Geocaching just celebrated its 10th anniversary. I’ve been wanting to find a cache placed in 2000 for a while. Today was the day.
Santa Barbara One GC106 was placed on December 28, 2000, so it just qualifies for a 2000 cache. It is the closest Year-2000 cache to my home. There aren’t that many–only 4 within 200 miles.
The cache is located on the ridge that separates the Pacific Coast from the Santa Ynez Valley. We drove up the hill from Santa Ynez via Refugio Road. If you decide to go for this cache from this direction, drive to Road Closed, then drive around the blockade. Apparently it’s there as a liability issue: the road is open, you are just on your own.
The road up is of mixed quality–sometimes paved, but usually dirt. However, the scenery is top notch.
There are 7 stream crossings at the bottom of the approach–all before the Road Closed sign. I’m not sure how difficult the access would be after a good rain, but today it wasn’t an issue.
The trip up to the ridge didn’t take as long as I had expected, but the drive along the ridge took longer than I thought it would. The best we could do was about 20 miles an hour. The views are excellent–both toward the Pacific and north to the Santa Ynez Valley and Lake Cachuma. We drove from 452 ft at the bottom of the canyon to 4702 at the high point along the ridge.
We enjoyed the wildflowers today. Yellow seemed to be the color of the moment, but we were also treated with oranges and blues.
Here is a close up of today’s track from Santa Ynez to Santa Barbara One. Come on up; it’s a great adventure.
[...] the Pacific coast from the inland valleys. We were geocaching and looking for a specific cache. [Click here for the full story.] It isn’t an easy drive. We quickly climbed almost 4000 feet along a road that was seldom [...]
Looks like a great little trip, especially to get an oldie. Always cool to land those old caches.