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Almaden Quicksilver County Park

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Official Quicksilver Park Page

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Geocaching  Links


Geocaching.com

Geocachers of the Bay Area

Geocaching in Santa Teresa park

Wikipedia: Geocaching

How Geocaching Works

How to Go Geocaching

How GPS Receivers Work

County Parks' Geocaching Rules (example)

Geocaching Class, Almaden Quicksilver, Wood Road Trail, June 14, 2008

On June 14, 2008, as part of the County Parks' Outdoor Recreation Program, a class was held on geocaching. Geocaching is an activity where participants use a GPS receiver to locate hidden containers, called geocaches. The locations of the geocaches are published on the Geocaching.com website. GPS coordinates are entered into the receivers. Seekers, called geocachers, use the receivers to get within about 10-20 feet of the geocache. Then they search the area looking for the hidden geocache, which can vary widely in the size and type of container. Some typical containers are film cans, Tupperware food containers, or large metal boxes. There are rules and limitations on geocaches, imposed by Geocaching.com and the County Parks. Geocaches, at a minimum, contain a sheet or book on which finders sign their names, usually a geocaching nickname, or "handle." If the cache is large enough, it may contain trading items, which can include toys, coins, or personalized signature items. It may also contain "travel bugs," which are items moved from cache to cache and tracked online. After finding the cache, finders then sign on to the Geocaching.com website and log their finds online. They may include comments about the cache experience and upload pictures. Almaden Quicksilver Park has a large number of geocaches. The Wood Road Trail has a large number of them, spaced about 1/10 mile apart. It has a wide variety of caches in terms of size and difficulty, so is an ideal trail to learn geocaching.


At the Wood Road Parking lot, park docent and geocacher Sam Drake prepares to give a class on geocaching, with the assistance of geoachers Cer and Riledwino.


35 people signed up for the class. Almost 30 attended.


Group setting out on the Wood Road Trail.


One of the first geocache finds, a camouflaged can.


Group heading out on the Wood Road Trail, with the Sierra Azuls in the background.


Group looking for a cache.


Kids with a large cache container, with logsheets and trading items.


Group heading out on the sunny part of the Wood Road Trail, with Mine Hill in the background.


After finding a small cache.


Finding a cache in a jar.


Looking for a cache near a big rock.


Kids finding another large cache.


Heading for the Mine Hill Rotary Furnace.


Group resting by the old assay office site's gas pump near the top of Mine Hill.


Group heading back down the Wood Road Trail, with Mt. Umhunhum in the background.


Heading back into the shady section of the trail.

Created by Ron Horii, 6/15/08