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Base Camp
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- Statistics:
- Date Hiked: March 9, 2002
- Miles Hiked: 3.8
- Elevation Gain: 1,319'
- Hiking Partner(s): Chuck
Bauman
- Description:
- My first hike of the year was very spur of the moment as Chuck gave me
a call at work on Friday to see if I was doing anything the following
morning. He didn't have to work this weekend so he invited me to
go on a quick unplanned hike. Black Hornet Mine is located
northeast of Boise just north of Lucky Peak Dam.
- Chuck had a few options lined up for us when I arrived at his home
Saturday morning, one of them being Black Hornet Mine. He had been
surfing the internet and came across an international geocaching
site. This is basically a GPS site that posts "hidden
treasures" by latitude and longitude, and you basically have to
find the location utilizing your GPS and then locate whatever is hidden
there. I thought it sounded like fun, so he plugged the
coordinates in to his GPS and we were off.
- After reading the site regarding this particular cache, I am certain
that we were the first individuals to access this treasure from the
southeast. We drove northeast of Boise on highway 21 and started
our hike at a maintenance shop just past the Hilltop Cafe. We
hiked up the drainage along an old road for about a mile before we had
to start going cross country to find the cache.
- Along the way, we saw a lot of wildlife including over 100 deer, 4
elk, 1 coyote, and several hawks. We were in snow the whole way,
but nothing too treacherous. We simply followed a small creek up to
within 100 yard of the cache and then continued to scramble around until
we found the container. It was right where it was described and
included an old cell phone, a log book, a five dollar bill, and hacky
sack among several other things. It also contained a letter
explaining why it was there and what geocaching is. You are
supposed to sign the log book and if you take something, you are
required to leave something else.
- From the mine, we scrambled through the snow up to the southern ridge
where you could see the Micron headquarters. After this, we
followed the ridge back and slipped down on to the trail before going
past the maintenance shop to the highway. Although this
wasn't a major hike, it was nice to get out again to subdue the hiking
fever that had started to come on over the past few weeks. In
addition, having to find the cache added a bit of adventure to the
trip. I may look on the site for any more hidden caches around
Boise.
- Maps:
- The 3D map faces west.
- Click here to view a 2D map of
the area where this hike is located.
- Click here to view a
3D map of
the area where this hike is located.
- Photographs:
- No photos taken on this hike.
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