THE ELLIS HOLLOW CACHE COW
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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This cache is a foreign coin and geocoin exchange and is easily accessed at the base of Ellis Hollow in Ithaca, NY.
The Ellis Hollow Cache Cow is a foreign coin and geocoin exchange filled with international coins we have collected on our travels. After much trouble finding an appropriate spot for this cache (as delineated below), we decided that our cache cow deserved to be closer to home, in an easily accessed spot, and we arranged an appropriate one for it here at the base of Ellis Hollow.
The coordinates will take you directly to the cache at the headquarters of a state cow breeding society. It is placed by permission of the office manager (many thanks!). [A local radio station leases space here so you may see a favorite DJ at odd hours and not all who work here know of the cache, so please use common stealth and discretion.] The cache is easily located but to keep the cache/cash and geocoins safe, it has been secured with a combination lock. The mystery/unknown designation was recommended by the NYAdministrator because of the combination lock but the cache is exactly at the above coordinates.
The nearest cow will grant you access to open and close the cache. Count the number of letters in the each of the first three words on the cow sign: those three digits are the combination to the lock (i.e.: first word in state = first digit; second word in state = second digit; breed of cow = third digit). Please be sure to realign the digits to close the lock and then turn the dials to secure it when you are through trading.
The cache originally included coins from Canada, Mexico, Australia, EU, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Sweden, Switzerland, Netherlands, Jamaica, Bahamas, East Caribbean States, Kenya, Ecuador, Panama, UK, Ireland, Trinidad and Tobago, and a Central Park Fun token. Also a few coins (Hong Kong and Korea) that we inherited from a father who would have truly loved geocaching. Additionally, there is a large medallion from the Botanical Society of America’s centennial and a $2 coin from the Ashland Shakespeare festival in 1982.
CACHE HISTORY - (Not Needed to Find the Cache)
After enjoying our (we initially thought original) pun we found that there are already over 30 caches with 'cache cow' in the name. Although we aren’t the first, we hope you agree that this cache is appropriately placed and themed…and it must have the longest pre-listing saga:
Stage one: Only after placing the cache on the trails of the Ellis Hollow Nature Preserve during a long hiking day, having our GPSr slip through a pocket hole and spend a night on the forest floor, recovering it after 10 person-hours of searching, and crafting a lovely description did we learn that the Finger Lakes Land Trust does not allow cache placements.... Our listing was archived and Vanelle was kind enough to retrieve the cache (she gets an honorary-FTF for that!).
Stage two: We investigated Frost Ravine and Pine Woods of Mount Pleasant and the Palmer-Adams Preserve at Bald Hill – all natural areas of the Cornell Plantations but did not find any place that was cow-related enough.
Stage three: We decided that the cache cow really deserved to be within sight of actual cows, and we located a roadside strip of forest near Cornell's Animal Science Teaching and Research Center in Dryden that seemed ideal. Located on 2,600 acres just outside Cornell's Ithaca campus, the research facility supports 700 Holstein dairy cattle and up to 500 beef cattle - their research focuses on improved dairy management and nutrition. Once we got in to the adjacent woodlot, though, it was much trashier than we had expected and there were no good hide spots except for small rotten stumps and tree roots where it would have been quite exposed. But eyeing a huge 10-foot dead tree snag, I thought I had found the perfect location – placed on top, it would be accessible to those who knew to look for it but out of eyesight from any muggles. Reaching up and placing the cache, I immediately heard a heart-wrenching "clunkety-clunkety-clunk" as the cache dropped more than 6 feet into the hollow but narrow center of the tree’s cavity. Vanelle returned to check out the scene with me; it took her a while to stop laughing, but even when she graciously knelt on the forest floor so that I could stand on her back, I could not see the cache down the hollow stump. We considered listing it as a 5+ star difficulty and seeing if anyone could get it out (with a fishing pole???) but decided that would just be cruel. Even when I returned with a power-saw and demolition tools (plus a not-totally-geocaching-tolerant husband to wield them), it took over 30 minutes to cut a hole in the rock-hard stump to get it out - but in the end we retrieved the star-crossed cache!
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)