Please be prepared to make the full circuit hike. The distance is
about 8 miles, and the book time is 4 hours. Allowing a little time
to fuss with the geocaches, and it'll take, lemme see... Clear your
calendar for the day, get an early start, pack a lunch, and bring 1
or 2 quarts of water per geocacher. Your mileage may varry,
depending on the season. Make sure you can get back to the car
before nightfall, even if you can't locate all the caches. This is
not a task for a novice hiker, or a novice geocacher.
Each of the first 4 geocaches contain only a geocache notice,
and a laminated card with the coordinates to the next cache. The
coordinates are in 3 formats: dd mm.mmm, dd.dddddd, and UTM. You
may find emergency supplies in caches 2-4. All the caches, except
the first one, are in rustic New England natural rock fences.
By the numbers, then:
1) Park at N41 22.825 W71 40.621. The cache is a short distance
from the road, at the coordinates listed for this cache. Return to
the road and follow yellow blazes North on Prosser Trail Road. This
is the Vin Gormley Trail.
2) At the top of the rocks.
3) Not far from the trail, behind a tree.
4) A bit further from the trail than 3. If you look at the
pictures, it's in the gap under the 2 large, horizontally-oriented
rocks.
5) No hints.
You are advised to use the photographs to zero-in, especially on
3 and 4, where I have reason to believe the fix may not be accurate
due to foliage.
The intent here is to link 5 rather easy caches. Anyone willing
to hike the full trail, and fool with a GPS receiver should be able
to crack the system. If you have a rough time finding any of the
caches, please accept my apologies, and get back to me so I can
make it smoother for the next cacher.
Please be sure you return each cache site to its original
condition. The main weakness of the geocache system is that some of
the caches may be vulnerable to inadvertent discovery and
plundering. It's the price we pay for EZ 2 find caches!
The original contents of the final cache were: mini-stapler,
mini-screwdriver set, hot wheels, a miniature domino game, some
flags, an Australia keyring, and - now, this is a unique item - 5
certificates attesting to the geocacher's achievement.
By the way, this cache system will make a nice 'twofer' with
The Road Less Traveled. It's previous companion, "Butch and
Sundance" was destroyed in a fire. A word of caution. Parts of the
trail are subjected to hunting activities. Hikers should wear 200
square inches of orange between the second Saturday in October and
the last day of February. Let's be safe!