This series of caches follows Alton's Way and takes one on a nice walk through fields and forest. It is a fairly level and fairly wide trail, friendly for both children and dogs, but the grassy areas might make strollers or wheelchairs difficult to navigate. Be sure to look out for bees and tics in the meadow grass. One can hike the whole trail through, or for a shorter walk, can drive to a second parking area to be closer to the final cache. Alton's Way trail connects to the Cedar Swamp Trail, leading to the White Cedar Swamp, where another fun series of caches is hidden.
My daughter's favorite song is "Old MacDonald had a Farm" and I have fond memories of singing it myself with a special someone riding on the back of an electric bike through the streets of China. Little did I realize, Wilbraham, MA has it's own "Old McDonald's Farm." According to the town of Wilbraham's Alton's Way Trailwalk webpage , "Alton McDonald (the namesake of the Alton's Way Trail) was a city boy who fell in love with, and married, a country girl (Helen Brosch) and also fell in love with Wilbraham, serving our town well as police sergeant, fire commissioner, etc. since moving to Wilbraham in the 1930s. He loved this land and took over farming it as his father-in-law (Anthony Brosch) aged. Alton lived on the tractor trails which ramble through the open land and through the woods between the McDonald barn and the Wilbraham Middle School. Alton farmed the current soccer fields and the other hay fields until his late 80s."
This series of caches celebrates the song, the land, and the farmers among us. As population in Wilbraham has expanded, we have lost quite a bit of former farmland and open space to development. Luckily the town has been able to purchase some former farm land to preserve for community recreational use and woodland preservation.
These finds are meant to be easy and the first two can be reached just off the trail. The final cache is only about 20 feet into the woods. The difficulty and terrain ratings are elevated due to time and distance required if hiking through. That decreases if one drives to the final cache location. Terrain is mostly level and easy at times, but becomes more challenging when wet and muddy. More information on the trail, including a map and detailed list of waypoints can be found on the associated webpages.
Please do not post any photos of the first two cache containers, so that others may enjoy finding them and solving the simple puzzle. Bring TOTT and BYOP for these first two stages, and please use care not to break them. Remove the log only, not the small log container from the cache.
Final cache starts out with kid-friendly trades. FTF can pick a prize from the container.
Congratuations to SlumberBear for being first to finish the multi amidst quite the active competition at the various stages!!!
Please use caution parking on grassy area in winter and spring in mud and ice. More stable parking is available on the blacktop behind the middle school in wet or icy conditions.