This cache hide is located in the Knickerbocker Area of the Auburn State Recreation Area along the Olmstead loop trail in the CCL near Cool. This is a beautiful area in the Sierra Foothills and is well known for hiking, equestrian activities, and mountain bike cycling. The usual trail safety practices are recommended so watch for poison oak, snakes, and ticks.
A while back after I had made the cache find at "Ceremonial Rock," I decided to leave the area by hiking straight North. I broke out of the tree cover and went over a fence. It was late afternoon and the setting sun was making a white outcrop of rock glow almost iridescently. I had to go investigate. This is what I found, an outcrop of white quartz. Immediately "Gold" came to mind.
The California Gold Rush started at Sutter's Mill, near Coloma on January 24, 1848, when James Marshall found pieces of gold in the tailrace of the lumber mill they were building here on the American River. Sutter wanted to keep it quiet because he had visions of an agricultural center around his mill. It was Samual Brannan, publisher of a San Francisco Newspaper who published the find in March 1848. That's all it took the Gold Rush was on. Over 300,000 people from all over the world immediately migrated to California by any means possible. San Francisco went from a small hamlet to a large city almost over night. Statehood was soon to follow.
By 1850 most of the easily accessible gold had been collected and attention shifted to more difficult methods and locations. Panning would no longer produce gold in sufficient amounts. Miners graduated to placer mining which removed gold from gravel beds by using cradles, rockers, and "long toms." Water would be diverted from streams and rivers into a sluice alongside the river. Hydraulicking was another method used where water at high pressure was shot from a canon at hill sides. This was destructive to the environment and was soon outlawed. Hard rock mining finally came into play by digging mines and blasting rock to dislodge gold bearing quartz. Today it is estimated that 80% of the gold still remains in the ground. The only problem being is an economical means to extract the gold and turn a profit.
Scientist believe that global forces over hundreds of millions of years resulted in the concentration of gold in California. Some 400 million years ago California was at the bottom of a sea bed. Underwater volcanoes deposited lava and minerals, including gold, onto the sea floor. 200 million years ago, tectonic pressures forced the sea bed to rise. The hot magma forced its way upward under what is now California. The magma cooled as it rose and solidified with veins of gold formed within fields of quartz. These quartz outcrops became part of our Sierra Nevada mountain foothills. As you stand here at this cache site, think of the millions of dollars of GOLD that may be resting here just inches under your feet.
Take time to enjoy the area and treat mother nature kindly as you seek the cache. Be careful, the quartz rock has sharp edges. Replace the cache container as you found it. Feel free to embellish your log entry on the net making it interesting reading for the rest of us when we can't be there with you. It would be nice to learn of your day and experience.
Happy safe caching...
Papa-Tom from Cool 95614