My wife and I think Sam McDonald is a great park and we love to hike there. There are redwood groves in the lower areas and a great vista along the ridge. There is also a lot of wildlife to be seen in the area. My wife and I have seen deer, turkeys, quail, many types of birds, and even a mountain lion!
This cache is hidden on the Big Trees Trail, which begins near the park H.Q. and is about 1 mile long. It winds through the forest, which is primarily redwoods and firs. I don't think there are any old growth trees in this area, but even the young (100 y/o) redwoods make a nice forest. I recommend taking the loop trail in the clockwise direction as it doesn't seem as steep in that direction. But if you do elect to take the counter-clockwise direction note that there are two sections of this trail. One section parallels the fire road for a short distance. If you stay on the fire road you will find the entrance for the loop which does not have a closed sign, and this is the section of trail on which the cache is placed.
The cache is a green sandwich container hidden about 20 feet off the trail. When I first hid the cache I had very poor GPS reception in the area near the cache, so the hint is a spoiler. When I took new coords on 5/31/09 I had much better satellite coverage so I believe the new coords will be much better. I did let my GPSMAP 60CSx average the coords over several minutes.
Neither my wife nor I saw any PO near the hiding spot when we placed the cache, but the stuff is insidious so be on the lookout.
Please do not log a find if you do not find the container!