Holly Hunter Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(large)
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Located in the center of the Holly Shelter Game Management Area. The only hints of civilization are the long sandy roads, two power lines, and drainage ditches. Remoteness not found elsewhere and flora unique to southeastern North Carolina. ***GATES ARE USUALLY OPEN SEP 1 TO APR 1 - CHECK BEFORE YOU GO.***
There are two entrances to this huge 64,743 acre NC Wildlife Resources Commission Area. One is just north of Topsail Baptist Church on US 17 (N34 24.605, W077 39.404) and the other is from the Shaw Highway Road that runs between NC 53 and 210 east of the Northeast Cape Fear River. Be sure to track yourself going in or obtain a map (area management office 910-259-5555 M-F) since all the roads look the same and is easy to get lost the first time. The vehicle gates (orange bar gates) are usually closed from April 1 to September 1 to allow land management repair of roads, so call the number above M-F if you want to drive in for sure. Holly Shelter is open to non-vehicular traffic, foot and bicycle, year-round. The roads are marked at each intersection with orange concrete posts and can be challenging to non-four wheel drive vehicles after a good rain. The intersection of New and Military Roads is near the cache. Hunters are present during hunting season (Sept-Mar) on Mondays, Wednesdays, Saturdays, and holidays so keep an eye out for them as well as small deer hunting beagles that are hard to see and run towards oncoming cars expecting a lift. Off-days during hunting season (Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday) are the best times to drive in and often desolate. Because of the distance involved, approx. 10 miles roundtrip from north gate and 20 miles roundtrip from south gate I rate the terrain difficulty as 2 for cars, 3 for bicycles, and 4 for hikers. Be prepared to mosquitoes during warmer weather. Roads are long and straight - driving fast is tempting but surface can be deceivingly slick with large pot holes and animals. Drive safely at appropriate speeds. If you smoke, be extremely careful with your butts as the area is often under an Extreme Fire Danger Condition when dry - wildfire burned 1 million+ acers in this area in 1986. **Note - Geocacher from Nov 2008 reported a Yellow Jacket nest approx. 3 paces NE of the cache. Use caution when retrieving with children or pets and have your escape route back to car planned in case they swarm.*** Hyperlinks to maps and info about Holly Shelter: http://216.27.49.98/pg04_HuntingTrapping/pg4a3.htm# http://www.audubon.org/chapter/nc/nc/IBAs/Coast/holly_shelter.htm http://www.ncwildlife.org/ :) Semper Quaero!
Following text added by NCreviewer as the CO doesn't appear to be active. I received a message from the offices at the Wildlife Resources Commission today: Of interest to the geocaching community is the restriction of geocaching during the Youth Turkey Season (April 4 – April 10) and the regular Turkey season (April 11 – May 9). Geocaching will be prohibited during these times. Geocachers will still be able to use Holly Shelter Game Lands on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday as this particular game lands is a three day per week hunting area (Monday, Wednesday and Saturday). Stone’s Creek game lands is a six day per week hunting, meaning only Sunday would be open to Geocaching. This has not been extended to the fall hunting seasons currently. Please advise the Geocaching community of this by attaching it to any of the geocaches that may be on Stone’s Creek or Holly Shelter game lands. We don’t wish to have any geocachers issued any paperwork at the minimum and absolutely don’t want anyone to get injured.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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