Chesbro Reservoir

On Sunday, we went out to visit a cache in a very interesting location : Chesbro Reservoir, tucked in the hills west of Morgan Hill, South of Almaden.
The reservoir is almost dry and this caused an almost forgotten bridge to appear...
In 1937, 18 years before the Chesbro Dam was constructed, a small concrete bridge was built over the Llagas Creek. The dam caused the waters to submerge the bridge and gave birth to what is now known as Chesbro Reservoir.
This is a perfect time to come and discover this hidden bridge. In a few weeks, the bridge will be under troubled waters. Of course, there had to be a cache on this bridge :-)
And it is also a good time to check out tarantulas since it's the beginning of the mating season (and it's close to Halloween). We spotted two.

More pictures here

Atlas of Big Sur...

The highlight of the weekend was the hike to Atlas, another Big Sur cache by Touchstone. The meeting point was at the trail head, at 7:30 am.
Big Sur is a 2 hours drive from San Jose and to avoid waking up very early, Vero, the girls and I decided to spend the night in one of the local campgrounds. Camping along the river is very relaxing. It's a nice way of getting away for the weekend.
The hike was about 7 miles round trip, with about 3000 feet of elevation gain. Quite strenuous but not as much as the past three ones.
The weather was very cooperative. It was sunny but not too warm, partly due to the early start, partly due to a gentle breeze coming from the ocean.
Of the three Touchstone caches that I have found on the Big Sur ridges, this one was the easiest.
The trail was steep at places but the steep sections were not too long so we could easily catch our breath without having to stop too often. Also, the number of switchbacks is very reasonable (unlike the hike to Transcendental Elevation).
Near the cache, we spent some time at the "Atlas" rock. Initially, I could not figure how to see Atlas in this rock. But looking at my pictures now, I think I see an arm.
Poor Hotshoe got stung by a wasp near this rock. I have no idea who started it, her, or the wasp, but Hotshoe sure was upset. No serious reaction from Hotshoe other than a few bad words.
There was a picnic table AND a barbecue near the top (Timbertop). This is where we enjoyed a nice rest, Touchstone's cookies, and our a bug nets as the bugs were starting to bother some of us.
Note to self: Lift the net before eating or drinking.
The climb down was very quick. Even though we took our time, I think it took only 1.5 hours.
Another well spent day out :-)
Pictures are here...

Mount Tallac

This weekend, we joined a couple of friends for a camping trip in Lake Tahoe. The highlight of the stay was for me the assault on Mount Tallac. Not many caches there but climbing Mount Tallac and "grabbing" Kolly Wobbels #24 Mount Tallac (or at least its part II) seemed like a nice goal. There was also a virtual on the trail, marking the entrance of Desolation Wilderness.
The climb was pretty challenging for me but was totally worth it. The views from the summit are breathtaking. And I really like this kind of high altitude (nearly 3000 meters at the summit) hike were you start in the forest and end up in just rocks.
The hike was more than 9 miles long with about 3200 feet of elevation gain. A very healthy exercise!

From Skyline to the Sea

I embarked on a very cool adventure with a group from the GBA : an overnight hike starting at Saratoga Gap on Hwy 35 (Skyline Boulevard) and ending up at Waddell Beach, 30+ miles further down and going through Big Basin where we would spend the night.
This was my first backpacking experience and I had a blast.
It seems to be all downhill but we actually climbed more than 1700 feet total.
The first day was the mot challenging one, with most of the uphill and a very long downhill to Big Basin HQ on some exposed trails and hot sandstone formations. Only 2 caches found since I already found most of the caches along the trail months ago.
The camping part was very enjoyable. I learned a lot from the "pros" there.
The second day was a nice stroll in beautiful redwood groves, past Berry Creek Falls, and along Waddell Creek. It ended up in the marsh near the Ocean. We all grabbed the dozen or so caches along the way, including the "Big Basin to the Sea" challenge cache from 50sumtin who was hiking with us the second day (he actually initiated this section of the hike before it turned to a backpacking trip for some of us).
The weather was perfect, I was tired at the end but was feeling rather good. I'm totally ready for the next one!

1000

I found my 1000th cache this weekend.
For this milestone, I chose to hike up to Trenscendental Elevation, a cache at the top of a Big Sur peak, by Touchstone. Brutal was a word Touchstone used in the cache description, and brutal the hike was...
BuckyD, Kealia and British Invasion decided to join the fun. In short, the hike was about 11 miles long and featured an elevation gain of about 4300 feet. It took us about 9 hours. It started along the ocean on US 1, followed a very peaceful creek with lots of huge redwood, before it climbed to one of the ridge overlooking the creek. The elevation gain quickly became quite important and switchbacks appeared... An enormous numbers of switchbacks just to reach the Old Coast fire road that would lead us to Anderson Peak. Thriving poison oak and bugs made it even more challenging. It took us 4 hours to reach the road.Once there a nice easy walk led us to the cache. We left the road 2 hours after having reached it and did the whole hike down to our cars in about 3 hours. This was fast and fun for the first 2 hours but the last one was a real killer. The bodies were extremely tired, knees were no longer collaborating, minds were on autopilots and cramps appeared. After having waken up at 4:30 am, and hiked to the peak and down, the sight of our cars was really comforting.
This was a beautiful hike with gorgeous views of the ocean. A perfect memorable cache for an important milestone.

