tricks33: Hello everyone. I have been thinking about this cache and which way is best to move forward with it, and unfortunately I believe it to be best to archive this one.
When this cache was initially created, the search area was a honeysuckle thicket whose dense leaf cover and roots choked out nearly all ground vegetation. This in turn provided the cache container with long term protection from overgrowth and damage. In late 2023, the parks department decided it was time to renovate the area and removed the honeysuckle, leading many including the original cache owner to assume the cache was destroyed in the process. From there, I adopted this cache and continued maintaining it until now.
When I took this one over, I assumed (or at least hoped) the intention with the area was to extend the grass lawn to the fence as they had done with some other parts of the Grant's Trail in the past. However, the GZ is now a wild grass prairie with some of the grasses growing to upwards of six feet. While I personally believe this to be a great improvement to the scenery of the trail, it does of course complicate this cache's preservation. This difficult search area, paired with the density of the grasses essentially makes this cache impossible to find if you don't outright know exactly what and where you're looking for. This left me with a few options.
Firstly, some sort of stone or other object could be placed near container to increase its visibility. Alternatively, the cache could simply be left as is and rated as some sort of ridiculous, difficulty five traditional. I also considered having something placed next to the fence such that a line from the trail to the object would run directly through the cache location. Ultimately, none of these options preserved what really makes this cache special in the first place and would damage the grasses with foot trails. Of course, this is all assuming the cache is even there. The previous cache group clearly searched hard and in the right area judging by the areas of downed grass I found arriving shortly after the logs. Archived or otherwise, I do still want to search sometime this winter to see if the bison can be retrieved (if it is actually there) as it is practically a museum piece after being there for so long.
I am very sorry that to be letting this one go, but I do believe allowing this spot to finally be opened to a new cache to be the best way forward. Thanks to all of the 172 sleuths who found this one over the years!