Learning the Forest of Oak Hill Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

afroggie: Archiving because I am not able to care for it as it should be caref for. Collected the container.

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Hidden : 3/19/2008
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
3 out of 5

Size: Size: small (small)

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Geocache Description:

Near the intersection of the Ledges Pass Trail and Upper Trail on the Oak Hill trail network.

This part of Oak Hill holds older forest trees of White Pines and Red Oaks with younger trees beginning to establish (American Beech, Paper Birch, etc). The slopes here range from gentle to moderate (8-15%). Stones are abundant on the surface of the ground and the soils in this area are well drained. Animals that use this area include White-Tail Deer, Coyote, Bobcat, Snow-shoe Hare, Red Fox, Barred Owl, Black-capped Chicadee, Downey Woodpecker, and many more. As I headed out to place the cache I saw a Barred Owl, saw plenty of fresh deer tracks, and heard a Downy Woodpecker. Enjoy the woods!

Cache is sandwich size lock-n-lock. The cache is hidden in a rotting old tree; there are several around. As you find the cache, notice how the old branches, where they protruded from the bark of the tree when they were first emerging, are tougher to erode and be digested by microbes and other eroding forces. Therefore as the tree ages and parts of it die and deteriorate these branch nodes are left as the skeleton. They somewhat resemble small squirt guns (at least that's what I think of). I have found remnants of stumps in the woods of just these branch nodes where all of the bark and surrounding wood of the tree has disappeared.

A book by Tom Wessels, Reading The Forested Landscape: A Natural History of New England talks about this and many other fascinating features of our wooded landscape.

This cache is hidden on my two year caching anniversary. My first cache was Oak Hill Vista. Right nearby!

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

V guvax V tnir lbh rabhtu nobir.

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)


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