Oregon City Covered Bridge

After visiting Phantom Falls today, we turned the Jeeps toward home.  Just down the road maybe .25 of a mile is a sign saying covered bridge!  Who passes up a sign like that?  We sure don’t, so we took a right turn and about .5 down the little country road we came upon this little covered bridge!  Being crazy Jeep people that we are, we parked all 3 Jeeps for a photo op.

I checked to see if there were any Geocaches in the area, to our surprise there were none!

I siezed the opportunity and placed one here, and after doing some research I found out that this is the youngest covered bridge in the state, built 1983.

My Geocache: GC6CBV1 Covered Bridge (Traditional Cache)created by Cali~Bear.

“Oregon City Covered Bridge, built in 1984, can claim it as the newest covered bridge in California. The bridge is near the Oregon City, CA, State Historical Landmark #807.”

Oregon City Covered Bridge, Oroville, CA – Covered Bridges on Waymarking.com.

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Phantom Falls – February 28, 2016

Its all a luck of the draw to be able to visit Phantom Falls. Conditions have to be right, so we decided that this was a good time to try our luck.  Hiked just over 1.5 miles, maybe a little more because we were Geocaching too, and there it was!!  Beautiful, and the wildflowers that were blooming also added to the gorgeous terrain here.  Its a moderate hike through lava rock and a high water table resulting in some muddy areas that almost suck your shoe off, but the day we arrived was just right for a hike down to the Falls.

Link with maps and weather to Phantom Falls: Phantom Falls hike
YouTube link to a great video of the Falls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMeQqPt43f0

There are a total of 5 falls in the area, we saw 3 and picked up 7 Geocaches.

These are a few of the Caches we logged:
GC5P2KF Katy’s cache (Traditional Cache)
GC1BZ9C Table Mountain basalt (Earthcache)
GC5P4Y7 Table Mountain Wildflowers (Multi-cache)

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Off Road Fun in McCloud

Spent Saturday up on the LPPT – translation: Lemurian Playground Power Trail!  A series of Geocaching Power Trails that intertwine all around the McCloud and Mt Shasta area logging roads.  The Link: GC4H8J1 LPPT–Starts Here!

I had some favorite caches that I came across too:

• GC538BG Death of a Phone
• GC5WB4J Mount Shasta Visitor Center GeoCache
• GC5YCZC Signal Going To The LPPT

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Checking for Geocaches on the way home and saw that there might be a chance to grab an FTF (First to Find) so I mapped it on the GPS and headed towards Hedge Creek Falls!!  And YES! I scored the FTF!!

GC5Z0KM Hedge Creek Falls

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Thank You S.R.R.

Had the best time ever last weekend with the Shasta Rock Rollers.  This group knows how to rock and roll!!  We met up on Fenders Ferry while they unloaded their off road vehicles and then we took off up the road from there.  Took the right turn into Madrone campground and it was uphill from there. We stayed on the Curl Ridge Trail all the way up to North Fork Mt and had lunch up on the old North Fork Lookout site.

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After lunch we headed down the Garden Jeep Trail –   Steep and overgrown, these 2 seaters made it look like a walk in the park.

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70+ miles later we were back at the parking lot, what a day, that was pure fun… thank you SRR!

Spring has Sprung and so have the Geocaches!

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  Spring is showing up all over in Northern California, and a new Geocaching Series showed up also!  Off to grab the newest series in our corner of the Caching world.  The series was just above Shasta Lake on one of the arms or rivers that feed Shasta Lake – the McCloud arm.  Known world […]

Going Topless!

https://www.facebook.com/events/895618907148953/

This is what I am looking forward to next!  Our Going Topless Event in May!!  Are you joining us?

Meeting Place: 1104 Stockton Ave. south Lake Tahoe CA 96150

This is a National Event with local Jeep enthusiasts doing their own local events, if you have a Jeep then join us!!

 

FRIDAY AFTERNOON  – Coming from Redding/Corning:

Jan Lowry is leaving Anderson at 1:00 pm – Meet at Bobs Market, there is a gas station with ice and snacks there.  Heading south we can have additional pickup points for those interested in going Friday.  Let me know

SATURDAY MORNING  – Coming from Sacramento:

Here is some info for those that are going to be convoying up on the 16th. Everyone will be meeting up with Alan Whitehead at the Sportsman’s Warehouse at 2344 Sunrise Blvd. Rancho Cordova, CA 95670, there is a Denny’s, McDonald’s, Carls Jr., and Scottys Coffee for those of you who want to breakfast. For gas, there is a Shell, a Chevron, and a AM/PM. With a possible stop at Fresh Pond, we will be leaving The Sportsman’s Warehouse at 6:30am, if no stop at Fresh Pond, then we will leave at 7:00 am. There is Raley’s at the “Y” in Tahoe for gas and last minute forgotten items, or a 7/11 near Bob and Beckie’s house

Black Butte-y is #10,000!

So honored that my best friends and fellow geocachers SeanStafford&GCWidow invited me along  to capture their 10,000 cache!!  Sean wanted to hike the Black Butte, with this Geocache as his goal: 

GCJJGZ Black Butte-y (Traditional Cache) in California by MtnMike

I am posting the honoree pictures first, as this was our goal for the hike.  Sean and Melissa’s #10,000 Geocache!  I was honored to be present!!  Scroll down for pictures of the beautiful hike to this goal.

