Ooper's Cache Traditional Geocache

Bring plenty of water and hiking boots/shoes on this trek to the summit. The various hikes are not treacherous, but they are long and have vertical gains from 660 to 1,310 feet.

There are many ways to the summit. Here are 5 routes from which you may choose.

• From the South by Southeast (least difficult):
  • Option #1: This will take you on a paved fire road up to Mt. Lee. There you can stop to look at the backside of the Hollywood Sign and grab the Hollywood Views cache. The last third of a mile to Ooper's cache is on a single-track path. You will not need to scramble on this path, but the drop-off in one section is fairly dramatic. The trail head is through an arched doorway and the coordinates are N34 07.817 W118 19.154. Parking is available on the downhill side of the street just before you reach the trail head. A one-way hike to the cache is about 2.1 miles. The vertical gain is about 660'.
  • Option #2: This will take you on a dirt fire road up to Mt. Lee. There you can stop to look at the backside of the Hollywood Sign and grab the Hollywood Views cache. The last third of a mile to Ooper's cache is on a single-track path. You will not need to scramble on this path, but the drop-off in one section is fairly dramatic. The trail head is up a horse path. Parking is available at N34 07.744 W118 18.888. A one-way hike to the cache is about 2.3 miles. The vertical gain is about 900'.
  • Option #3: This is the longest, but most 'cacheable' route. It will take you on a dirt fire road up to Mt. Lee. On your way you can grab the Batman's Cave, Slumbo's Broken Heart, and Cub Scout 351 caches. Then at the top of Mt. Lee you can stop to look at the backside of the Hollywood Sign and grab the Hollywood Views cache. The last third of a mile to Ooper's cache is on a single-track path. You will not need to scramble on this path, but the drop-off in one section is fairly dramatic. Parking is available at N34 07.499 W118 18.821. If that lot is full, turn around and go back a tenth of a mile to N34 07.364 W118 18.933. A one-way hike to the cache is about 3.5 miles. The vertical gain is about 1,160'.
• From the West (medium difficultly): From this direction on the path to the cache you will see some great 'aerial' views of the Hollywood Reservoir. The trail is clear with and mostly free of overgrowth. It follows a rocky single-track trail that switchbacks (.25miles to the cache) up to a ridge then follows the ridgeline to the summit. Parking is available at N34 07.911 W118 20.273. Walk up Wonder View Drive to the trail head. A one-way hike to the cache is about 1.45 miles. The vertical gain is about 915'. (From the West is Brainerd's favorite route to the cache).
• From the North (most difficult): Coming from Jacks View - The Last Bro cache. It is a steep climb on on overgrown trails from Forest Lawn Drive past Jacks View and up to the ridge. Parking is available at N34 08.824 W118 19.923. The trail head is just 200' to the East. A one-way hike to the cache is about 1.6 miles. The vertical gain is about 1,310'.

The cache was placed by both Tozainamboku and Brainerd. It was named in memory of Brainerd's 14-year-old cat, Ooper, who passed away on July 4, 2003. When placing the cache, Brainerd spread his ashes at the summit. Fear not -- the ashes are NOT in the cache container!