GCMWTM On the Outside Looking In (Traditional Cache) in Connecticut, United States created by SaxTeacher & Ellen1

This cache has been archived.

Pofe: Greetings from Geocaching.com

I have been looking at caches in the area that have been temporarily disabled for a while now and it looks like your cache has been under the weather for some time. While I feel that Geocaching.com should hold the location for you and block other cachers from entering the area around this cache for a reasonable amount of time I don’t think we can do so any longer. Therefore, I have archived this cache. If you haven’t done so already, please pick up any remaining cache bits as soon as possible.

When repairs to this cache are completed and it is time to have it reposted, it will be no problem. Just drop me a note and let me know the GC waypoint number of the cache or better yet, the URL of the cache page. You will still be able to access your cache page just as before by going to your “My Cache Page” and clicking the link of your cache.

I will be more than happy to take a look at your cache again to see if it is still is within the guidelines of the Geocaching.com website for cache placement and posting.

I want to thank you for the time that you have taken to contribute to geocaching in the past and am looking forward to seeing your cache up and running in the future.

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Kind Regards,
Pofe
Volunteer Cache Reviewer
Geocaching.com

GCMWTM ▼

A cache by SaxTeacher & Ellen1 Message this owner

Hidden : 2/21/2005

Difficulty:

Terrain:

Size: Size: small (small)

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Geocache Description:

Small blue tupperware container located near a picturesque spot in Greenwich Point Park, Old Greenwich, CT.

Greenwich Point Park (147 acres) is a great place for a hike, bike ride, or swim. Other things to do here: enjoy views of Long Island and Manhattan, stroll through the Holly Grove and Secret Garden, fish in Long Island Sound, sunbathe at the swimming beach. Charcoal grills and picnic tables are available. In the summer there is a snack bar, a little seashore museum, and a free paperback-book exchange shelf, and 15-foot sailboats can be rented by the hour from Old Greenwich Yacht Club.

HOURS:
The park is open year round from 6am to sunset. The exact closing time is posted on a sign as you enter the park. They are strict about closing time; you'll hear a siren 5 minutes before as they start to clear the park.

PARK FEES:
1. During the WINTER season, December through March, admission and parking are free. Dogs are allowed Dec-March only.
2. During the SHOULDER seasons (mid-April through mid-May and mid-October through mid-November), there is a charge for parking ($20) but no admission fee.
3. During the SUMMER season (mid-May through mid-October) daily admission is $10 per person and parking is $20 per day.

Admission tickets and parking passes cannot be bought at the park entrance - you have to buy them first at the Eastern Greenwich Civic Center, located 2 miles away on Tomac Road at N41 02.106 W073 33.769 and open daily 9-5.

Complete fee info is at (visit link)

If you want to go in the summer without having to pay, they do not charge pedestrians or cyclists before 8AM (and perhaps later too). So you could park on a regular street, then walk/run/bike to the cache without having to pay. (Note: the nearest legal on-street parking is on Nawthorne Rd or Wahnetta Rd, 2 miles from the cache at N41 01.11 W073 33.79)

Dogs are allowed Dec-March only.

Past the parking lots there is a road which circles the park (and passes within a few yards of both this cache and Gatsby). On weekends (not sure which days/times) they sometimes close the road to cars, turning it over completely to walkers/runners/cyclists. At these times, you'll have to walk a bit less than a mile from the parking lots to the cache.

Park History:
Greenwich Point is the site of the founding of the Town of Greenwich. In 1640 Daniel Patrick, Robert Feake, and Feake's wife Elizabeth, who were fleeing the oppression of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, landed in Greenwich. They purchased Greenwich Point and what is now Old Greenwich from the Sinoway Indians for 25 coats and some trinkets.

Indians had used the island as early as 1000 AD for hunting and fishing camps in the summer months. It is doubtful that they conceived of the transaction with the Europeans as a sale of the land. Indians of this area possessed rights to use the things of the land for hunting, fishing, or gathering; ownership of the land itself was an unheard of concept.

Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, oystermen, fishermen, hunters, and farmers profited from its water fowl, shore birds, and bountiful waters. In 1884, a Scottish merchant banker named J. Kennedy Tod transformed it into a grand estate, “Innes Arden” (little inlet), complete with a forty-room mansion, a road system, and a 9-hole golf course. He called it Tod’s Point.

When Tod died in 1925, the Point was bequeathed to the Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. The Town bought the Point in 1946 and turned it into the crown jewel of the town's park system. The mansion was remodeled into apartments for returning veterans. It was demolished in 1961 and you can now walk around the foundation overlooking the large salt water pond.

The point is an ecologically productive area. Beaches, sand dunes, rocky shore, salt marsh, and mud flats. Inland habitats include a pond, a lagoon and surrounding inland wetland; groves of Oak, Holly and Honey Locust, and Sassafras areas, patches of Cherry, Apple and various berry-producing shrubs. The Honey Locust grove has been set-aside as a wildlife sanctuary.

The rich variety of habitats shelter many types of wildlife. More than 200 species have been identified here. Skunks, rabbits, chipmunks, and muskrats; water birds such as Terns, Canadian Geese, Gulls, Green Heron, Blue Heron, Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets; various Songbirds; water organisms including mussels, killfish, silversides, and fiddler crabs. Clams and Oysters are common in offshore beds.

The above info is from an 8-page document about Greenwich Point Park available at (visit link)

Until 2001 the park was open only to town residents. A law student who lived in Stamford challenged this rule. The town fought the lawsuit all the way to the state supreme court - and lost. Now admission is free or $10, depending on the season (see above).

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Va n gerr. Tb bhg tngr naq nybat jnyy.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)