The Backbone
Trail (BBT) is one of the jewels of the Santa Monica
Mountains. Find all the caches along the trail, and you're eligible
for the Spinal Tap!
Conceived decades ago, the Backbone Trail was originally to run
from Point Mugu to Griffith Park. Mansion building outpaced trail
development, and a continuous trail east of the 405 became
infeasible, resulting in the almost-70-mile trail with its eastern
terminus in Will Rogers State Historical Park. The entire trail is
open to hikers except for an incomplete section near the Ventura/LA
County line, with many parts open to bicyclists and
equestrians.
One of the prime movers behind the BBT was the
legendary Milt McAuley. Milt led hikes and volunteer trail
maintenance crews. He was equally comfortable lobbying political
figures to gain support for parks and trails, and negotiating with
landowners for access. He wrote Hiking Trails of the Santa
Monica Mountains, Wildflowers of the Santa Monica Mountains
(for which he also drew the identification images), and of course a
Guide to the Backbone Trail, along with books giving more
details about the individual state parks. The books are widely
available in local stores, especially Adventure 16 and REI, who
deserve your patronage in return.
Milt died at age 89 as Don and I were preparing Spinal Tap. We
both express our gratitude for all he did for us and for our
friends.
Naturally the BBT has been popular with geocachers as
well. As of the publication of Spinal Tap, 88 caches were
reasonably accessible from the BBT (including Spinal Tap itself),
with a likelihood of more to come. (In fact, the next one was
placed the very day Spinal Tap was published.) And this is even
though some long stretches of the BBT pass through NPS lands where
geocaches are not allowed, notably a stretch of about 25 miles
between Sandstone Peak and Corral Canyon. You could find all the
caches on a single BBT through-hike, though it's expected that most
seekers will spend a lot of time enjoying many parts of the Santa
Monica Mountains while making progress on the Spinal Tap.
The official list of caches on the BBT is
Don_J's Backbone Trail bookmark list, known here as "the BBT
list". (Also see map.)
The list includes all active caches within roughly 250 feet of the
BBT; see the bookmark list for details. If you notice errors or
omissions in the list,
send a message to Don_J. His word, not mine, is final as to the
content of the list.
The basic rule is that you must find all the other caches
on the list to be eligible to log a find on the Spinal Tap final.
However, you are given some leeway so that you don't have to chase
down caches placed just as you are trying to finish. Though you
must find all caches on the initial BBT list, you don't have to
find caches published later but within three months of your find
log on Spinal Tap. Of course you are encouraged to find them all.
Important exception: caches which are disabled due to
environmental concerns are excluded for the duration of the
disablement. These will be clearly noted on the BBT list.
The final cache location is not a secret or puzzle -- and
of course it's on the BBT! When you have logged your finds on the
prerequisite caches, you may visit and log a find on the final
cache. As with all caches, you are required to physically visit the
final cache and sign the log. Only those who have completed the
rest of the BBT list are allowed to log a find on the final cache,
though others are welcome to log visits.
The D/T for the final cache are 2.5/2.5. It's about 20'-30' from
the posted coordinates, but only because posting the true
coordinates might lead to confusion. It's close to the trailhead,
which I haven't waypointed for you, since if you've found all the
BBT caches, then you certainly know where the trailheads are! Ah,
OK, if you need help with the trailhead, check it out on
Trailheads in the Santa Monicas. There's a minor scramble to
reach the final, and finding the correct route is important,
justifying the ratings. The wrong route could be bad for your
health. At the sharp turn in the trail, go a few feet up the
drainage, make your way up to the rock wall that looms over you
through the vegetation, and follow the wall up to a crack. Opinions
will vary on whether this is a large crack or a small crack, but
you've seen and probably passed through smaller ones on the way to
other caches. You will need your hands and knees. The cache is in
an open area at the top. It's also possible to go a short way past
the opening and climb over rocks to reach the cache, but that route
is probably more difficult than the crack.
Other rules:
New caches: to avoid a version of Zeno's Paradox on the
BBT, you do not have to find very recently placed caches.
