Watch Your Step / Hobart Road

This one has been on my radar a long time, in fact its one of my "Am I ready?" hikes. So, today was supposed to be a group hike, but for one reason or another, everyone had plans. I'm on my own and I don't really want to hike somewhere I've been without someone who hasn't been there.

But this cache was right around the corner, and I think I'm finally ready!

So, parked at Lakeview and began the hike at 10am. I was txting Bill the whole time so someone knew where I was. While a pretty good climb, it wasn't so steep that it knocked me out and I was able to maintain my pace the whole way with only a few brief stops and one break after an hour.

Soon I was in the area that Google Maps said should be a trail cutting up the side of the hill. I missed that entirely in the snow, so bushwhacked across McEwen Creek and made a beeline through the Manzanita bushes towards the powerline in hopes of a road. There wasn't...

Instead, I kept the cross-country routine up and eventually ended up at the top. Just as I was about to snap a great picture; my battery complained it was low, my friend Holly called, and the camera all turned on. All that means, battery went dead.

It would have taken too long to hike back to the trail, I could see Lakeview below me and a rather gentle ridgeline going towards it, so I just stuck to the south side of the hill and headed straight. My only problem I had was when my foot slipped under the cavity below a snow-buried tree log and got stuck. Nothing happened, but that one moment scared me: I'm alone, I'm off trail, my cell is dead, and I nearly twisted my ankle. That changed my mood quickly.

Once I got to the edge of the mountain, where is just dropped straight to the valley floor, I cut back in hopes of hooking up with a less steep climb to the road below me. Pure dumb miraculous luck brought me to the top of the ravine and I simply stepped from one side of the mountain onto the road. I was giving a heartfelt THANK YOU the rest of the way down.

Very good hike and one I did manage to make, but while I may be physically capable of doing that, I'm not yet ready to tackle such things alone. I'll wait for my hiking partners to be with me before facing the Sierra again.

Total: 3.9 miles, 3 hours 14 minutes, 1173 feet

Ambush Rock / Prison Hill

This one took three tries! But at least I got a good hike out of it.

Attempt 1:


Went out after work and hiked up from the Silver Saddle Ranch side, a first for me. Made it up in 40 minutes and spent too long looking for the blasted cache. Finally had to give up due to the sun setting and headed back down, hooking up with Bill, and heading to Reno before coming home.

Attempt 2:


Yesterday, got a call from a rather calm Tarry who just wanted to chit-chat. Turns out he was up here looking also! So we combined forces and hiked back up at 9pm under a full moon in a second try at this stupid little micro cache. He needed two other caches, so we made a loop of it, and then headed back to the trucks.



Attempt 3:


Just before leaving work, got a call from Tarry who had finally found it! He gave me a hint and I was once again on the Silver Saddle trail hiking as fast as I could against the setting sun to get up here and find this little bugger before it set. Sure enough, found it! Took pictures, enjoyed the victory and hiked back.

Totals:

1: 2.4 miles, 1 hour 32 minutes, 447 feet








2: 3.1 miles, 2 hours 54 minutes, 591 feet








3: 2.4 miles, 1 hour 17 minutes, 470 feet

Biking around

No easy caches, so went on a bike ride after work instead. Just peddled around this end of town, and discovered that I really need to take the bike in for a tune up. Plus get my front break fixed and the rear one de-squeakified. It's irritating!

But I do want to get to riding my bike more often as my plan is to ride it around South Lake Tahoe and bag all the caches along Highway 50 up there. So, the bike comes out and I discover how poor of shape I'm in!

Total: 3.1 miles, 33 minutes, minimal elevation

A New Day Dawning

Saw this one publish, but never had the time to go after it. Now with an extra hour after work, I'm so going to be taking advantage of the great weather and hour and a half of day left to me. So, when the chance came up, I swiftly changed clothes, drove out Clear Creek to the trailhead of Old Highway 50.

Hot-footed it up the old road, to the spot where the drinking fountain is (it looks like an old fountain that used to run on the road to Alturas, so that's what I call it!) I wasn't the only one up here, so finding the cache was easy. But it was an enjoyable hike in the snow.

Totals: .9 miles, 25 minutes, 146 feet

Stuck Up the Hill

Did a short hike to the cache Up the Hill simply cause the road got to the point where a truck wasn't safe any more. So, went out on foot.

Course the rest of the story is very humorous, but that's for another blog.

Totals: .6 mile, 34 minutes, 194 feet

Hiking and climbing Prison Hill

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Went out with Bernsports, BigTruckCrew, C&S Team along with Kinta. Today just absolutely rocked!!

We started at 9 again, as usual, and hiked up to the saddle. This time, we were after two new caches so our trek took us towards the south. The wind started picking up soon after we hit dirt, and I took advantage of the fact I had a winter facemask with me. That thing saved me from a major asthma attack!

At the first cache, Greg and I waited while the other two scrambled up the small outcrop of rock. However, after 15-20 minutes, my lungs were acting up again, so I scaled the rock like a lizard and had the cache in hand before they even realized I'd passed them.

Afterwards, we hiked to the summit where the wind was simply monsterous. Poor Kinta nearly was blown over and took all four feet to keep himself upright. We braved onward and down towards the S, while Bern took the time to pull out his pocket weather station. 27MPH wind gusts. Not bad.

Once down on the other side of the peak, we went over to the huge "S" for Stewart and began searching for the next cache. That took a considerable amount of time, but soon it was in hand and we were all off towards the trucks.

Aside from the wind, and in spite of it, today was a fantastic day to hang out with friends and find a few caches!

Here's the totals for today.

Total: 2.2 miles, 2 hours 16 minutes, 609 feet

V&T Hill with Bernsports

The nice thing about having a hill with a couple caches? You can keep hiking it with new people and still manage to stop at the caches!

Today was with Bernsports and I'll add more to this later. But it was a great chance to get out and do some hiking before the weather turned on us. This Saturday was just beyond fantastic!

I love living in Carson!!

Totals; 3.4 miles, 3 hours 6 minutes, 701 feet.