Taylor Mountain Park Kick-Off & Breakfast Potluck Event Cache

We’re very proud to annouce that this event is sanctioned by and in cooperation with the Sonoma County Regional Parks Department. A group of local cachers have joined efforts to make this Kick-off Event and the new caches in the park being published on the day of the event a reality by cultivating a close working relationship with the Rangers that oversee this beautiful property. We would like to thank the Sonoma County Regional Parks Department for allowing us to hold this Kick-Off celebration and especially for working with us to officially open this new regional park up for our geocaching pleasure!

Where: Taylor Mountain Regional Park parking lot (at the event’s coordinates)

When: Sunday, May 5th, 2013 8:30 AM PDT - 10:00 AM PDT

Why: To see the new Taylor Mountain Regional Park property and:
* discuss the highlights of the long term Master Plan for the property
* review the unique biodversity and environmentally sensitive areas of the park
* enjoy some potluck breakfast goodies while we meet and greet fellow geocachers
* have a raffle drawing for the large stash of very cool geo-swag donations
* hand out advance copies of 12 *brand new* geocaches that will not be offically
published on geocaching.com until later that afternoon

What’s Planned:

1. We’ll be discussing the highlights of the park’s long term master plan that includes:
   * an additional 17 miles of trails
   * a new parking lot and restroom facilities off of Peteluma Hill Road
   * a group picnic area
   * a children’s playground
   * and even a B&B eventually at an old homestead located on the property
   
   
2. We’re in hopes of having a Sonoma County Regional Park representitive there to talk to us about:
   * the historic nature of this beautiful property
   * the rare species that live on the mountian
   * the environmentaly sensitive areas to avoid
   * the rules regarding placing caches in this new park
   They will also be selling annual park passes and answering any questions you may have about the new property.
   
   
3. Food tables, napkins, water, and possibly coffee for the breakfast potluck will be provided. Attendees are asked to please bring some sort of breakfast finger foods to share so we can minimize the need for utensils, large plates, etc.
   
   
4. At the close of the event we will have a raffle to give away quite a bit of geocaching swag that has been donated for the event. All event attendees will receive one raffle ticket upon signing in and an additional raffle ticket if they bring a geo-related raffle item to donate for the drawing.
   
   We’d like to thank all of the following companies for their very generous, ultra-cool geo-swag donations to our raffle drawing!
   * Groundspeak (aka: geocaching.com)
   * MagellanGPS
   * REI (Santa Rosa)
   * CacheAddict
   * CoinsAndPins.com
   * GeoSurvivalGear
   * GxProxy.com
   * Cachingcontainers.com
   * MyGeocachingStore.com
   * Landsharkz
   * FTF Geocacher Magazine
   * Sonoma County Regional Parks Foundation - has donated a Sonoma County Annual Park Pass that will be the grand finale drawing for our raffle ( a $69.00 value)!
   
   
5. Finally, for those of you that want to do a bit of caching in the new park, we will have handouts (after the raffle) listing a special series of * 12 brand new caches* and their coordinates that won't be offically published on geocaching.com until later that afternoon. This cache series will contain at least one of each of the following cache types:
   * Traditional Cache
   * Multi-Cache
   * Puzzle Cache
   * Letterbox Hybrid Cache
   * Wherigo Cache
   That gives attendees a chance to rack up as many as 6 different kinds of caches (the Event Cache included) in one day! Add to that a total of 12 FTF possibilities for these and you can double your fun!
   
   Complimentary copies of the current trail map of the property will be available for those of you that plan to hike and cache the poperty after the event.
   
6. We'll have a table to display and trade Path Tags and discover/trade trackable items.
   

Parking: This is a Sonoma County Regional Park, so you will either need to have a current Sonoma County Regional Park pass or pay the $7 parking fee at the park pay station once you arrive. We are in hopes of having a park’s representitive there on site to sell annual Sonoma County Regional Park Passes ($69.00) if you want to buy one the day of the event.

IMPORTANT NOTES regarding parking:

1. The parking lot at Taylor Mountian has capacity for 85 cars. While we don’t anticipate this will be a problem, we’re encouraging those that can carpool to do so. We’re suggesting that you plan to rendezvous with friends in the Costco parking lot (about a mile away from the event location), and then come up to Taylor Mountian in one car. This will also save on the parking fees for those of you that don’t have a annual park pass (see additional waypoints for the Costco parking lot below).
   
   
2. If indeed the parking lot fills up (again we don’t expect this), there is extremely limited parking just outside the park gates. There's only room for 8 cars on this little stretch of gravel and if you park here you must have all 4 wheels off the pavement or you risk being ticketed because this road is the only access to the property for the fire department. We’ve been pre-warned by the parks department that citations are issued for cars parked illegally on this road and they will most likely be monitoring it on the day of the event. Fair warning, a violation will run you $75.00 so come early and get a spot in the parking lot.

NOTE to out-of-the-area cachers: This event dovetails nicely into three events on the previous day May 4th, giving you an extra reason to come up to Beautiful Sonoma County for the entire weekend!

The events of the Sonoma County Cachers' Weekend: