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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Ocotillo Wells SVRA

http://www.planocotillowells.org/

URGENT– This is the most important post of the year! SHARE with everyone! Do you love recreating in your desert? Do you have an interest in how Ocotillo Wells SVRA is managed in the future? Then GET INVOLVED! The General Plan process can be confusing, but you can get your questions answered at these open houses, and more importantly you can leave YOUR feedback! You, the visitor of Ocotillo Wells SVRA have valuable input, but without you, YOUR voice will not be heard. Do you want someone else to make decisions about your desert park without your input? http://www.planocotillowells.org/

Sean’s New Jeep!

Had a great time today out exploring the mountains of Northern California.  Sean came up to take delivery of his new Jeep and we just had to go off roading and get some dirt on it.  He picked a 4 door Rubicon in the Baja Yellow with all kinds of options on it. The destination was Harrison Gulch Ranger Station up on Knob Peak – see the link for the posted Geocache we placed.

GC5PGXW Harrison Gulch Ranger Station at Knob Hill (Traditional Cache) in California, United States created by Cali~Bear.

Cali~Bear up on the Lookout

Sean’s New Jeepy

Do you know your Scientists?

If your asking me, I do not… 😉
but there is a Geocacher or two in our area that has the lowdown, or should I say the rundown on the Scientists and he recently published a series of caches with names as titles and gave a brief description of each one. I enjoy when a cacher puts this much time and effort into a cache or a series of caches. I usually pickup a piece of knowledge that I might not have known, or as in this case I added a few names of scientists that I never knew about. I spent yesterday with my Geocaching buddy Cantseem on the hunt for the Scientist Series.

We had rain clouds all around us, not a drop on us, that is until we finished the last cache, jumped in the GeoMobile and started heading home 😉

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The highlight of the day was when we found our way into another Lookout Tower Cache, one of my favorite type of caches to do! The views are always amazing and this one didn’t disappoint:

GC1X37W *Almost On Top* by Olcowboy-N-Eyesofice2Us.

What does Stephen King, The Superbowl, The College Bowl & The Academy Awards have in common?

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If your a Geocacher, then it’s a Power Trail!!  East of Sacramento are more than 3 Power Trails that have 160 caches combined.  Easy? hmmm no…. these are Mystery Caches, all 160 of them.  You have to solve the puzzle, or answer the questions to be able to get the coordinates to these caches.  It usually involves hours of research online to get the answers to solve the puzzle.  The Cache Owners did an incredible job of research to put these series together.  All of them are quality caches and it’s very rewarding to say that you have 160 Mystery Caches solved and logged!!  So sit back and pull up a Puzzle cache or two, after you have solved it enjoy the journey to the cache, log it and look for the next one, or in this case the next Series.

We started out at 3:00 am from Redding, CA heading toward the first Mystery cache on the SKH Series. Arrived at 6:30, Uh-Oh…. whats this?  No road?  No problem we have a Jeep!!!  Headed through the construction zone towards the first cache, got it!!!  All was ok until we me up with a Cement Barrier…. again, so glad we have the Jeep!!  We squeezed through the barrier and a telephone pole and now we find the road!!  Wouldn’t recommend driving on the first part, a bike or a walk might be a better way, well unless you have a small vehicle that you can take off roading!

First cache on the SKH Series: GC3B3DA SKH – Desperation by Voodoo Crew

When we started the College Bowl run there was another barrier, it seems there is a lot of dumping going on in the area, very sad to see.  Saw some Bald Eagles in the area and a couple of Hawks too! It was really a pretty area if you can look past the trash dump.  This place needs a CITO, and I would love to join in on cleaning it up.

First cache on the College Bowl: GC39HC3 The Rose Bowl by Voodoo Crew

We moved along at a fairly good pace, about 2  a minute average, then moved along to the Superbowl series. I grabbed my 6000th caches on the Superbowl Series, pretty cool.  It was great weather and wasn’t too hot, we started early enough that we didn’t hit the heat until about 3 pm when we were on the last part of the Academy Awards Series.

