Hipparchus: Temporarily disabling this one because of the Hawk Fire.
The fire started the evening of August 22 about five miles north of Reno and has run to roughly 15,000 acres on Peavine, still at zero containment as I write this. The cache coordinates sit inside the mapped fire perimeter, and satellite thermal detections put active fire within about 80 meters of the site.
Please don't go looking. The mountain will be closed while crews work it, and after that the real hazards are stump holes, ash pits and unstable snags — those stick around for weeks.
Honestly, the container is the least of it. It's a steel ammo can and those come through grass and brush fires more often than you'd expect. What I'm sick about is the grove. Those aspen carvings were the whole reason for this cache — Basque sheepherders and whoever else came through that high camp over the last century, leaving their names in the bark. Aspen groves usually hold up well in Great Basin fires, wetter and greener than the sage around them, and that spring-fed meadow should have been the safest ground on the hill. A fire that ran 15,000 acres in two days doesn't stop for much.
I'll get up there when it's safe and legal and post what I find. Thanks for eighteen years of visits to this one, and for reading the trees.
— Hipparchus