Okay, in the spirit of doing something different and new I decided to combine a ride with a little geocaching.  What's geocaching?  Briefly, it's a game or activity in which objects (caches) are hidden at secret locations for participants to find using GPS coordinates posted on the Internet (for more info, please go to http://www.geocaching.com).  For this ride I picked out a few geocaches that seemed like they would be fun to find along an entertaining route...

So, we met at the Starbucks in Calabasas -- anticipating it would be an easy location to gather everyone, and there is a geocache within easy walking distance of the venue.  What I didn't anticipate was how busy this location would be, oh well!  We met up and took a table next to Howie Mandel and his friends (odd) and went over the plan for the day.  In addition to Kellie and myself (on our ST1300), we had Keith Lazz (Goldwing), Steve Broughton (Harley FXRS-SP), Gary Ward (FJR1300), and Gilles Guezille and Kathy Carlson (on their BMW K1200LT).  I briefly explained geocaching to everyone, showed them some printed sheets of locations and descriptions, provided route sheets to those who wanted them, then grabbed the nearby cache (GC1DRDA) to show what a typical cache is like, sign the log sheet, and generally give everyone a taste of what we'd be up.  After discreetly returning the cache to it's hiding spot, we set off to our first location.

Our first stop was the intersection of Old Topanga Canyon Road and Mulholland Highway.  It was just a short ride down Mulholland Drive and Old Topanga to the "Wild Walnuts" cache (GC15K11) in the Wild Walnut Park.  Parking was a bit dicey as several inches of freshly chipped vegetation had been strewn over the dirt parking area, but we all managed to find a safe spot to climb off before hiking a few hundred feet to the cache.  Using my trusty old Garmin GPS V we found the cache (a "decon" container) pretty quickly, signed the log sheet, and noted the various odd trinkets previous visitors had left in the container.  Promising everyone that they wouldn't have to hike to any more caches (all the rest are considered "park-n-grab's" as they are right in the parking areas), we headed off to our next destination.

Leaving Wild Walnut Park we stayed on Mulholland Highway (nice sweeping curves) all the way to Las Virgenes Road where we headed south for a few miles to Piuma road.  About 3.5 miles up Piuma (great, twisty road) we stopped at an overlook with an expansive view over Malibu, the ocean, and our next stop -- a cache down in Malibu Canyon.  The cache here (Piuma Overlook, GC1DW0C) was a camouflaged pill bottle stuck in an out-of-the-way crevice right off the parking area. No problem finding and signing the log.  After a few pictures we headed off the long way to Malibu Canyon following Piuma to Las Flores Canyon Road (another great twisty downhill stretch of road) to the Pacific Coast Highway.  PCH is scenic but too wide and straight so it was nice to quickly get on Malibu Canyon Road heading up to our next stop -- another pullout with a great view down into the canyon (GC18MVE).  We grabbed the cache, signed the sheet, avoided a swarm of bees, took another few pictures, and headed off to lunch.

Lunch was at Neptune's Net, a "biker" spot up PCH, so we backtracked on Malibu Canyon briefly before rolling up the coast all the way to Neptune's.  The restaurant was crowded, but we all managed to find food and tables, so no worries.  Leaving Neptune's we headed up a road that I've never been up before, Yerba Buena.  This is a marvelous, narrow, twisty road with plenty of traction (perhaps too rough) and incredible views back to the coast as we quickly gained elevation.  Yerba Buena eventually hit Mulholland Highway again, so we simply followed Mulholland back to the Rock Store where we "officially" ended the ride with everyone choosing a different way home as they saw fit.  There were plenty of bikes to ogle, but no Jay Leno.  Oh well!.

Great ride, fantastic weather once again (before the rain returned), fun people, and nobody went down or got hurt. We found all four of the caches we planned to stop for (we didn't bother hunting for the one at the Rock Store) and enjoyed some roads that we either haven't been on in years, or had never experienced before.  Thanks to everyone who showed up and we'll look forward to the next ride!