Tree Nine is one of the major landmark trees in
Santa Cruz. It is a very large douglas fir that is easy to climb
with a ladder and a rope swing. It is very popular with college
kids and you can get an apparently fantastic view from an easy
climb up the tree.
The name:
There are several reasons for the name of the tree. For one, the
closest college is college 9 and it is the ninth stop on the Seep
Zone Interpretive Trail. Another is that people feel as if they are
on 'cloud 9' when at the top of the tree admiring the view. One of
the most supersticious reasons is that once a girl fell from the
top of the tree and broke nine branches on the way down from her
deadly fall. Apparently this makes the tree haunted.
How to get there:
There are several different ways to get to the cache. The easiest
and most direct way is to start at the beginning of the Seep
Interpretive Trail and climb the hillside to the top of the hill.
The trail is zigzaggy and a bit of a nice little workout. It begins
on Spring Road and i have the coordinates as a waypoint below.
Please don't step off the trail into the areas taped off with red,
yellow or orange tape. They are for a Bio class.
http://ucreserve.ucsc.edu/Art/SeepZoneMapLrg.gif
The Wishing Tree:
Within close proximity of Tree Nine is the Wishing Tree. People
write their wishes down on a sheet of paper and then stick them on
the branches of the tree.
The cache:
The cache is a former Jellybean jar just off the trail, within
about 20 feet of the wishing tree and about 40 feet of tree nine.
Please replace the cache well and try not to attract attention if
there are people around.
Now go! And explore UCSC! There are many hidden secrets in the
woods and this is just one (two) of them.