Whales, Sharks, Buffalos and Moose Drool-OR-The Quest for 6000

This weekend the age old question was answered. Is it all about the numbers or is there more to geocaching? The answer is, “YES!”

Friendly competition between us and L3-Geo and a mutual love for geocaching has kept our numbers about equal. Sometimes they’re ahead and sometimes we are. As we both neared the 6000 mark, the team leaders began formulating their strategy. First, L3-Geo needed to catch up a bit so, before the weekend, they cached hardy in their home territory. Then the plan was for them to come up to Reno and we would take them around the area “letting” them get more than us so that by the end of the weekend we would celebrate the same cache for our 6000th find.


Friday, June 6 - The Virginia Range

After the mandatory visit to Starbuck’s we headed up Geiger Grade (Hwy 341) into the Virginia Range. After only a couple of miles we turned off onto a dirt road that is a “shortcut” up into Virginia Highlands, a rural mountain bedroom community of Reno. This is the same area that I described on the previous blog as “Brandy Territory”. Our main goal was to take L3-Geo to Whale’s Spout but first we grabbed three caches in the opposite direction; Baobab Tree, Shark Rock and Curti Ranch Overlook. Once those were out of the way we headed over to Whale’s Spout so that they could enjoy it as much as we did. After Whale’s Spout we decided to forgo anymore caches deeper into the mountains and headed to Virginia City for lunch.

When in Virginia City we almost never pay for parking but, for some reason, this time we did. I asked the attendant for a recommendation for lunch. He unhesitatingly swore that the Palace had the best food. That was good enough for us and as we were entering the Palace I noticed they were featuring Buffalo burgers and Moose Drool beer. SOLD! A definite must have when in Virginia City! The burger was excellent and I may have found my new favorite beer. Move over Shiner Bach, here comes Moose Drool! After lunch we tackled two new caches along Ophir Grade. One was easy to drive to but the other was up on the ridge and the ride proved to be very exciting. I’m pleased to report that the burger and beer behaved themselves.

We continued caching down to and around Dayton before we called it a day and came back home. We were exhausted from all the bumping, rocking and jarring. And besides, the next day we had a hot date with John of Jahoadi and John at the gates of Jack’s Valley Recreation Area. Us old folks needed our rest if we hoped to have any chance of keeping up with him!

Saturday, June 7 - Jack’s Valley


A couple of years ago (well, maybe longer) we briefly explored the Jack’s Valley OHV Recreation Area and grabbed some of the easier caches. Today we teamed up with John and L3-Geo and did some serious 4-wheeling and caching. The area north of Jack’s Valley road is almost exclusively decomposed granite so there were few if any rocks to contend with. We all had a blast “racing” up and down and around looking for caches. We managed to find all the caches except two. Those required steep long (well, long for us old geezers) hikes. The area south of Jack’s Valley road is much more rocky so naturally that slowed us down considerably and reduced the “fun factor” but we managed to find all the caches on that side too. After finishing the Jack’s Valley caches we were saying our goodbyes to John when he asked us what our plans were for Sunday. We told him we were going to cache around Tahoe and we could tell from the way his eyes lit up that he wanted to go. So we made a date to meet the next morning. He then went his way and we decided we wanted to have some more fun.

One of our goals this weekend was to complete a series of five caches based on the board game Clue. After determining who done it, the object is to translate that information into coordinates which leads you to the sixth and final cache. We had found one of the clues previously and needed four more before we could snag the final cache so we decided to spend the rest of the day tracking them down, and, of course, finding other nearby caches as well. Our rides in Voltaire Canyon and south of Prison Hill were sandy and smooth with virtually no rocks affording us some great fun. The best time was when we had to rock crawl through a small gap in some rocks at the peak of a hill. The rest of the Clue caches took us to Brunswick Canyon, a water tank off of Goni Road and, the final cache, at the mouth of Ash Canyon. Here, while we were doing the happy dance and congratulating each other, a Highway Patrol officer appeared on the dirt road. He saw us and stopped about 500 feet away and watched. Then, as quickly as he appeared, he turned around and left in a cloud of dust. I would run too if I saw four old folks dancing around a burned out stump! I guess even the State’s finest have their limits.

After that we had had it too, so we headed home. There was lots to do for our trip around Tahoe.

Sunday, June 8 - Lake Tahoe

It was the perfect day for the five of us to drive up to Tahoe, wander aimlessly around residential streets, make endless hair-raising U-turns and scramble up hillsides. Truth be told, John did the scrambling, we eventually brought up the rear. The quiet strolls through the forest along streams provided the perfect balance from the hectic driving and scrambling.

The plan was to get both us and Linda and Larry (L3-Geo) to 5999 and then celebrate our 6000th find with one of applejohn’s caches, Sunken Meadows (GCXB7T). It sounded like the perfect cache for this milestone but when we got to the end of the pavement, the gates were still locked. Rats! On the other hand, a 0.67 mile hike through snow would definitely have taken the fun out of it. John took out his frustrations by racing his FJ through a huge puddle. We, of course, demurely followed. The next cache down the road was another applejohn cache and it too required a walk but it was a much shorter walk. Nevertheless, it was the perfect cache to claim as our 6000th. Thanks Ron for all your quality caches.

After that we leisurely cached to South Shore where we had lunch and then we wandered around the area trying to find a few more caches with limited success. So we decided to leave Tahoe and take Kingsbury Grade down to the Carson Valley. We picked up a few more caches on the way to and around Genoa. We backtracked to Minden for a pit stop and ice cream (John paid!! Thanks John). By then it was getting late, we were pooped and John had a long drive back to Fallon, so we reluctantly said goodbye to John and headed to Reno.

Yes, geocaching is about the numbers, but it’s much more than that. It’s about being with family and good friends. It’s about exploring and discovering. It’s about living - even if you are an old geezer.