Cup of Gold Traditional Cache
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This short hike will take you along lovely Cascade Creek to the cache location at an old cabin on a bluff overlooking beautiful Lake Tahoe. From here, if you like, you can make your way down to the lake shore. Be sure the check out the huge Osprey nest way in the top of the tree to your north. The best place to park is just beyond the bridge if you are heading west.
Please be careful and respectful when searching for this cache. The cache is not hidden under or within the old ruins foundation.
Several famous American writers have lived in the Sierra at some point during their careers. In 1925, John Steinbeck—though not yet famous—joined their ranks. After spending six years at Stanford University studying to be a writer (but failing to graduate), Steinbeck moved to Lake Tahoe. Here he took a summer job at Fallen Leaf Lake Resort on Tahoe's South Shore, as a brief respite prior to launching his writing career. Instead, Steinbeck spent much of the next four years at Tahoe working, sometimes sparingly, on his writing and a string of part-time jobs.
In the summer of 1926, Steinbeck met Alice Brigham, who offered him a job as caretaker, handyman and chauffeur at her Cascade Lake summer estate. Steinbeck initially loved his time in this isolated paradise. The Brigham home included a beautiful library that Steinbeck used extensively as a resource for his writing. All he had ever wanted to do was to be a writer, and Steinbeck's letters from Tahoe speak of his frustration with his failure to get anything published. And while he hoped that his escape to Tahoe would help him write, Steinbeck complained that the relaxed atmosphere and the beauty of the surroundings made it difficult. Whether because of his chores at the estate, or swimming and sunbathing, he found it easy to be distracted.
In the fall of 1926, Brigham and her daughters headed back to San Francisco and Steinbeck settled in for a winter of seclusion. At the time, Tahoe was a summer resort and only a few crusty souls dared stay for the snowy months. When the families left in the fall, Steinbeck began a long, lonely winter at the estate. Steinbeck had two primary winter chores: hand sawing huge blocks of ice from the frozen Lake and dragging them to the icehouse where they would sit all summer under cover of sawdust, and splitting firewood for the coming spring and summer. Mail was the only communication with the outside world in winter, and whether by ski, snowshoe or sled, whenever Steinbeck heard the S.S. Nevada blowing its whistle, he hightailed it the two miles to Camp Richardson.
During his four years at Tahoe, Steinbeck completed his first book, Cup of Gold, a tale about Henry Morgan from Jamaica. He spent many years finding a publisher; the book is considered by most critics to be one of his worst novels. Legend has it that John Steinbeck spent some time living in this cabin.
FTF can claim a gold one dollar Sacagawea Coin.
Congratulations to Ocean Lovers for FTF! It was nice meeting you along the way.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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Treasures
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