Initially, this is defined to mean that if the publication date
(the reviewer's publication log) is both a) later than the
publication date of Spinal Tap, and b) within three months of your
finding the Spinal Tap final, you don't have to go back and find
that new cache. This is subject to change, but any change will only
apply to caches published after the change.
The "date hidden", being completely under the control of the
owner, is not used, only the date of the reviewer's publication
log. Also, the date added to the BBT list is not used. Neither I
nor Don_J can guarantee that caches will be added rapidly, though
Don expects to maintain the list. This means that if you only watch
the BBT list, your window on new caches could be smaller than three
months. If you are nearing completion and this concerns you, you
should set up notifications from geocaching.com to make sure you
are alerted to new caches.
Disabled caches and caches believed to be missing
are to be handled exactly as they are in other situations. They are
not excluded from the prerequisites except as otherwise noted
herein. You might simply wait for the owner to take action. When
appropriate, you might contact the owner and offer to help. When
necessary, you might post Needs Archived or contact a reviewer
privately. These are the same options you have for any cache.
Environmentally disabled caches: there is one exemption
for disabled caches. Caches which are disabled due to environmental
concerns are excluded for the duration of the disablement. These
will be clearly noted on the BBT list. Whether a disablement is for
environmental concerns is solely Don_J's judgement. In such cases,
the three-month rule does not apply at either end. Once a cache is
placed in this category, you don't need it for the final until it
is removed from the environmental concern category. However, once
that happens, you also do not have a grace period unless the cache
is still within three months of publication.
Prerequisite caches means all caches on the BBT list
except the Spinal Tap final and caches excluded by the "new caches"
and "environmentally disabled" rules.
Archived caches: You do not have to find archived caches,
even if they have not been removed from the BBT list.
Prepublication finds: If you found a cache before
publication of the Spinal Tap, it does count -- you are not
expected to revisit caches you already found.
Hiders keepers: You get automatic find credit for caches
you hid.
Claims: This is for fun and you are on the honor system.
Issues about the validity of finds on caches in the list are
between you and the cache owners.
Logging the final: You may only log the Spinal Tap final
cache after you have logged finds on the prerequisite caches. You
must log all your qualifying finds on geocaching.com.
Non-completers are welcome to visit the final, sign the log book as
visitors, and log notes to the cache page. If you visit the final
before completing the prerequisite caches, you must revisit and
re-sign the log afterward to log your find on Spinal Tap.
One special case: if you DNF (logged on gc.com) a prerequisite
cache, then visit the final and log a note, and the cache you
DNF-ed gets archived with no further finds, you may log a find on
the final (as of the date of your visit) without revisiting it. The
intent is to allow you to complete the series without waiting for
the wheels to slowly grind, if you are willing to bet that your
unfound cache(s) will be archived. Note that in this case you have
still conformed to the rule that your visit to the final is after
finding all prerequisite caches, so this is just an explanation and
not an exception.
Terrain: Parts of the BBT are only accessible to strong
hikers. As of publication, there are no caches on the BBT list
which require physical skills beyond strong hiking. I reserve the
right to exclude future caches which would require additional
skills, such as rock climbing. The point is to keep this cache
accessible to all strong hikers.
Difficulty: As is typical of hiking caches, the BBT list
caches are generally easy to moderate in difficulty (as opposed to
terrain). I reserve the right to exclude caches whose actual
difficulty proves to unreasonably prevent cachers from completing
the Spinal Tap.
Difficulty/Terrain: The listed difficulty and terrain
(2.5/4.0) are the maximum you will encounter while completing the
BBT list. This is the D/T in my judgement.
Henry's Cache (the oldest on the BBT list by seven months) has
a difficulty rating of 4.5, but this is a misclassification.
Follow the code: It's the GCxxxx code that matters.
Occasionally cache names change, though I'm not aware of any on the
BBT list changing.
