Sunshine and Geocaching

The sun finally has come out and the warmer weather took us out geocaching.  We started out with a multi geocache named "American Pie"  It was based around a dry levee intended to hold back water only if the nearby levees of Dutch and/or Sandmound sloughs fail. This one is designed to "100 year flood" standards ... I'll get back to you in a century or so and let you know if they worked. The homes are actually below the flood plain as are many Delta communities. This 5 part multi took us around the levee top, making for about a 4 mile loop.  It was a great cache and a fabulous walk.  We were greeted at the beginning of our journey by a hawk screeching overhead.  I tried to snap a picture of the hawk, but didn't have any luck getting a clear one.  We spotted hundreds of ground squirrels that would scurry out of sight as we approached their territory, some sand dunes, interesting mushrooms and cows ... doing what cows do ... eating grass, watching us and laying around the fields that surround this area. 

After completing the American Pie cache we stopped for lunch at a local restaurant, named "Buzz Inn".  The food was good old fashioned cooking and we sat for a bit discussing what our next cache should be.  

We did a couple of caches located on the streets of Oakley and then headed out to a section of the Big Break Regional Trail. Big Break was once an upland farm, now submerged. It is a small bay or estuary at the edge of the San Joaquin River, and lies in the zone where salty seawater meets snowmelt and runoff from the Sierra Nevada mountains.  The mixing of salty and fresh water produces an “edge effect” for increased habitat and species diversity. It makes Big Break a fine home or stopover spot for a wide variety of species, particularly birds and fish.  Big Break is home to 70 species of birds and several species of mammals. We were serenaded by thousands of  different species of birds as part of this trail took us alongside a water reclamation plant.  

Pussy-willows, blackberry bushes and open fields all within the town limits delighted us on this warmer winter day.
 

We found several caches but, as the setting sun brought cooler temperatures and our shadows danced in front of us, we had to turn around from our additional 2 mile hike with a promise to ourselves to come back here and finish the rest of the caches.

All in all it was a great day. 


Thanks for sharing our journey.
Jo


Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.  ~Albert Einstein