Road. There are two exits with the same name on the same freeway in the same direction, 3 miles apart.

The 2nd exit was only a few hundred feet from Turn Here for an Uneventful Series (GC3J524). Immediately I was confused again, this time by the 2 signs at the beginning of a dirt road to the 13 cache “Uneventful Series.” Plainly, the local authorities know about geocaching, but the other sign read, “No Off Road Vehicles.” I stayed on the paved road as it veered away from the caches.

I tried to reach the N end of the series but was blocked by a “Private Property, No Trespassing” sign at Quarry Road. (see map at bottom) So I drove around finding random caches E of Stoddard Wells Road. There were 2 easy caches down the street from this abandoned house.

Back on Stoddard Wells, I finally found an unmarked dirt road pointed directly at Uneventful Cache #8. (see the red X on the map)

Then I saw a reassuring sign that it was OK to drive through.

A side trail led to #12 & #13 so I found those first and then worked S to #1 and several non series caches. At #1, I was shocked to see my purple stamped smiley on a log showing through the transparent 35mm cache. SOMEBODY brought the container from another series. From the freshness of my log stamping I suspect that it was from the RV series about 20 miles NW. Someone also spelled “Pox” with large white rocks. Is it an archaic curse? Is it significant that I saw a 3 eared hare running nearby?

After a few non-series caches at the S end of cache #1 I emerged from behind the “No Off Road Vehicles” sign back onto Stoddard Wells Road. Then it was a 2 minute drive to the top of the “Smiley” geoart series. (see the map again) I stayed on well used 4 wheel vehicle (as opposed to motorcycle) trails and reached a few caches but not the face outline circle.

Only a few caches short of 26, I parked and hiked to the mouth where I found #26 for the day and 1,200 for the year. The hike was COMPLETELY flat. The temperature was in the low 40’s. Much like a walrus, I’m well insulated against the cold so I probably could’ve hiked for all 25 caches. But with my year end caching goal completed I chose to go home.

Here are today’s 30 finds. A big percentage were camo’d plastic rx-like bottles big enough to hold a month’s supply of horse pills. And speaking of horses, crap!! I have to go downstairs to get that geocoin that I grabbed, out of my car.

Thanks to bigdaddygrc for the “Uneventful” series and I think for some/most of the “Smiley” too. And HAPPY NEW YEAR geofriends!!