Roseate Spoonbills on Big Slough

Roseate Spoonbills on Big Slough
Roseate Spoonbills on Big Slough

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Nature's Mystery Geocache

Geocaching is a very popular sport that requires people use GPS units to find the coordinates of a cache.  However, the rules for National Wildlife Refuges say that nothing can be brought in or removed. So Sacramento has used the idea of virtual geocaches to let people interact with some of the many refuges and refuge units they manage.With a virtual geochache, you don't find an actual cache, but interact with the environment  and usually post pictures.

I decided I needed to unravel the Nature's Mystery Geocache so I could tell other visitors about it.

Here's what #1 says:

Near Squaw Hill, CA
Coordinates: UTM: E 578605 N 4418266
Clue: The river can be seen here. (In Spanish)
Task: Meet a tree - use your senses to explore it and then describe it.

I can enter coordinates into my car GPS. So I just used it to lead me to the site. But a hand held unit is  best .In one of the tasks, I needed to put in the coordinates of my favorite nature discovery.

However the first thing I found out, is that my GPS is BLONDE.  Instead of just sending me up Hwy. 5 to Corning and then east to the site, it set me off on side roads leading to the west of the highway and then up them to the north.  But of course, my reward for being lost was this beautiful scene.




I looked through my GPS's directions and decided I could just zoom up Highway  5 to Corning and then turn east. Almost immediately after crossing the Sacramento River, I found this Unit.



I started down the trail, carrying my car GPS.  It said had had a few tenths of a mile to go to reach my destination. On the way, I found this stump lit with beautiful morning light. It reminded me that trees have very important role as habitats  and meals after they are dead.  And they also make great "carvings".


 When my GPS said I was at my destination, I looked for an interesting tree. This one caught my eye as it was close and looked lacy against the sky.


 And its bark had interesting marks and scars where it had lost limbs or been attacked by bugs, fungi, bacteria or even birds.



 It's base was also interesting and looked almost like it had a large foot. Is that a sandal strap I see?


 It was too pretty a place to leave without exploring further,  so I kept going down the trail and then branched off in the direction of the Sacramento River on a side trail. Soon I was watching a flock of western bluebirds fly up and down.




 Old blooms still held beauty.



While new blooms  promised that spring was on the way.



 


The path wound along the river for a little ways and then curved back around and became the path back out. This beautiful valley oak caught my eye.




Virtual geocaching is now called waymarking and has it's own site with a huge list of categories. You can find everything from churches to wildlife to parks to retired prisons. So you might be able to pursue most any interst here and definitely find interesting places to visit along your vacation route or near your home. I'm going to visit some waymarks and hopefully add some of my favorite places to the waymark list. 


References:
FWS Recreational Geocaching Guidance - if you want to talk your favorite NWR into adding some waymarks, or a virtual tour, here are the guidelines.

Waymarking's list of National Wildlife Refuges - this is the place to look for coordinates of places on various NWR's, and to add your own favorites.

And if you want to come  to the Sacramento NWRC and  unravel the Nature's Mystery Geocache, you can get a copy here or at the refuge visitor center.  There are ten sets of coordinates, ending at the Sacramento Refuge.I still need to log my findings.in the box they maintain for that purpose there. It's on the outside of the visitor center so is always accessible.  And you have only nine more waypoints  to go.

8 comments:

  1. Waymarking. What a wonderful alternative to geocaching! What beautiful photos.

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  2. I like this idea too! Thanks for the great info. Another interesting adventure for you. P.S. the Word Verification is getting very obnoxious when one is trying to comment.

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    1. I'll keep looking at how to fix it. So far can't see any options.

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  3. I actually like this idea much better than geocaching. I find when I am geocaching or am with a group that we aren't really in touch with where we are. It's all about finding the cache and that is the focus. Too often I have seen the trampling of habitat while looking for caches many of which are placed off trail. I'm glad the NWRs have gone for virtual geochaching.

    All the things you saw and your great pictures are further incentive for me try this and see places I might not know about otherwise. Thanks a lot for this post.

    Any chance you could take off the verification with its two words almost no one can read? It makes it hard to post on your blog.

    Sherry
    www.directionofourdreams.blogspot.com

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    1. I'm trying without success yet. I'll try more after I'm settled at Malheur.

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  4. I'm thinking your GPSr isn't blonde. It was probably set to "On Road" which will take you to the closest place it can find on a road to where you wanted it to go. That can get you pretty far from where you want to be. If you set it to "Off Road" it will take you to the point you told it to take you as best it can.

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    1. Thanks for that. But it took me way off the route at the beginning of the trip. And I don't think it has an off-road feature. But I do have a hand-held GPS I'll try next time.

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  5. Gorgeous photos and a wonderful story as always. Oh, to have the freedom to roam. I swear one of these days I may do similarly. Natalie

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