Weekend in Yosemite

I spent a wonderful weekend in Yosemite. This was obviously not a caching trip (no geocaches in National Parks) but still, the main purpose was to attend Touchstone's CITO event in Tuolumne Meadows' campground. The idea was to drive to Yosemite on Saturday, spend the night in the campground, work (CITO) on the Sunday morning, and hopefully hike on Sunday afternoon.
The weekend ended up in 4 finds, all completely meaningful to me.
I wanted to arrive in Yosemite before the end of the afternoon so that I had enough time to set up my tent. This meant that I should not stop for many caches on the way. As a matter of fact, I decided that I would stop for one cache only, in Oakdale, the only reason being it would give me a new "county" I didn't have (Stanislaus county). It would also be around lunch time so that would be a perfect break on the road.
In Oakdale, I chose to look for "Santa Claus is coming to town", which was supposed to be an easy "quick and go" that had good reviews. That was an excellent choice. Even though the cache was indeed an easy micro, I had a good laugh when I spotted it. I really enjoyed finding this one.
After this find, my only goal for the day was to get to Tuolumne Meadows, find the campground, set up my tent and wait for the "s'mores" event to start. I arrived probably around 5 pm, found a spot in one of the 5 sites that was booked for us by Touchstone. I met cachers from various areas and was equally happy to see familiar faces.
Kablooey talked me into going after a cache he had just found and that would involve a long nice hike just the way I like them. I got convinced and thought I would go for it on Sunday afternoon. I didn't have the coordinates for any nearby cache because I just thought there was none. But the boundaries of the park were not far from the campground and there are caches waiting for us just on the outside. Kablooey gave me all the information I needed, and even showed me the pictures he took. That seemed like a great plan.
After the day's long drive, the s'mores event was very relaxing. I tried my best to roast marshmallows without burning them and got a lot of advice. Marshmallow after marshmallow, and under constant supervision, I got better at it. I still can't make the chocolate melt though. It will take practice. Kablooey suggested that Graham crackers + chocolate could be replaced by "Petit ecoliers". That sounds like a good idea. I will try next time.
After a beautiful (starry) but cold (2600 meters of altitude I guess) night, it was time for the CITO event to start. We were initially supposed to assemble picnic tables and benches but the parts never made it to the campground. So instead, we were to clean fire pits (removing garbage and ashes). We were many volunteers and we swept the designated part of the campground clean in less than 2 hours. It was fun checking every campsite, greeting the campers there and asking whether we could clean their site. We sure swallowed and inhaled a lot of ashes but it was a useful thing to do. With so many sites in the campgrounds, I can't imagine how long it would take for two rangers to do the job.
By noon, the job (more that what the rangers have signed us up for) was done so after a quick lunch, I said bye to everyone around and hit the trail to find elevation 10725', this famous cache Kablooey told me about. This cache is accessed from Yosemite but is not in the park.
This was indeed a gorgeous hike, albeit challenging because of the altitude, and the steep and rough terrain. It started at the Tioga Pass entrance of the park.
A very steep first part brings you over the Gaylor lakes, along which follows a beautiful relaxing and uphill walk. The trail then takes you through many types of rocks of all forms and colors near abandoned hut and mines. The last part, past the mines is outside of the park boundaries and there is no trail. You have to completely rely on the GPS. This is probably why the terrain is rated 4.5.
I quickly found the cache about 2.5 hours after I started, signed the log, did a little trade and was ready to go. The way back to the trailhead was mostly downhill and it only took me 1.5 hour.
This was my highest cache find ever, with a max on my way to the cache at 3300 m (according to my GPS).
The weather was perfect. Sunny, but not hot and slightly breezy. I saw thousands of nice wild flowers, chipmunks, moths... This hike will stay a very memorable one.
According to my GPS, I walked 7.4 km and it took me about 4 hours. I left immediately after the hike, at about 5pm and was home just before 10pm.
I discovered later once home that the cache was so far out that it was not in the county the hike started. In other words, this cache allowed me to "score" a new county : "Mono county". Yay!
As I said, only 4 caches this weekend, but all meaningful:

• an enjoyable cache in Stanislaus County
• a s'mores event
• a CITO event
• a gorgeous hike in Yosemite (to a cache that was in Mono County as an extra bonus - see pictures)
  

I need more weekends like this one!

Back home

I'm now back home after a 4 weeks trip to France (Paris, Brittany, French Riviera, Burgundy). I put my hands on 17 caches (not bad really - this was not a caching trip and the cache density in most French area is pretty low) and hid a new one in Brittany (yes, I have a maintenance plan).
Some photos are here.