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Today is the day!  We set our GPS‘s towards Black Butte and head out.  The weather looks great, we have water, snacks and Sean is hard to hold back at this point.  Sean and Melissa had attempted this geocache on a previous trip up Black Butte, however they encountered some muggles (non-geocachers) on the path down to the cache.  For whatever reason they would not move, not having much room to maneuver up there, and not having another way to the cache they had to abandon the goal.  This was not going to happen today, Sean was going to get his cache, and nothing was going to stop him!!  We parked at the trailhead, which was also a challenge to Sean and Melissa on their first attempt.  They never found the road into the trailhead, so they ended up hiking another mile just to get to the trail head.  This day is already off to a great start!!

To the top of Black Butte!

Here we go… change the shoes, grab the water and we are off.  Melissa is in the lead, she was soon out of sight!  Sean and I are stopping to take pictures and making sure we are well hydrated.  The views are immediately gratifying.  Its a gradual hike up, the elevation gain is 1850 ft.

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For more information here on the trail: http://mountshastatrailassociation.org/trails/west-of-mt-shasta/black-butte/)

Picturesque Muir’s Peak (Black Butte, 6500 ft.), northern California, U. S. A., by H.C. White Co. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sunset over Black Butte (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Black Butte, California. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Second Time’s a Charm

GC1G1VQ Second Time’s a Charm by Desert(B)Rats

4/23/12 5:46 PM Find #5495
Let me just say first that I will never forget tonight!

We came last year in March and couldn’t get to the cache because the waterfall was raging and the water was really high, it wasn’t safe to cross over.  Tonight BIG BEAR says remember my cache: BIG BEAR AND A DICE CHECK that we didn’t have the coords to last year? If you have the coords we can go get it tonight, and it is right down the road from Second Time’s a Charm.  I thought we were on our way up to go visit Rat &Mushroom for their Anniversary and to see their new kitchen. I found the coords to BIG BEAR’s cache and we set our Nuvi on it.  After grabbing BIG BEAR AND A DICE CHECK cache and jumping back into the Jeep,  BIG BEAR starts heading up the road to Second Time’s a Charm.  I had no idea that we were going to go to the waterfall tonight, but I was all for it, I had always wanted to come back and be able to get the cache this and the second attempt was perfect.

We have all the coords, waypoints, parking coords, turn waypoints  in the GPS‘r and we start heading towards the fall, this cache has it all: PO, Ticks, Ants, Bushwacking, and no GPS signals,  but we hear the falls and we are getting closer, so we must be going in the right direction.
BIG BEAR yells “I see the falls!”  And as I come down off the trail (?)  I see them too!  They are flowing almost as much as last year!! LOL. Not to sure I want to cross the raging river but BIG BEAR encourages me all the way, I really didn’t want to bridge the gap from the rock to the log, I have much shorter legs than BIG BEAR, but he helped me make it on to the log and we got across to the side where the cache is. I left the iPhone, the Garmin Nuvi and the GPSr on the other side though so they wouldn’t fall into the water!  So with no coords, no GPSr, no hint BIG BEAR heads toward the cache, good thing BIG BEAR has a good memory he went right up the cliff to the cache!! WHOO HOO!! I stamp the log and get a Smiley this time!!

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Now the adventure begins!!

We start back down the way we came, hanging on the rocks, there is not much ground over there because the waterfall had cut the ground away. I was watching where I stepped very carefully but I made a wrong step and the  ground that I thought was there gave out from under me and down I went, I almost recovered and thought I could catch myself but nope down I went, I hit the pointy part of a big rock on the way down with my rib cage and went in face first. Soaked from head to toe, BIG BEAR comes back and reaches down to pick me up. Got up and out of the water, I have a big scratch on my side, I am sore, but ok. We had back very carefully, now that I am wet everything is slippery!

LOL, got back across ok with no further mishaps and climbed up to the rock where I left my iPhone, Nuvi and the GPSr and start collecting them. This is the same rock a year ago that we shared our first kiss!! I look down and BIG BEAR is not coming up, I asked him if he was going to join me up on the rock he says “No I am safer down here and he starts to pull a box out of his pocket!!!” By now he is on one knee and he says “Will you Marry Me?” I say “Oh Wow! YES!!
We are both shaking, me from the cold, him from nerves, he took out the ring and it took both of us to put it on my finger!!  This is a very very special place for BIG BEAR and Tru2Cntry, I look forward to spending the rest of my life with my best friend,  thank you for bringing us here… we will be back! What a night, what a place and what an adventure, that’s why we love to Geocache…

We headed back to the Jeep and on up to Rat & Mushroom’s to dry my clothes and share our good news!!  They had no idea when they opened the door and welcomed us in that they would have to supply me with some clothes and dry my soaking wet ones, but welcome us they did.  We shared our adventure with them over a nice cup of hot coffee and a piece of pie in their beautiful new kitchen.  They have some great dating and engagement stories too!, and they just celebrated their anniversary, fun night with good friends

This gets a Favorite Point for me, and yes Second Time’s a Charm, and has been a sort of theme to our day to day adventures too!
Love from BIG BEAR & Tru2Cntry

San Francisco Virtuals, Webcams & Earthcaches

BIG BEAR & T2C at The Golden Gate Bridge

Nov 27, 2011 – We had a blast on our continued hunt for all the Virtuals in San Francisco. Starting out on Thanksgiving Day on the East Side of San Francisco and continuing our hunt today

IGOR – GCDE – A very old Cache!

GCDE Igor

Nov 27, 2011 – BIG BEAR and I got up early this morning to make our way to this cache site… its got a very old GC#. This cache fills a spot in our “found for that year and date chart” that we both needed, and that’s why we seek these older caches out.

The terrain/difficulty rating was a 1/1.5… but that was the hardest 1.5 terrain I have ever done,