With hundreds of protected properties and reservations, the Essex County Greenbelt Association (ECGA) is Essex County's premier steward of beautiful, wild places, both large and small. This cache is in one of them, the Ox Pasture Reservation deep within the greater Boxford State Forest/Bald Hill Conservation Area woodlands. Oxen, apparently, used to graze here, but the only signs of that now are the ancient stone walls crisscrossing these deep woods. This particular reservation is up a small spur trail that most people hike right past with little notice. However, go a couple hundred yards up this spur trail and you could probably sit there all year and never see a soul. And speaking of sitting, there are some good sitting rocks where you can take your leisurely lunch and let your mind wander off into the depths of the woods around you.
The backstory on this one: more than 10 years ago I was trying to decide where to put my first cache in these woods, and I initially thought I would put it here. However, I decided I wanted to put it even further from the road and add a bushwhacking challenge, so eventually selected a site twice as far in, the current site of my Bushwhack, Bogs & Bugs cache. I hadn't been back to this spot at all in those 10 years, but did so a couple months ago, and realized it's still a great wild destination, a great place for a cache. So that's what I've done. I hope you enjoy this spot as much as I do.
The destination is the thing, not the hide. I'll be honest, I don't much care for caches hidden in rock piles or rock faces. I've had too many DNFs on those kinds of caches to ever want to inflict that frustration on anyone else. So yes, this is at the base of a geologic rock pile, but no you DON'T have to climb around or even set foot on the lowest rock, and the HINT is really detailed since I want everyone to find this. It is quite visible from the right angle and the hint will tell you everything. There should be no DNFs!
This is a small cache, with little room for any trackables (sorry!). There are two pencils which are starting out sharp, but I can't guarantee that will be maintained. If you want a pen, please bring your own.
First To Find reward: 14 cents! (that's all I had in my pocket, sorry!). But the even bigger reward is being first to this beautiful, out of the way place.
I've listed 4 parking areas/trailheads below, with notes, using the same naming/numbering system I defined for Bushwhack, Bogs & Bugs for the 12 around-the-compass-points trailheads into this surprisingly vast unbroken expanse of woods only 20+ miles north of Boston. If you're interested in exploring these woods further, go in from all 12 of these trailheads and start connecting the dots. You can find a reasonably accurate trail map here.
6/1/2016: Congratulations to Geo-Knot on First To Find!