Caching On The Way Back

I did a few caches on the way back from the Aliso Canyon hike . All of the caches were roadside grabs along Stagecoach Road. The road was built in the 1860s by Chinese labor to allow people to travel by stagecoach from Santa Barbara over the San Marcos Pass. Later the Cold Spring Arch Bridge was built bypassing a portion of this scenic road. There are several caches along this overlooked road. Some were clever hides:

1. "Porc U Pin Cache (aka Chip n' Dale's Larder)": This was a clever hide. The container was embedded in a log that looked like a tree stump. The placement had something to be desired as it was a little obvious. It should have been placed near other stumps. Still, cool never the less.


2. "Dale N' Chip (aka Tweedledum) ": This was a small altoid tin with a pine cone glued to the lid. It was hidden in a hollow part of a large tree. I picked up some ants while I looked at the cache. A few made it as far as the car before I found them crawling on me.


3. "The Forgotten Road": Another small cache hidden near once once was an entrance to a road. The road is long forgotten and overgrown. I placed the chaosmanor's Golden State - Gold #2 geocoin in this cache. The container was small but the coin fit nicely.


4. "George Washington Rock":
   
   A larger cache full of cool stuff. I took the Skeleton Key travel bug and left a Round Tuit, a Bendy Cow, and a Green Plastic Soldier in its place. There is a good view of the bridge from this cache site along with a monument to the bridge itself.


5. "Bridge View": This was a micro cache attached to a stone. The rock looked really natural and I would have found it if I hadn't tried to kick the rock. The view of the bridge from this vantage point is spectacular.

There was another cache that I wanted to visit but was unable to do it. It was located close to the Cold Spring Tavern which was really (I mean really) crowded on Sunday. The tavern is a biker bar and bikes (hogs) , cars, and trucks filled the small parking lot and lined Stagecoach Road to each side of the tavern. The tavern, built in 1886, was originally a way station for the stagecoach travelers crossing the San Marcos Pass. We'll have to stop here sometime for lunch.