Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Conference and caching: Ventura, California

On the way to Ventura
It's been a couple months since my last post. Work has been super busy and I have been preparing for two talks I had to give in Copenhagen. Yes, there was some good geocaching there, but first was a trip to Ventura, California for the Gordon Research Conference on the Chemistry and Biology of Peptides.  Great conference, but
Artwork near the Ventura Rocks cache
after sitting around in a conference room for two days, I needed to get out. I have cached in Ventura before, in fact, some of my favorite caches are there. One area that had been on my to-do list was Grant Park. The first stop was a cache called Ventura Rocks (link), a cache by MaxGold with a 4.5 star terrain rating. Reading the description and past logs made it sound like a doable 4.5 stars, so I decided to check it out on the way to the park. GZ brought me to a nice neighborhood adjacent to a deep canyon. there was a convenient trailhead right next to parking so I followed the arrow down the steep trail to the bottom, then up a pile of rocks. With good hiking boots (I brought my trusty Ahnus!), it wasn't too bad, although maneuvering around the rock pile was tricky at times.

View from the top of Grant Park
The next stop was the top of the hill in Grant Park. I had planned to use the trailhead here as a starting point for my hike across the ridge, but the trail was closed at the gun range, so I had to backtrack. The view from up here was well worth it, even with the hazy conditions. There were a number of interesting characters in the parking lot at the top. A few urban campers were hanging around, as well as some obvious tourists in small campers. There were also a couple of cars blaring some kind of club music. I swear the bass was so loud it was interfering with my GPS! A construction worker was eating a late lunch in his truck, and a 40-something guy wearing dark shades looked like he was plotting a way to kill us all.

Yes, I'm going to hike to the top of this ridge!
Steeper than it looks...
 I was able to find an alternative trailhead the the ridge on the map and drove there. I parked in a slightly sketch neighborhood that was filled with the smells of spicy beef and marijuana. I followed the trail parallel to the ridgeline and looked for a way up. The place was peppered with signs banning any kind of activity (off-roading, hiking, dogs, etc) but also had signs marking the trail. It was a confusing maze over the flats until I finally found the trail heading up. The ascent was very steep. According to my GPSr, it was a little over 1000' of elevation change in just under 1.5 miles. Once on top of the ridge, the caches were fun to find and the views were phenomenal! The sun was on its way into the sea, and it lit up the ocean like it was filled with gold. I stopped at My Kind of Trail: Bushed Yet? by InsideVC (link) to enjoy the view. It was cache number 1600 for me and I had brought a couple of beverages along to celebrate this minor milestone. It turned out to be a truly relaxing moment, decompressing from the hike up to the cache and soaking in the gorgeous view. I grabbed about ten caches from the trailhead up to the fence that ended the ridge trail, most with (well-deserved) 3.5 terrain stars.
Late afternoon in Ventura

The Last Internationale at Hemingway's in Hollywood
After the hike, I rested for a bit, grabbed some dinner and went to the evening session of talks. I was pretty tired, but I had one more activity planned. I had managed to get on the guest list for a very small show at Hemingway's in Hollywood. The Last Internationale was tuning up for a tour with Weezer and put on a great show. After the long hike and the long drive back to Hollywood, I was pretty wiped, but it was a great day of science, geocaching, and rock-n-roll!