I started the Johnny Appleseed series about three months ago as I watched my caching karma droop over the years, and felt the need to give back, and explore the local trails in a different perspective. Since those 50 caches were placed, my karma has doubled from 0.35 to over 0.70, so I'm starting round two, sprinkling caches along the trails just a bit farther from home.
You made it! You're at the Virtual Top of Silicon Valley, Black Mountain! It isn't the tallest mountain in the bay area, but it is the tallest one closest to the nexus of Palo Alto, Mountain View, and Sunnyvale. I'm going to assume you've come from one of the Rancho San Antonio parking lots some 6 or 7 miles and 2400 feet below, in which case congratulations, you made it! Of course you could be cheating and coming from one of the two Monte Bello parking lots, but we'll give terrain credit as if you've really earned it.
To earn this virtual, send me an email with the name of the manufacturer of the metal swing gate, as well as the 4 character gate entrance name. The manufacturer name is two words; the 4 characters are of the form AA00, where A = some letter, 0 = some number. If for some reason those are not legible, tell me what is written on the red, white, and blue shield sign on the chain link fence around the antenna cluster behind you. For bonus points, post a selfie with the best bay view you can manage. I contend that the views on the mountain/ocean side are better, so come up and enjoy the area up top, rest your legs, etc. Welcome to the Top!
This is the 50th JAS cache of this second series, and 100th overall. We're stopping now, perhaps will pick up again some day in a more remote part of this lovely peninsula trail area. Congratulations to eanders94040 for the FTF!
Black Mountain is also listed as Peak 16 of the Nifty Ninety peaks of the Bay Area at 2800 feet. I made a public list of the closest geocaches to those 90 peaks, and added this virtual cache to mark the top of Black Mountain. If you're a fan of the list, come try the two Encouragement Caches we've created to honor the 90 (Tier 1 and Tier 2).
Good luck, enjoy the trail, and remember it is good to give back!
Virtual Reward - 2017/2018
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between August 24, 2017 and August 24, 2018. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards on the Geocaching Blog.
Updated June 16, 2018: upon request of one cacher, changed virtual recording rules.