4th Annual Hollister Hills Geocache Bash

Since my last post, we have relocated to Manteca, California, about an hour east of our former city of San Jose where I lived for 24 years. It was The Move From Hell and boy are we glad it’s over! We like our new, much smaller town, and there’s a whole new area for me to explore. Our new house is much, much nicer than our old place and it costs less too. Of course, we’re now a lot more distant from the Bay Area job market and many friends, so the move has not been without it’s downsides.

Wait, did I mention that we’re now closer to Yosemite? Tahoe too, and the Sierra. I’m stoked

I’ve done some early exploration around town, and a couple of neighboring towns, but have barely scratched the surface. Manteca has no shortage of murals, that’s for sure. I’ve been posting photos to Facebook, but look for some to show up here including an overdue 12 of 12 post Real Soon Now.

But enough of the status report, let’s get on to this year’s Geocache Bash, the 4th annual one at Hollister Hills SVRA. This year, the offroad & geocaching event was moved from spring to the tail end of September, when there are fewer conflicting events on the park’s schedule. Unlike last year, we opted against camping overnight after the event, which was in retrospect a good idea, as we were all tired and toasty from the long hot day. We all slept very well in our own beds that night, and used Sunday as a lazy recovery day.

The event followed the pattern of previous ones, with registration and welcome in the morning, followed by the participants being set loose until lunch was provided at noon. Then there was more time for wheeling and caching until 2:30 when we turned in our answer booklets and received raffle tickets in exchange. The raffle – with some nice donated prizes as always – concluded the event.

This year, a new section of the park was available for participants on foot. It’d going to only be open to hikers, bicyclists and equestrians when it opens to the general public in the near future.

We met up with friends Bill and Dave on the drive down to the park. It’s always nice to see a Land Rover at an event, particularly on those rare occasions when they don’t require a tow to make it. ;^) At the park, I was able to see the new JKs of my friends Tom and Richard in person for the first time, and Thomas’s FJ Cruiser that teamed up with us throughout the day.

The family had a good time again and it was great seeing a lot of geocaching friends as always. Allison was always on point, eager to be the first in our small group to spot a geocache, and she was almost always successful. We took it a bit easier than earlier years but still got some challenging geocache hunts, as well as some tricky sections of trails, both in the Upper Ranch and Hudner sections.

It was good fun and it only cost us some time and a tank of gas to attend. Thanks again to the Hollister Hills SVRA staff for putting on this fun family event, the Geocachers of the Bay Area volunteers, and HHORA for their continued support. I’m looking forward to next year’s event.

Hollister Hills Geocache Bash IV Gallery