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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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This cache is a little over 2 miles from the nearest pavement. It is located southeast of the point where Batamote Wash joins up with Sausalito Creek, a dry creek. The cache is completely covered by rocks. The cache is on Arizona State Trust Land, so you will need a permit ($15 per year). The cache itself is a 6 quart Sterilite container with a white lid (i.e. looks similar to a Tupperware or Rubbermaid container).
This cache is not far off an old jeep trail leading from Honeybee Canyon into the Tortolita Mtns, but the jeep trail itself may not be easy to find if you are not familiar with the area. The trail rises about 200 feet over the course of the 2 miles, so it is not a steep climb. The trail can be hiked or ridden by mountain bike, although regular bikes could not handle this trail, since it is very rocky in some parts and very sandy in others.
At one time the jeep trail near which the cache is located started at the corral of one of the old ranches in this area, but now the trail starts in the exclusive Honeybee Ridge Estates, a gated community of homes from $1,000,000 up. If you know someone who lives in this millionaire community or if you’re willing to sneak around the gate at the construction entrance at Quiet Rain Dr, you can access the trail off of Dusty View Drive, just past the intersection with Dusty View Place. One of the security guards once let me past the checkpoint into the Honeybee Estates edition specifically to access the jeep trail, but I don’t know if other security guards feel the same way.
Another way to reach the jeep trail is to park at Honeybee Park, off Rancho Vistoso Blvd, and follow the wash under the bridge, as if you were going to the Honeybee Hoard or Stumped in Honeybee caches. You will follow Honeybee Wash well past these other caches, and at some point Honeybee Wash will curve around to the left when it meets the dry Sausalito Creek, which will be the right hand fork. You would take this fork, continuing north up Sausalito Creek. The cache is about 0.75 miles north of this junction, and altogether about 1.5 miles north of the Honeybee Hoard cache. If you follow this route, you will eventually turn right out of Sausalito Creek. If you were to continue up the dry creek in another 0.5 miles or so you would reach a windmill operated by the Martin Ranch.
I typically access the jeep trail on my mountain bike, by taking the powerline road which begins about 0.5 miles north of Honeybee Park along Rancho Vistoso Blvd at Quiet Rain Drive. About 1 mile up this powerline road, after you have gone through the State Trust Land gate, you will see two small piles of rocks on the left, marking a single track trail. This leads over a small ridge, which will put you onto the jeep trail that eventually leads you near the cache, which is perhaps 100 yards off the trail to the left.
A possible fourth way to reach the cache would be taking the Rail X dirt road off of Highway 77 in Catalina, and following it a little over 4 miles to the Indian Town Reservoir, a usually dry pit that is popular with dirt bike riders. From the Indian Town Reservoir you would follow the jeep trail about 2.5 miles south to the cache. Unless you are very familiar with the area I would not recommend this route, since finding the Indian Town Reservoir from the Rail X road is a little tricky.
Summer temperatures in this area are regularly over 100F. Given that this is a remote area, make sure to take plenty of water, since there is no opportunity to get water unless you continue up Sausalito Creek another 0.5 miles to the windmill, where you will have to fight hundreds of wasps for access to the cattle watering trough, and the water in that trough is not particularly appealing to say the least. I recommend carrying a minimum of 2 liters per person. The hike is a bit friendlier in the winter, but you should also make sure to take plenty of water, since you will dry out faster than you might think in the dry desert air.
On your way to the cache you will see the Santa Catalina Mtns to the east and south, with the highest point being Mt. Lemmon at 9157 feet. The northwest horizon is dominated by the southern ridge of the Tortolita Mtns, with Tortolita Peak rising to 4651 feet. Your base elevation for the jeep trail rises from about 3000 to about 3200 feet on the way to the cache. This entire area is full of rock outcroppings which look essentially like big piles of boulders. The area is typical of the Arizona Upland region of the Sonoran Desert, with saguaro, palo verde, mesquite, cholla, and prickly pear.
This is an open range area, so you may encounter occasional cattle. Move slowly and speak softly to them, since they spook easily and may injure themselves when running away from you. I usually sing cowboy songs to them. Animal life is somewhat scarce during the winter months, but the rest of the year you can expect to see a variety of wildlife. You should see lots of birds and lizards along the way, including turkey vultures, red tailed hawks, zebra tailed lizards, and whiptail lizards. You may also see lots of insects, including ants, cicadas, bees and wasps. If you go around sunrise or sunset you may also see coyote, javelina, and rattlesnakes. Every once in a long while you may even see a mule deer. On my way back from placing the cache I saw a Tiger Rattlesnake, a rare and beautiful snake. If you go in March or April, you may see gila monsters. This past April I saw 3 gila monsters in a 2 week period, all on the jeep trail within about 0.5 miles of the cache. The same rule applies to all of these creatures: If you don’t bother them, they won’t bother you.
The cache contains a log book along with dozens of small items, including matchbox cars, pencils, buttons, plastic animals, sunglasses, small rubber balls, marbles, golf balls, balloons, rifle shells I collected along the jeep trail, and other miscellaneous junk.
Note: Some visitors noted finding live ammo in the cache. I did not put this in. Please, no live ammo or dangerous objects of any kind. Let's keep this safe and fun for everyone.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ybbx sbe gur perfgrq fnthneb.
Sebz gur perfgrq fnthneb, ybbx sbe gur pyhfgre bs qrnq fnthnebf.