Even though there are many caches on the nearby trails there are no
caches on this road. And with the recent road closure due to a
landslide now seems like a good time to place a cache. Way back in
the 90's Highland Road slide big-time. So big that I assumed it
would never be rebuilt. The mountain bikers got accustomed to
carrying their bikes across the slide.
But obviously driving a car was never an option. But the county
proved me wrong and the road was rebuilt and everything was good in
the world. At least until the Winter of 2005/06. We had record
rains and the road slid again, but in a different spot. The local
residents who would now have to drive down to the coast to Highway
1 and then over from Santa Cruz took matters into their own hands
and cleared the slide so the road was one lane passable. Amazingly,
the road did not slide during the following winter. But it
continued to get undercut until the county closed it by putting up
8000 lbs barriers. Those pesky residents were so unhappy about the
prospects of having a much longer commute that they somehow moved
the barriers. But ultimately the county won out by threatening
legal action so the barriers are back up.
Note that the road to the left is someone’s driveway that
goes uphill.
For those local residents this road closure is definitely a
Major inconvenience. Instead of a 11 mile drive to the
summit of Highway 17 it is now 40 miles. For those who use the road
to get to Soquel Demonstration Forest the extra 2 mile bike ride
each way is only a Minor inconvenience. To see the latest
road status go to this link.
The cache itself is located just past the original slide zone
from the Summit Road side. If you drive up Eureka Canyon you can
park right next to the cache.
I set the cache up as a compilation CD exchange cache. To start
it off there are 3 CD's, one ska music, one I made for a friend's
b-day (various rock music) and another CD I found in a cache near
San Luis Reservoir. If you decide to take a CD please have one to
replace. And forget those bulky jewel cases. They take up too much
space. Just put the CD in a paper or plastic envelop. When logging
in your find please indicate what CD you took and what you
left.
4/19/11 - thanks to dbased for reminding me that the road
is once again closed due to a big slide from the heavy winter
rains. Check here for recent pics:
link