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Black Hornet Mine

Statistics

  • Date - 03/09/2002
  • Elevation - < 7,000'
  • Route - Southeast Gully
  • Miles - 3.8
  • Elevation Gain - 1,319'
  • ACME Mapper - Link
  • CalTopo - Link
  • Partners - Chuck Bauman

Description

My first hike of the year was spur of the moment as Chuck gave me a call at work on Friday to see if I was doing anything the following morning.  He didn't have to work this weekend so he invited me to go on a quick unplanned hike.  Black Hornet Mine is located northeast of Boise, Idaho, just north of Lucky Peak Dam.  Chuck had a few options lined up for us when I arrived at his house Saturday morning with one of them being Black Hornet Mine.  He had been reading an international geocaching website and thought it might be fun to check one out.  The GPS site simply posts geocache locations by latitude and longitude, and you simply hike to the site using your GPS to see what has been hidden.

After reading about this particular geocache, I am certain that we were the first individuals to access it from the southeast.  We drove northeast on Highway 21 and started our hike at a maintenance shop just past the Hilltop Cafe.  We hiked up the drainage along an old road for about a mile before we had to start going cross country to find the cache.  Along the way, we saw a lot of wildlife including over 100 deer, four elk, one coyote, and several hawks.  We were in snow the whole way, but nothing too treacherous.  We simply followed a small creek to within 100 yards of the cache and then scrambled around until we found the container.  The geocache included an old cell phone, a log book, a five dollar bill, and hacky sack, and several other items.  It also contained a letter explaining why it was there and what geocaching is.  You are instructed to sign the log book and leave an item if you take something out.  From the mine, we scrambled through the snow up to the southern ridge where you could see the Micron headquarters.  After this, we followed the ridge back and slipped down on to the trail before going past the maintenance shop to the highway. 

Photos

Not Applicable