First Cache in the Superbowl Series: GC3A1WB Super Bowl XI (Raiders vs. Vikings) Voodoo Crew

First Cache in the Academy Award Series: GC3C770 The 1st Annual Academy Awards (1929) by Voodoo Crew

A big thank you to the Cache Owners!!  All the caches were in good shape, and there was parking available if you came in from the right direction, nothing to dangerous.  Your on a road, and traffic goes fast so you need to be careful, but hey we are used to that since Power Caches became popular. We found all but about 2 of the Geocaches on all of the combined Series.

After finishing the Mystery Cache Power Trails we headed over and did the Family Guy letterboxes and a Virtual.

Letterbox cache: GC3ABC2 Cleveland Brown – Family Guy (Letterbox Hybrid) by Voodoo Crew

Not a bad day – My accomplishments for the day:  178 caches total for the  day, 4 cache types: Virtual, Traditional, Mystery and Letterbox, and I  found my 6000th cache!!  Calling it a day and turning off the GPS‘r … oh wait… isn’t that a cache close by…. maybe one more???

BIG BEAR at Firestone GC78

GC78 Firestone by Scott Hinds

BIG BEAR’s birthday wish was to do this cache, it was published 10/02/2000 called Firestone.  It is located near Bodega Bay, North of San Francisco. So after biking the Golden Gate park earlier in the day, we jumped in the Jeep and headed north up Hwy 1 to the cache location.  The road into the cache was winding but it was a beautiful drive.

This was rated a 1/1 but we parked at the closest point and walked over, looked down and thought no way this is a 1 terrain.  We did see a trail though and later found out if you parked at the Trail Head (which we passed on the way up to the cache) that you could have an easy hike into this cache that was a terrain of 1.    Since we were at the closest point we through caution to the wind and started our way down to the cache, our terrain was about a 4.  It was very steep, but the views were extraordinary… it was beautiful.  There was no fog and we got there just about Sunset to witness one of the prettiest views of the ocean.

Sunset at Firestone

the view from Firestone

the view from Firestone

Watching the Sunset from Bodega Bay

going through the tunnel

Sunset

BIG BEAR and Tru2Cntry at Firestone

Heading up to Bodega Bay – the tunnel

BIG BEAR on his way to Firestone

BIG BEAR and Tru2Cntry watching the Sunset from Bodega Bay

There aren’t too many of these old caches left and this one filled in a spot, or rather a date on our “Finds by Placed Month” calendar.  The caches with the older years for 2000 and 2001 are few and far between.  They were published when Geocaching was just beginning and now are very sought after caches.  On Firestone at the time there are only 260 finds for the cache.  For being published 11 years ago you would think there would be a lot more finds.  I hope this cache stays active, the owner has stated on his cache page that he has moved and it is difficult for him to maintain it, the Geocaching family is pretty good however at helping to maintain caches if they know that the owner can’t do it himself.  Trying to fill in the Jasmer Challenge Calendar: GC1GBC1 The Jasmer Challenge (Northern California Edition) by jasmerb

This cache for me will be remembered for not only the numbers it fills in for me but the memory of one of the most beautiful spots I have ever been to, and we ended the day by watching the sun go down. Perfect ending to a perfect caching day and it was a great way to honor my best friend’s birthday!

Happy Birthday BIG BEAR!

BIG BEAR’s Birthday Caching Weekend

BIG BEAR and Sean strategizing

It’s BIG BEAR’s Birthday and what does he want to do? You got it, Geocache!  We met up with our good friend Sean Stafford at San Francisco Golden Gate  Park to cache the park on our bikes.  We are off at 9:30 Sunday morning with what looked like a perfect day in front of us.  Starting cache: GC256C6 Crossroads by irwinSports and then heading East staying on the bike trails and walking our bikes in areas where bicycles were not allowed.

