Geocache 14

Cerro Negro
N 34° 11.296 W 118° 12.517

After finishing Cache 13 we drove toward the hills and toward
the Cerro Negro geocache. I had eyed this cache for a while and finally decided to
attempt it with Zoe. I doubted Mira could have walked this one.

Once we got close, I knew this would be a tougher one.

You can see where we had to get. It's an old Air Raid siren outpost.
I wasn't sure how to get close.

I didn't follow instructions and approached the site from the south near
the Glendale Sports Complex. I headed up an access road
ignoring the 'Authorized Personnel' sign. This was a mistake I would later regret.

The road took us a great way up the hill. We parked just before
the Glendale Police Shooting Range and there were signs for the trail there.
We followed the signs that called out the Cerro Negro trail.

Here is Zoe in her pink cowboy hat. Style is important!
You can see the car parked in the background.

The GPS said we were within a quarter mile, but the trail was about a
half mile with significant elevation gain.

After a few rest breaks we made it to the cache.

Zoe with the cache. Very stylish!

We placed the Puzzle - Bilateral Travel Bug into the cache.

We left a bag of band-aids, two AAA batteries, and a keychain/bottle opener.
We took the bar of soap and the Dot doll.

Compare this picture to the earlier one above.
We had come quite a distance.

On our way out we got to the bottom of the road and found that someone
had locked the gate and we were TRAPPED! The gate was securely padlocked
and there was no way I was getting the car out on my own.

I drove back up the hill to see if there was another way out, but there
isn't. We headed back down again and decided to get some help.

After hopping over the fence, I read the signs a bit more closely.
It seems they really don't want people up these roads.

I had to call the Park Rangers and they let us out.
I felt quite stupid, but the ranger didn't think it was a big deal.

Next time, I'm reading the signs.