The Nonquon Provincial Wildlife Area is crown land. It is not a
wildlife preserve or sanctuary but it is an area set aside to
protect wildlife that cannot be hunted. The wildlife area protects
reptiles, amphibians, birds and fish. The Nonquon Provincial
Wildlife Area is about 1100 hectares. 100 hectares is in use for
educational purposes only. The rest of the area can be used by
anyone. Some of its main uses are hunting, fishing, trapping,
hiking, bird watching, horseback riding and camping. It is a class
1 wetland and is an area of natural scientific interest, The signs
at the various entrances say things like "this is your land - use
it and enjoy it".
We discovered this area when some friends who train their dogs
there told us about it. It is a wonderful place and has lots of
trails suitable for hiking, riding, ATVing and, yes,
geocaching.
This cache is placed along the line of a concession trail that
runs through the area so would appear to be simple to access from
looking at the map. However, in order to traverse this trail you
need to go through about 100m of swamp between the nearest road and
the cache.
Approaching from the other direction is probably impossible as
it requires crossing the Nonquon River after passing through VERY
dense swamp - but you could maybe canoe to the point where the
trail meets the river and then walk from there - but there is a
large flooded area of the trail coming from that direction too. We
drove through from the closest road in our amphibious Argo 6x6 and
it looks as though a regular ATV could probably get through there -
but be prepared to get a bit wet in the process. If you are walking
then you will definitely need hip-waders but it should be possible
to get through with care. For this reason we have given it a 4*
rating on terrain.
However, it does look as though there might be some other ways
to get to where we have placed the cache that might not require
passing through this area of swamp. We didn't look for them and
they might be difficult, or even impossible to find, since we don't
even know if they exist. For this reason we have given it a
difficulty rating of 4* as well. In the winter we would expect that
the rating will drop to 2½* on both terrain and difficulty once the
swamp has frozen - but do take care that the freeze has properly
set in if you are going to rely on this!! If you do find an
alternative route please don't spoil the fun for others by giving
too much detail in your log - but maybe let us know perhaps?
The cache itself is placed so that its hiding spot should be
accessible year round.
Note that during hunting season, even though this is on the
concession trail, you might be well advised to wear a bright orange
jacket.
We hope you enjoy finding this cache as much as we enjoyed
finding the place to put it. If you come by ATV (or Argo) there are
many many kilometres of trails here for you to explore - some are
more challenging than others!