BIG BEAR and Sean

The caches are varied for the most part, some were just baggies with logs in not so great shape, and then some were lock n locks that have been replaced or are showing their age.  It seems to be very hard to maintain a cache in the park because of the homeless and just the non stop visitors with children and dogs.  Caches have to be hidden well to not be a target for a muggle.

We found all but  a couple of the caches we set our GPS‘s on, and the different locations were all fun places to visit in the part.  Some of the caches offered up some history, while others were memorials to War Heroes or Aids victims, but all were great fun to track down.  It was a great place to take the bikes and ride to cache and also get to visit one of the most beautifil places in San Francisco.

I had never been to Golden Gate Park and while we rode most of the day, quitting at 2:30 only allowed us to ride and cache half of the park, we still have another half of the park left to see for a future Caching Adventure.   It was a great way to spend the day with BIG BEAR and Sean, caching and biking in a beautiful park to celebrate BIG BEAR’s birthday.

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New Year – New Caching Adventure!

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New Years day typically starts off with getting together with friends and family and watching football,  or just relaxing after a hectic Christmas season.  This year we fired up the Jeeps, called our Geocaching Friends and said the weather is perfect lets go off road and grab some 5 star terrain Geocaches!  5 Star Terrain ususally means you need a high clearance 4 wheel drive vehicle which is why we all have Jeeps!!  What a blast this was, 7 Jeeps, 12 Geocachers: BIG BEAR, Lookout4 and Anna, Teco_mac, Cantseem, Playcache 1&2, JeeperJones 1&2, Crowshoot & Floflower… oh and Tru2Cntry,  2 non Geocachers (hey they have a Jeep, they qualify!) Lets all meet at 12:00 at the OHV4 Staging Area.

Ok, we are all here… let the fun begin!

Playcache

Teco_mac & Cantseem in my Jeep

Don & Liz

Crowshoot & Floflower

Now that we all made it up the gnarley part of the road, lets get to the Geocaches!!

GC2T00Z dakotas wreck site by cheater rick.

GCQEDE Route 4 – Most Difficult by dzdiver

GC2QADG T2C Hits 3000 by BIG BEAR.

GC396G7 WELCOME TO 5000 TRU2CNTRY by BIG BEAR.

GC396G1 HANG GLIDING by BIG BEAR.

The off roading continued up to the Hang Gliding Cache where we all broke out the food and had a picnic, the view from here was incredible and we were blessed with a beautiful day, great weather and the chance to share it with great friends!

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The road back…

Larry’s trying to find another way out…

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Rescuing Snow White

BIG BEAR has a series here locally that is know as his “Snow White Series.”  You have to “rescue” Snow White from the 7 Dwarfs which are 7 caches in the series that contain the pieces of the coordinates that once you put them together in the right sequence get you to the location of cache location called Snow White.  I failed to find Snow White, it seems I was about 200 feet off.  One of the Dwarf caches got muggled and so it is missing its numbers and I guessed, but I guessed wrong and I was losing daylight.

I started at 10:30 am and went until 4:30 and still had to make it back to the Jeep.  The terrain wasn’t hard but you did have to manuver through a couple of canyons and the wind was gusting up to what felt like 40 mph at times, so I didn’t want to be finding my way back in the dark.  It was a nice hike though and my finds for the day totaled 20 Caches for the day, with some really nice views of the snow capped mountains of Mt Shasta, Mt Lassen and the Trinity Alps.

The Caches in the Series (Not in order):

GC1NP3V THE EVIL BIG BEAR.
GC1NP25 CANTSEEM
GC1NKT9 GRAMPS POSSE
GC1NP4Y SNOW WHITE
GC1NKV5 NR. TEACHER
GC1NKW1 Teco Mac
GC1NP2E MR. Dice
GC1NP3F DAIRYVILLE
GC1NP2V SHASTA SAM

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Tru2Cntry doing the Snow White Series

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