Posts from — July 2010

The Long Description:

Enjoy this nano cache along The Panoramic Hill

By foot:

If you ascend from the Berkeley Main Campus/Football Stadium, expect a fun climb up a set of 300+ stairs that take you to the top of Berkeley & Oakland.  If approaching from the South – Clark Kerr Campus, here’s to your glorious ascent up the grassy and poorly footed trail.  (there’s also a very nice tail that starts on Centennial Drive just past the Hass Club House.

By bicycle:

It’s rigorous, but well worth the work out.

By car:

Good luck and be safe.  15 mph, one lane roads, unfriendly drivers, and difficult parking.

No matter what, this is one great spot for photographs and sunsets, and of course, geocaching.

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The Hints & Spoilers:

Cache #1

Hint 1: The downhill side

Hint 2: n/a

Cache #2

Hint 1: #110140199 Panoramic

Hint 2: N 37° 52.161 W 122° 14.676

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The Nappa to Calistoga ride route as noted by my Garmin GPS: Note the location of our turn around is at a delicious restaurant in Calistoga called Sarafornia.  It’s on the main drag and hard to miss.  They’ll serve you a great deal of water for filling your bottles to get back on the road along with your bicuts and gravy.

2010-07-18 Nappa Ride

I was directed to read about the Fourth of July, America’s Independence Day on Wikipedia, and thusly, Kira and I got in the car on the 2nd in order to properly celebrate our Nation’s independence day in full. July two, three, and four.

Leaving at 1 PM on Friday, our plan was fool-proof enough and I walked with arrogance all morning.  However, when 1 PM came and I was leaving Kira’s office, with the car packed, and she with sack lunches in hand, we drove a quarter mile to find the highway stopped at Gilman.  Three hours later we had moved less than 30 miles and our lunches were gone and so was our pride.

With about 40 minutes of 60 mph+ driving under our belts by Sacramento it was no surprise that our car would not put up with the abuse of a hot day and heavy traffic.  By the time we climbed Donner Summit, AC blindly on, and driving smoothly and out of traffic, the radiator flared up and we were again in a limited mode of transport.  A rest stop, some cans of water, and a shotty job of repair later, we limped into Truckee and briefly looked for a hardware store.  Seeing nothing we decided to move along, make camp, and try to forget all about the seven and a half our drive we’d just completed.

Pulling off the 80 E, we headed North on the 89 for about five minutes before we pulled off and dropped in onto Prosser Creek Reservoir where we were greeted by friends.  Kira’s folks had driven all the way out from Colorado to visit, and they were excited to see us and pleased to not have to drive the extra three and a half hours to the Bay Area.  This set of circumstances helped us to forget about our wasted afternoon, we too were soon cheerful.

I spent the remainder of the afternoon trying to get my fly on the water while Kira spent time catching up with her mom and Christopher manned the camping equipment.  After dinner and some star gazing we hit the sac.

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Woke up the next morning – lounged. Hiked. Dined.

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Not a bad weekend.