HIKINGGEOCACHING

Night Time at the Preserve

Today's Geocache

Night time at the preserve

:warning: This is a multi-stage geocache. Coordinates given are for the first stage.
Marker
Leaflet USDA images from CalTopo

Hi, Shoob&Sheeb!

After our thrilling adventure of two weeks ago at “Gates of Hades,” all I could think about was doing another nighttime cache hunt. “Night Time at the Preserve” sounded perfect for this weekend. Our adventure began just before sunset. We easily found the first eye and the example of the green reflectors we would be seeking throughout our quest, but there wasn’t a clear path of green to follow from this point. Using a bit of cacher’s intuition and knowledge of the area, as we have in the past, we were able to deduce the correct path and we followed (and followed, and followed) it until we reached the gate—spotting two deer and watching a brilliant sunset along the way. We made the turn and continued following the path you had laid out for us. Here’s where things got interesting. We lost the trail of green and ventured first in one direction, then backtracked to investigate another possible path. Eventually we retried our first tactic and Rich then somehow spotted the blue eye.

Blue eye’s coordinates led us to another spot of momentary confusion. Where was the first red eye? Even though I searched all around the given coordinates, I never found the red eye. Meanwhile Rich, taking a slightly different path at a different angle, noticed more green reflectors. We followed that path until it too ran out, but again, no sign of the second red eye. Our flashlights caught a slight reflection of silver that turned out to be your second tag—the coordinates of the final cache. Still hopeful, we headed off deeper into the brush. Reaching the final coordinates was difficult, and once there I could not locate a single probable hiding spot. I began to wonder if we even had entered the correct coordinates into our GPSr. After a few more minutes of awkwardly hacking around in the brush and trying to avoid the nearby marsh, we decided to admit temporary defeat and head back to the car.

If we can confirm that we had the correct coordinates and can find an easier way back to that final location, I’d love to give it another try. Although this adventure didn’t quite turn out as we’d hoped, we still enjoyed an awesome hike together on a frosty Friday night. I suppose all’s well that ends … with pizza and beer. :grin: Thanks for the unique experience!

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