The Coyote Creek Trail is the longest continuous class 1 trail in Santa Clara County. It runs from Morgan Hill near Anderson Dam to just south of Tully Road in San Jose. Despite its length, there were not as many caches per mile as the Alamitos Creek and Los Gatos Creek trails. The main reason may be because it is more rural than those trails. However, there is a section of the Coyote Creek Trail, about 2 miles long, between Silver Creek Valley Rd and Hellyer Park that was devoid of caches, even though there is a large neighborhood across the street from the creek along Coyote Road.
This multi-cache sequence was an attempt to rectify that situation. It begins on the county-run Coyote Creek Trail, crosses over to a developed city park, and ends in undeveloped city parkland. This sequence consists of 3 caches. The first is right next to the Coyote Creek Trail. It has the coordinates of the next cache written on it. Cross over the bridge to get to the other caches. Cache 2 is in the developed part of Shady Oaks Park. It's just a clue with no room for trading items. Replace it exactly the way you found it. It has a redundant backup in case one gets lost. There is no need to go into the bushes. From cache 2, you can see the park's big lawn, playground, picnic areas, and basketball courts. The final cache is a camo'd round container, about the diameter of a CD.
The undeveloped part of the park is an abandoned walnut grove. The trees are still there, along with some big oak trees. I was thinking of extending this multi far into it, but I thought I'd let other people have a chance at it. These caches will introduce you to this area and hopefully will inspire you to put your own caches here. The walnut grove is about 0.3 miles long along Coyote Road, which is pretty long for a city park. It fills the wide space between the road and Coyote Creek. There are lots of good hiding spots and plenty of room. The old walnut grove roads run throughout the park. This can be an interesting place to explore, especially by bike. Caution: the shadier oak trees, especially near the creek, are good hiding spots, so good you may find homeless people camping in there. Watch out.
The terrain is perfectly flat. The Coyote Creek Trail and developed city park are wheelchair-accessible, but the grove may be difficult because of soft and uneven ground.
For more on the Coyote Creek Trail, see: (visit link)
http://www.rhorii.com/bayareaparks/CoyoteCreekTrail/CoyoteCreekTrail.html
1/27/08: updated the hints, bumped up the rating a hair.
2/10/09: Stage 1 was muggled. I replaced it with a nano a short distance away. It is only a step or two from the trail, not on the creek side.
6/1/09: Stage 1 reappeared like magic. It's at N37° 15.859 W121° 47.526, so if you can't find the new stage 1, look for the old one, which is much bigger, but not necessarily easier to find.
6/23/11: This used to be a 4-stage cache, but stage 3 became a homeless camp. I bypassed that stage, so now this is a 3-stage cache. The final is in the grove, but only a little over 100 feet from the road. You can even see it from the road. You can stay on park paths and roadside paths to get close to the cache without having to cut through the grove.
1/14/13: Stage 1 appears to have been semi-muggled, so I'm switching back to the original stage 1 (see above).
1/20/13: Stage 1 was fine. It's now the backup, It's at N 37° 15.846 W 121° 47.516. If you can't find the primary, look for the backup.
1/25/15: Stage 1 was muggled. I replaced it in the same place. The backup was still there.
11/25/15: The cache disappeared. I replaced it with a micro. It only has a logsheet. Bring your own pen.
7/21/16: Stage 1 was damaged, and the clue disappeared. The backup is now stage 1. It was the original Stage 1 anyway.
Note that a perimeter trail is being built around the orchard. Construction may interfere with finding the final stage of the cache, temporarily.
9/13/16: Checked on Stage 1 and 2 and re-measured the coordinates. I replaced the Stage 1 backup. I see what the mixup was. The listed coordinates were for the Stage 1 backup that got trashed. Sorry for the confusion. I updated the coordinates to the latest readings. Backup is at N 37° 15.847 W 121° 47.514
11/25/18: Note that the perimeter trail is complete. It's called the Odette Morrow Trail. It provides a flat, 1-mile paved exercise trail, with benches. It runs around the old orchard. The final cache is now about dozen steps from the paved trail. If your GPS is directing you somewhere else, you have the wrong coordinates. Unfortunately, it means you'll be more visible to muggles when you're looking for the final, so be stealthy. Here are pictures of the trail and vegetation: (visit link)
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2081958488494329&type=1&l=4140c78044
3/10/22: The final disappeared, maybe carried off by animals. I replaced it with a micro with a pencil in it and secured it.