Wow! Wow! Wow! That sums up yesterday's adventure
CTYankee9 posted in the San Diego Event Forums the idea of going to Corte Madera on Memorial Day. Then he posted great images from Google Earth that showed the views we would see on the day.
Several others responded they were interested, even though the starting time was 6:30 a.m. . . .
CTYankee9 and his wife picked me up at my house. They got to my place early, but I was not ready then. It took me a few more minutes to gather up my food for the day, and my gear and pile it into the new "Geo-mobile," and then we were on the road. The views were great along the drive to the meeting place because the low clouds and fog were below us, creating a white blanket in the valleys below the hills and peaks.
We arrived at the meeting place, and were not the first to arrive, nor were we the last. So, once Team Adelos and fisnjack got there, we took off up the road to the first cache, "Four Corners in the Cleveland Natl Forest." We found that cache quickly, and relocted it just slightly to hide it a bit better.
From there, we headed towards the Corte Madera trailhead, a trail that used to be a "road," as evidenced by the up-side-down frame of a vehicle that met its demise on the steep hill many years ago.
Closer to the top, the trail leveled off somewhat and the views were fantastic in all directions.
We found the first waypoint for Chuy!'s new Multi-cache and then made the short walk to the final location. Wow. Was it beautiful there. The rest of the group turned around and started back. I just stood there and tried to take in the view, and the silence. If I had been by myself, I would have stayed there for quite a while, marveling at the vista.
Once on the top, the trail leveled off somewhat as we walked through very dense thickets of short Manzanita bushes. There were also hugely-tall trees that helped frame the awesome views.
We found the Geocache near the top, and as we got back on the trail, I took a misstep and started to fall over — in slow motion — but I couldn't catch myself because my wrist was caught in the walking stick loop. I fell right on my elbow, scraping it a bit. I was surprised it didn't hurt more than it did because of how hard I hit. John was a sweetheart and he helped me get a couple of bandaids over the scrape before we continued down the trail.
From the Geocache we found near the top, fisnjack and I went over to find the Terracache. Leave it to T.R. Violin to find an absolutely-fantastic location for the cache. It was near a large flat expanse of slickrock that afforded views to the south and southwest.
We left the top and headed back down the trail, which meant we had to go uphill for quite a distance. I didn't remember that downhill stretch on our way to the cache, but I was having a bit of trouble on this uphill stretch now . . .
Once we got back to the vehicles, I got into Chuy!'s truck again and we had an interesting drive down the 4WD road with lots of water bars in it that his longbed truck was just barely able to get over. They would have been no problem for Team Adelos's Jeep, however, and were probably fun for him and the two kids.
We found the location for a cache that had gone missing, so CTYankee9 provided an ammo can so the cache could live on. After that good deed, we continued down the road to the trailhead that would get us in the "backdoor" to Horsethief Canyon, and close to the "trail" up to "Elevation 3000."
What a contrast as we started along this trail, which burned last July in the "Horse" fire . . . Other than the flowers that bloomed in profusion along portions of the trail, it was total devastation.
I had an ammo can in my backback which I carried to the top of the peak, replacing the Altoids tin with it at the cache location. The next two pictures were taken from the top of the peak by CTYankee9.
On the way back down that steep hill, my left knee started hurting really bad, and the pain persisted for the rest of the hike . . . Since my right heel was also hurting, I was in bad shape, which is why I didn't continue down the trail with Jahoadi & John, CTYankee9, and "lostguy" when they went to find "Behold the Lamb" and my cache, "Too Late Now."
CTYankee9 took those great pictures of the "lamb" and the "lion". He is great at seeing animals in rock formations, animals I can never quite see, but I humor him and say, "Yes, I see the camel. Sure, yeah, right there . . . "
Our Memorial Day trip to Corte Madera was incredible. My thanks to CTYankee9 for organizing the "event" and for giving me a ride, otherwise I never would have seen that astonishing area.
Several others responded they were interested, even though the starting time was 6:30 a.m. . . .
CTYankee9 and his wife picked me up at my house. They got to my place early, but I was not ready then. It took me a few more minutes to gather up my food for the day, and my gear and pile it into the new "Geo-mobile," and then we were on the road. The views were great along the drive to the meeting place because the low clouds and fog were below us, creating a white blanket in the valleys below the hills and peaks.
We arrived at the meeting place, and were not the first to arrive, nor were we the last. So, once Team Adelos and fisnjack got there, we took off up the road to the first cache, "Four Corners in the Cleveland Natl Forest." We found that cache quickly, and relocted it just slightly to hide it a bit better.
From there, we headed towards the Corte Madera trailhead, a trail that used to be a "road," as evidenced by the up-side-down frame of a vehicle that met its demise on the steep hill many years ago.
Closer to the top, the trail leveled off somewhat and the views were fantastic in all directions.
We found the first waypoint for Chuy!'s new Multi-cache and then made the short walk to the final location. Wow. Was it beautiful there. The rest of the group turned around and started back. I just stood there and tried to take in the view, and the silence. If I had been by myself, I would have stayed there for quite a while, marveling at the vista.
Once on the top, the trail leveled off somewhat as we walked through very dense thickets of short Manzanita bushes. There were also hugely-tall trees that helped frame the awesome views.
We found the Geocache near the top, and as we got back on the trail, I took a misstep and started to fall over — in slow motion — but I couldn't catch myself because my wrist was caught in the walking stick loop. I fell right on my elbow, scraping it a bit. I was surprised it didn't hurt more than it did because of how hard I hit. John was a sweetheart and he helped me get a couple of bandaids over the scrape before we continued down the trail.
From the Geocache we found near the top, fisnjack and I went over to find the Terracache. Leave it to T.R. Violin to find an absolutely-fantastic location for the cache. It was near a large flat expanse of slickrock that afforded views to the south and southwest.
We left the top and headed back down the trail, which meant we had to go uphill for quite a distance. I didn't remember that downhill stretch on our way to the cache, but I was having a bit of trouble on this uphill stretch now . . .
Once we got back to the vehicles, I got into Chuy!'s truck again and we had an interesting drive down the 4WD road with lots of water bars in it that his longbed truck was just barely able to get over. They would have been no problem for Team Adelos's Jeep, however, and were probably fun for him and the two kids.
We found the location for a cache that had gone missing, so CTYankee9 provided an ammo can so the cache could live on. After that good deed, we continued down the road to the trailhead that would get us in the "backdoor" to Horsethief Canyon, and close to the "trail" up to "Elevation 3000."
What a contrast as we started along this trail, which burned last July in the "Horse" fire . . . Other than the flowers that bloomed in profusion along portions of the trail, it was total devastation.
I had an ammo can in my backback which I carried to the top of the peak, replacing the Altoids tin with it at the cache location. The next two pictures were taken from the top of the peak by CTYankee9.
On the way back down that steep hill, my left knee started hurting really bad, and the pain persisted for the rest of the hike . . . Since my right heel was also hurting, I was in bad shape, which is why I didn't continue down the trail with Jahoadi & John, CTYankee9, and "lostguy" when they went to find "Behold the Lamb" and my cache, "Too Late Now."
CTYankee9 took those great pictures of the "lamb" and the "lion". He is great at seeing animals in rock formations, animals I can never quite see, but I humor him and say, "Yes, I see the camel. Sure, yeah, right there . . . "
Our Memorial Day trip to Corte Madera was incredible. My thanks to CTYankee9 for organizing the "event" and for giving me a ride, otherwise I never would have seen that astonishing area.
posted by Miragee at
4:38:00 PM
10-Day Forecast
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