One of the many great things about living in the Sierra foothills
is its diversity of wildlife. I am constantly amazed at the
quantity and variety of wildlife to be seen. I enjoy viewing the
creatures that inhabit this area so much that I thought I would
start a series of caches to share some of my sightings with others.
Rarely seen anymore in the wild the "Sacramento Bee" (a gigantic
relative of the Bumble Bee) was once widely distributed up and down
the Sacramento delta and surrounding foothills. Early miners
arriving in Sacramento at the beginning of the gold rush were often
threatened by these extremely large bees. The venom of the
Sacramento Bee was potent enough to have terminal effects on the
unfortunate miner who was unlucky enough to get stung.
It did not take long for eradication efforts to begin in an attempt
to eliminate this deadly insect. Early on in the eradication effort
miners printed a daily report that was distributed and posted
around affected areas detailing sightings of the bees and
discussing different methods of eradication. Later on, with the
decine in the population of these insects the newsletter changed
its format to include local events and news and was eventually
named "The Sacramento Bee" in honor of its roots.
Enough history...now on with the cache! When you arrive at the
posted coordinates you will be in an ideal position to safely view
the gigantic honeycomb of this gigantic bee. As far as I've
observed there is only one bee remaining and it appears to be
fairly sedentary and has been in the same cell of the honeycomb
each time I've gone by. Below is a photo of the remaining
Sacramento Bee in his cell of the honeycomb.
WARNING !
The Sacramento Bee is extremely venomous, and climbing on the
honeycomb can be destructive to the structure, so for your safety,
and to help preserve the bee and its honeycomb, I risked life and
limb and climbed up personally to take the photo to the left. At no
time during this cache should you have to climb the honeycomb or
disturb the bee!
END OF WARNING!
Sharp eyes will be necessary, and a viewing device such as
binoculars may be helpful in locating this solitary bee. Once
you've spotted it you will need to do a little counting. Near the
South end of the honeycomb there is a tunnel like structure with
its height posted in feet and inches. Take the number in the "feet"
position and count down that number of cells from the one the bee
is residing in. From this cell then take the number in the "inches"
position and count to your right that number of cells. If you do
this correctly you will find a cell with an object containing the
coordinates to the final cache. If you don't count it right...then
I don't know what you'll find. In either case the object with the
coordinates is camouflaged but easily enough found so don't dig or
remove loose rocks to find it.
I hope you enjoy this cache! And as always when dealing with
wild and dangerous creatures be sure to attract as little attention
as possible while observing them, be sure to disturb them as little
as possible, and leave as little indication of your presence behind
as possible.