Halloween-eve at GC75BP8 GeoCache and beyond

Just had to return to this location for a Halloween-eve visit! Since my first 3 visits to this area late last fall, which were all based on scant information gleaned from GeoCaching log posts, this time I head up there armed with hill shade map intel.

It's incredible to link all this information together and in the end come up with a nice way to access the Table Mtn. and Charcoal Road area even though most of the trails there are closed until next spring. There are more GeoCaches like this up along Charcoal Road that I hope to be able to access via this road and trail, although the trail maintenance leaves something to be desired :)

Grav3stones cache:
https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC75BP8

This cache has an incredible back story with lots of interesting twists and turns:

- AlphaRoaming, an avid GeoCacher, stumbles on this area in 2013 while exploring an abandoned (unnamed) road
- Posts his adventures in his blog
- Contacts the MidPen Open Space District and the California Pioneers historical group
- After identifying historical head stones, a MidPen work party goes in and recovers those stones in 2016
- This prompts an article in a local newspaper
- GeoCacher Werdave places a nearby cache with hints of an old road to the bottom of the canyon in 2016
- GeoCacher TickMag reads newspaper article, blog post and above GeoCache and heads out to the Grav3stones site to place a cache
- Later, AlphaRoaming sees cache listing and comes back with friend to revisit the site.
- AlphaRoaming's friend posts log entry about coming up via and old road the AlphaRoaming knew about along with other log entries about other roads and trails in the area.

Sometimes, it really pays to read and reread the cache descriptions and log entries to figure out all this before setting out.

A Secret Trailhead Redwood Pair (Premium cache):
https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC6F63Y

San Jose Mercury News article:
https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/04/04/herhold-unmarked-road-leads-to-historical-headstones/
https://web.archive.org/web/20170508023706/http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/04/04/herhold-unmarked-road-leads-to-historical-headstones/

AlphaRoaming blog posts:
https://alpharoaming.com/2014/09/29/headstones/
https://alpharoaming.com/2016/04/04/return-of-the-mysterious-headstones/

YouTube videos:
Initial cataloging (seems to be missing):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hID6_Cmgx28
Moving them out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V595-XMf8b0

Venturing off the established trails can be dangerous. There is no cell signal in this area. It's highly unlikely another person will come along. There are the the usual trail warnings:
https://www.openspace.org/preserves/monte-bello#know-before-you-go

Interesting tidbit on the YT algorithm: If the word "grav3stones" is spelled out correctly, then the video gets flagged. "Head stones" seems to be OK, but not that "G" word!
Wonder what George Carlin would make of the situation today:
https://youtu.be/kyBH5oNQOS0

More to come...
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