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Tony Look Traditional Cache

Hidden : 7/28/2005
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
3 out of 5

Size: Size:   small (small)

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Geocache Description:

One hot summer day I was hiking out around Stevens Creek reservoir and I found myself on the Tony Look trail. I stopped at a nice spot and hid a cache and I returned home wondering - just who is Tony Look?


Claude "Tony" Look is a conservationist and trail advocate who has spent decades working on the establishment of hiking trails and preservation of natural lands throughout the Santa Cruz mountains.

In 1968, developers were preparing to build homes on Mt. McAbee, the geographic center of Big Basin park. The landowners offered 320 acres to the state, but unfortunately the state was financially unable to meet their terms. A development was planned whose entrance road would pass right through a campground. The Sempervirens Club that had formed in the early 1900s had become inactive, so a new group, led by Tony and photographer Howard King, organized themselves as the Sempervirens Fund. Their "May Day Campaign" was successful not only in saving the threatened Mt. McAbee, but in establishing a conservation group which has become instrumental in securing endangered parcels for parks in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Tony served as the executive director of the fund for 18 years.

"I saw what happened when they bought trees for a park, but not the watershed. Logging and fires caused erosion below, and trees started falling. Then I saw that development was beginning in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and the same thing could happen there."

    - Tony Look, founding Executive Director of Sempervirens Fund, 1971.


In 1969, Tony founded the Santa Cruz Mountain Trails Association and began their annual Trail Days. His efforts with the first Trail Days grew into the 26-mile Skyline to the Sea Trail. Over several years he played a key role in recruiting, training, supervising and feeding some 2,500 volunteers involved with completing this nationally renowned trail. Eleven years after the first Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Days, the event went statewide and ultimately led the first National Trail Day in 1992.

He served on the California Recreational Trails Committee from 1980 to 1995, for several of those years as its Chair.

In 1991, Tony was appointed to the Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation commission. While serving as a member, he found time to help a group of citizens start The Friends of Stevens Creek Trail.

In 1995, the American Hiking Society honored Tony as the Trail Volunteer of the Year in California.

In June 2001 the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department honored Tony by dedicating a section of the Stevens Creek Trail in his name.


I really enjoyed the trail. It's a fitting tribute to someone who worked so hard to preserve the great outdoors we enjoy today.


(Sources: stevenscreektrail.org, sempervirens.org, santacruzstateparks.org)

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

gjb qbmra srrg sebz cbfg, arne genvy, hcuvyy fvqr.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)