Stewart State Forest
Some of the information below is
from the New York DEC web site page for Stewart State Forest. If
you would like to read more, visit the site at Stewart State Forest - NY
DEC.
There are many, many trails in
Stewart State Forest. Some of them are blazed and some of them are
not. In planning this series, I searched the web and found a map on
the DEC site that shows the blazed trails and roads. The trails are
marked with a single circled letter, without any reference to the
color of the blaze. You can get a copy of the map by following the
link provided above.
If you read the DEC page for
Stewart, you might notice further down the page that there is a
list of the blazed trails along with a letter. Some of the letters
correspond to the trail labels on the DEC map, and, unfortunately,
some do not.
I also found a map on another
site that provides both the trail name and the blaze color.
I’m not providing a link to this map, as it appears to be
tied to a book that is available for purchase. You should, however,
not have any difficulty finding it on the web. I used this map and
a map calibration application to trace the trails and generate the
waypoints I used in planning my series and the waypoints supplied
on this cache page.
Stewart State Forest is closed to
non-hunters during Big Game season. The dates for this season are a
little soft, but available information indicates that this is
approximately mid-November to the second week of December. The area
is open for hiking, biking and exploring during small game
season.
The Buffer Hunter
Caches
In placing the Buffer Hunter
cache series, I stuck mainly to the dirt roads and trails, as I
hiked the buffer. Where possible, I will give you the names of the
blazed trails, roads and the one lane that I followed. For the
trails, I will also supply the letter corresponding to the markings
on the DEC map.
The Buffer Hunter series is a set
of six caches. The first four caches are traditional hides. The
fifth and sixth are mystery caches. In each of the first four
caches, there is the name of a cache hunter and the name of a game
animal on a label attached to the inside of the container lid. You
will need to write down this information and use it to find the
fifth cache. To find the sixth cache, you will need to get the
information contained in fifth cache and use it to complete the
coordinates. The sixth cache is an extra container I ended up with;
when brian b generously gave an ammo can he won in a
raffle.
If you follow the right trails
and roads, you will have a nice loop hike or bike ride. I have
ridden some of these trails before, but chose to hike them when
hiding the caches. This was in part because I could not easily have
ridden a bike with five ammo cans in my pack. The other reason was
that I just wanted to walk. So, hike or bike, it is your choice. I
know I really enjoyed hiking the trails…
Buffer Hunter Series: #2
- Swamp Water Apples
You are looking for an small lock
and lock located just off Ridge Rd. at the base of a fielded
hillside.
Remember to collect the
codes.