Hommocks - 40 Mile Desert Traditional Cache
Hommocks - 40 Mile Desert
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(micro)
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Fairly easy to get to just be careful during the wet season it can be muddy.
This is one of several caches The Traveling Naugahyde Hunters placed along the California Emigrant Trail Carson River Route. This section of the historic California Trail was opened from the Sink of the Humboldt River to the Carson River at Ragtown in the fall of 1848 by a wagon train of emigrants captained by Joseph B. Chiles. From Ragtown, the trail followed the Carson River westward to a junction with the Carson Pass Trail.
The Caches are near one of the several Trail Markers placed to mark the route. When you visit one of these caches you will be following the foot steps of the pioneers hope ya’ll enjoy the hunt.
After crossing Salt Creek the trail passed through a group of hummocks formed by alkali soil building up around the base of salt-tolerant shrubs.
Here is what one traveler had to say about this segment of the Carson Trail.
August 24th
We started on the desert at ten o'clock. The first ten miles was a little rolling. The road was good but no vegetation but sage brushes scattered here and there. The next ten miles the road was hard and as level as a house floor with no vegetation. Then it became somewhat sandy and rolling the wind having raised mounds of drifted sand every few rods. The last twelve miles was very bad the wheels of our wagons sinking half way up to the hub in sand and it was with extreme difficulty our cattle could get along. There was a relief station when we started on the desert from California to relieve emigrants that was in distress. We saw a number of pitiful objects. Some were very sick; others crazy from the effects of the hardships of the journey. There was two trading posts on the desert. They sold water for one dollar per gallon ($20.78 in 2002 dollars). The road on the last end of the desert was litterly strewn with the carcasses of horses, mules or cattle. Also numbers of wagons was to be seen where the cattle had given out and they had to leave the wagons.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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