The Bay Area is full of great hikes, but one thing is clear--there are few caches located in places that take a little hard hiking to reach. The Hardcore Hiker series hopes to remedy that.
This cache is located near the peak of Mt. Sizer in Henry Coe State Park, Northern California's largest state park. Big Henry is full of great butt-kicking hikes. There are plenty of non-hiking activities in the park as well, from wildflower season in the Spring to tarantula mating season in October. Mountain biking is particularly popular.
Mt. Sizer is an absolute killer during the summer, and not all that easy the rest of the year. The shortest route, Shortcut Trail up and back (~13 miles), will make even the heartiest of hikers respect Big Henry Coe. At only 3216 ft, it's not a towering peak, but the HQ is at 2600 ft, and the low point on the trail is around 1580 ft. Thus, there is plenty of elevation gain in both directions.
The travesty that this cache aims to help is that many people stop at "The Bench" when hiking to Mt. Sizer. The Bench is located about 1.5 miles from Mt. Sizer at the top of a steep trail. In addition to not reaching the peak, stopping at the bench forfeits a beautiful ridgeline hike. While it is true that most of the work has been done by reaching "The Bench," it simply isn't Mt. Sizer. The peak is, in fact, Higher Than You Think. {This bench was previously absurdly tall, but was replaced with a human-sized bench in 2013}
So hike the extra 3 miles round trip, enjoy the views, and reward yourself with the cache.
This is a non-trivial hike--bring plenty of water and remember that the hike back to HQ is uphill a good portion of the way.
The ammo-box cache is about 80 ft off the trail. The flora around the cache has changed greatly over the years, during which there was a fire, but the cache is always just sitting on some rocks.
If this is your style of cache, be sure to visit all the caches in the Hardcore Hiker series. Here is a list of those who have found caches in the series. Are you hardcore?