John Woodward wanted to buy his wife a set of dishes for their anniversary. Short of cach, he planned on cutting down the old white pine and selling the lumber. When Margaret, his wife, discovered what her husband was going to do, she became upset and told him she would rather do without the dishes than allow him to cut the tree. This story has been passed along through generations of Woodwards until eventually the tree became known as Grandmother’s Tree. Family tradition protected the tree until 1927. When it became part of SUNY_ESF’s Charles Lathrop Pack Demonstration Forest, the College created a 50 acre natural area to protect it.

In 1927, Charles Lathrop Pack, a wealthy lumberman, purchased a tract of 2,200 acres to be used by the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestlry (SUNY_ESF), for demonstrating scientific and economic forestry. The Charles Lathrop Pack Demonstration Forest, now 2,500 acres in size, continues to support the College’s mission of teaching, research, and demonstration.

The destination, Grandmother’s Tree, is on the list of “Famous and Historic Trees in New York.” At almost 150 feet tall, it is one of the tallest white pine trees in record in the state and is at least 325 years old. Swampland, and its smaller size, protected this tree from loggers until 1796 when the Woodward family purchased this portion of the land now known as the Pack Forest.

~First two paragraphs taken from SUNY_ESF pamphlet. The last paragraph’s information also is taken from the same pamphlet but some of it is re-arranged.

The cache final is an ammo can that is not meant to be hard to locate. I would love to make this a 1/1 cache, but somebody in a wheel chair would have to get out of it and kneel to retrieve the container. You do not have to leave the boardwalk to retrieve the cache. My parents introduced me to this trail and tree years ago and I am surprised that nobody had placed anything here yet. The trail is hard-packed gravel and is wheel chair accessible as well as stroller accessible. Please beware of others when retrieving the cache and placing it back. Be sure to pick up a flyer, “Grandmother’s Tree Nature Trail” at the sign-in kiosk for a self-guided tour of this really neat trail. We even learned a bit from our trip here this time about flora and fauna that we didn’t yet know. Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?!?!

Disclaimer: You, and all members of your party must read and agree to the www.geocaching.com disclaimer. In addition, you all must agree to hold the cache owner, www.geocaching.com, and the land owners harmless from any and all causes for action. You and all other members of your party must individually and collectively determine your/their physical fitness and outdoors/hiking skill levels, decide whether or not to visit the various cache locations, and whether or not it is safe and prudent to do so under the conditions that will be encountered. Cache seekers assume all risks involved in seeking these cache locations.