I heard this poem on the radio a while ago, and immediately thought
of our favorite hobby. When I decided to place my first cache on
this unused piece of DCR land, I was reminded of it again:
Calf Path
by Sam Water Foss
One day through the primeval wood
A calf walked home as good calves should;
But made a trail all bent askew,
A crooked trail as all calves do.
Since then three hundred years have fled,
And I infer the calf is dead.
But still he left behind his trail,
And thereby hangs my moral tale.
The trail was taken up next day
By a lone dog that passed that way;
And then a wise bell—wether sheep
Pursued the trail o'er vale and steep,
And drew the flock behind him, too,
As good bell—wethers always do.
And from that day, o'er hill and glade,
Through those old woods a path was made.
And many men wound in and out,
And dodged and turned and bent about,
And uttered words of righteous wrath
Because 'twas such a crooked path;
But still they followed — do not laugh -
The first migrations of that calf,
And through this winding wood-way stalked
Because he wobbled when he walked.
This forest path became a lane
That bent and turned and turned again;
This crooked lane became a road,
Where many a poor horse with his load
Toiled on beneath the burning sun,
And traveled some three miles in one.
And thus a century and a half
They trod the footsteps of that calf.
The years passed on in swiftness fleet,
The road became a village street;
And this, before men were aware,
A city's crowded thoroughfare.
And soon the central street was this
Of a renowned metropolis;
And men two centuries and a half
Trod in the footsteps of that calf.
Each day a hundred thousand rout
Followed this zigzag calf about
And o'er his crooked journey went
The traffic of a continent.
A hundred thousand men were led
By one calf near three centuries dead.
They followed still his crooked way.
And lost one hundred years a day,
For thus such reverence is lent
To well-established precedent.
A moral lesson this might teach
Were I ordained and called to preach;
For men are prone to go it blind
Along the calf-paths of the mind,
And work away from sun to sun
To do what other men have done.
They follow in the beaten track,
And out and in, and forth and back,
And still their devious course pursue,
To keep the path that others do.
They keep the path a sacred groove,
Along which all their lives they move;
But how the wise old wood-gods laugh,
Who saw the first primeval calf.
Ah, many things this tale might teach —
But I am not ordained to preach.
I've driven by this parking spot for years, every time I needed
to travel north. I never really looked at it until I got involved
with Geocaching, when I noticed the pale-green
DCR sign there.
My son (8 years old) and I decide to take a hike there this
week, and found a few good spots for stages of a multi-cache, so
here they are.
Parking is located at N 42° 23.892 W 71° 48.479. There is really
only room for two cars, and the second car would block in the first
one. The location is easily reachable from exit 5 on rt. 190.
Follow Legg Road (Raymond S. Huntington Highway) to the parking
spot.
Stage one is a camo-taped pill bottle that I picked up from
GCZBCH - The Micro, Small Ammo Can while visiting Indianapolis.
Stages two and three are flip-top test strip containers. The final
(stage four) is a camouflaged lock-n-lock container.
Stages one and three are currently not winter accessible, but I
plan to change that when the snow flies. But these are the spots
that my son picked, so that's where we'll start.
There is a hint for stage one below, and the remaining stages
all have a hint to the next stage... no CSI-style stage jumping
here! 
As the title implies, there are no real trails back here, but
there are a lot of logging roads from the last time that they did
controlled deforestation here. In addition, there are many, many
animal paths leading through the whole area. Please try to follow
these paths as much as possible. The lack of real trails is
reflected in the three-star terrain rating. Also, while this area
is available 24/7, I do not recommend coming out at night. The
trails are hard enough to follow during the day, never mind in the
dark.
In my trips into these woods doing the research for this cache,
I've seen a whole bunch of wildlife, including a deer, some very
large birds (a hawk, for example) and a toad the size of my foot.
But I also saw a hunter's tree stand, so please wear hunter-orange
in season.
In addition, as you approach stage three, notice the few TALL
trees that were obviously left alone during the last clearing out
here. I wonder why?
Enjoy our first cache!
Congratulations to Izzy's Pets for the FTF!
As promised, the Members Only restriction has been listed now
that the
FTF coin has been placed. Enjoy the cache!