Tracking your progress: The list below is generated
automatically. Generally it will be updated each Tuesday, so
if you're trying to figure out what you are missing, be aware of
this delay. Tip: You can do a Pocket Query (assuming you are
a premium member) on someone else's bookmark list. If you load the
PQ results into GSAK, the result will show you exactly what you
have and haven't found. Probably other offline caching software can
provide similar results.
Cachers who have completed the challenge as of
2010-02-09:
| Name |
Found
or
Owned |
Date
Completed |
Found
at
completion |
| Big Eagle |
126 |
2008-12-23 |
90 |
| PezCachers |
92 |
2009-01-02 |
91 |
| sr.hikers |
93 |
2009-01-05 |
91 |
| Mountain Cat |
97 |
2009-01-21 |
90 |
| Don_J |
116 |
2009-01-25 |
93 |
| OLdweeb |
101 |
2009-01-25 |
95 |
| robb_dogg |
96 |
2009-01-25 |
95 |
| SoCalifSue |
93 |
2009-02-19 |
91 |
| TOHiker |
126 |
2009-02-23 |
95 |
| GeoCraig |
94 |
2009-03-14 |
94 |
| BWidget |
108 |
2009-04-19 |
101 |
| Big Foot Moose |
106 |
2009-05-08 |
105 |
| erik |
119 |
2009-05-10 |
109 |
| pianofab |
118 |
2009-09-07 |
118 |
| paleolith |
118 |
2009-09-26 |
117 |
Cachers with 25 or more finds as of 2010-02-09:
| Name |
----- Number of Caches Found or Owned ----- |
|
Total |
Active |
Archived |
Remaining |
| Big Eagle |
126 |
118 |
8 |
complete |
| TOHiker |
126 |
119 |
7 |
complete |
| erik |
119 |
111 |
8 |
complete |
| paleolith |
118 |
113 |
5 |
complete |
| pianofab |
118 |
113 |
5 |
complete |
| Don_J |
116 |
109 |
7 |
complete |
| dbir |
113 |
111 |
2 |
6 |
| BWidget |
108 |
102 |
6 |
complete |
| Big Foot Moose |
106 |
100 |
6 |
complete |
| tozainamboku |
104 |
98 |
6 |
19 |
| OLdweeb |
101 |
94 |
7 |
complete |
| Mountain Cat |
97 |
92 |
5 |
complete |
| robb_dogg |
96 |
89 |
7 |
complete |
| GeoCraig |
94 |
88 |
6 |
complete |
| SoCalifSue |
93 |
88 |
5 |
complete |
| sr.hikers |
93 |
87 |
6 |
complete |
| PezCachers |
92 |
86 |
6 |
complete |
| Let's Fly |
88 |
83 |
5 |
34 |
| VCTrails |
72 |
69 |
3 |
48 |
| interbang1 |
64 |
60 |
4 |
58 |
| cahikerchick |
62 |
59 |
3 |
58 |
| Albackore |
60 |
55 |
5 |
62 |
| location_scouts |
58 |
54 |
4 |
63 |
| w_bovine |
55 |
52 |
3 |
65 |
| Cairngorm |
52 |
52 |
0 |
65 |
| EMC of Northridge, CA |
50 |
47 |
3 |
70 |
| chaosmanor |
50 |
47 |
3 |
70 |
| capdude |
48 |
46 |
2 |
71 |
| space_man |
41 |
37 |
4 |
80 |
| Seashock |
40 |
37 |
3 |
80 |
| TerryDad2 |
39 |
38 |
1 |
79 |
| lifesajrny |
37 |
34 |
3 |
83 |
| benh57 |
36 |
32 |
4 |
85 |
| Cachemanian Devil |
34 |
34 |
0 |
83 |
| LAEd |
31 |
29 |
2 |
88 |
| javaa |
31 |
29 |
2 |
88 |
| foon |
30 |
27 |
3 |
90 |
| gsmx2 |
29 |
28 |
1 |
89 |
| KF6JML |
27 |
25 |
2 |
92 |
| MaxGold |
27 |
25 |
2 |
92 |