CROOKED CREEK Traditional Geocache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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West Point on the Eno is a superb park on the north side of Durham with historic grist mill buildings, well maintained trails along the Eno River and varied terrain. The park also hosts the annual Festival of the Eno around 4th of July weekend every year. This cache, a camouflaged, sandwich sized lock and lock type container, is hidden near Crooked Creek, a small tributary to the Eno River.
There are several choices for parking which I am sure you can figure out. If you haven't been to the West Point on the Eno Park before, you should go to the main entrance on Roxboro Road so you can see the old farmhouse and grist mill with water wheel.
The Eno Indians first used this area to fish, hunt, and grow crops. Arrowheads left behind by the tribe can still be found today. When white settlers came to the area they noticed the springs that contained freshwater, which motivated them to invest in building mills across the area. The first mill built in the Eno was named Synott's Mill, which started operating in 1752 by Michael Synott, an almost legendary pioneer, who had problems in his personal life and appeared in court often. Shortly after Michael Synott died in 1780 the area was purchased by William Thetford and Charles Abercrombie, who built West Point Mill. While these mills were being produced a community began to build up and became known as West Point. The community was successful for a period of time but eventually all of its inhabitants died out or moved on. West Point Mill served its owners for 160 years until it was shut down by a paratrooper named Jacob Eller returning from the war in 1942, the last mill on the Eno to do so.
You can find trails that lead you to within 150' or so of the cache before you will have to do some light bushwhacking. You should not have more than a 1 mi round trip hike.
There is some decent swag to start out (see attached photo). Remember to trade even or up to keep the fun going. If in doubt, trade up!
Please close cache carefully and hide with a bit of natural cover. There is a lot of tree cover here so expect some gpsr bounce.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Abg ba gur tebhaq