The Battle of Shepherdstown, also known as the Battle of Boteler's
Ford, was the final battle of Robert E. Lee's Maryland Campaign,
his first invasion of the North. This cache, like
Shepherdstown Battlefield #1 and
Shepherdstown Battlefield #2 is a cache placed simply to
highlight an area of Jefferson County that has some interesting
Civil War history.
When researching the history of the other two areas in this
cache series, I stumbled upon information on this particular trail.
To reach this cache you will hike along a portion of a trail
created by the Shepherdstown Battlefield Preservation Association.
This trail visits several spots significant in the Battle of
Shepherdstown, which occurred in this area on September 19-20,
1862. The trail has an accompanying
podcast, which once downloaded, provides listeners with a
retelling of the events that occurred during this particular Civil
War battle. There are seven stops along the full walking tour and
each podcast stop is marked with a numbered wooden post.
Roadside parking is available along River Road, although do be
careful when entering and exiting vehicles as there isn't a lot of
room to pull off the road. Head up the path, past Shepherdstown
Battlefield #2, and towards the intermediate waypoint (TRAIL2).
From here the trail is very easy to follow as it is marked in
brightly colored pink flagging.
The trail is clear, but does have one steeper section (near the
beginning) on which hikers are asked to exercise caution,
particularly when conditions are wet. As the trail passes through
private property, all hikers are also instructed to stay on the
trail and within the pink markers at all times.
Hiking this section of the trail, will take you past podcast
stop 3. Ground zero for this cache will come shortly before you
reach podcast stop 4. Each podcast stop is marked with a numbered
wooden post. Here, the container you seek is a small cylindrical
lock-n-lock which has room for trades and travel bugs.
