Grist Mill Brook Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Easy park and grab, you may need to dig a little in the snow during winter months. I brought you here not for the difficulty but for the interesting location.
This is a fascinating spot that is within sight of a major road that travelors take heading downeast but most of those same travelers have no idea this is here. Years ago there was a grist mill located beside the brook where a nice house now stands - look downstream and to your right. But today this location is famous for another reason. Grist Mill Brook empties into Taunton Bay and serves as the access route for elvers and (especially) alewives to get to Great Pond to spawn. Starting in mid-March and through the month of April, elvers (the small immature silver eels) are caught in nets here and shipped to the far east as a delicacy. But the big event begins the 1st week in May and typically runs through the third week in June when the alewives arrive to travel upstream to spawn. The water is black with alewives and their fins are everywhere above the water. During this time there will be 20-30 fishermen here around the clock taking alewives. During this time lobstermen show up in their trucks and alewives are loaded into the trucks so that they can be used as bait in lobster traps. Next to the cache you will see a winch where crates of alewives are hoisted up, hand over hand pulling the rope, up to the road where the lobstermen are waiting. Interestingly, the law states that they have to stop fishing the alewives from noon on each Thursday until 6:00pm on Sunday - giving the alewives enough time to allow enough alewives to swim upstream to spawn in Great Pond.... thus assuring an abundant number of fish coming back next year. Ironically, I do not want you even attempting to grab this cache during the most interesting times to be here. There are fishermen, their wives, and kids all over this spot 24-7 during high season. Even during those Thursday through Sunday non-fishing days you might arrive to see fishermen watching the waters and drinking coffee. If nobody is there, fine. But if they are there please, please, please do not attempt to grab this cache. It will disappear for sure. During the off seasons, this still remains a very lovely spot to visit. So come and find a cache (there is another just up the road...the Galamander) and enjoy this part of Maine.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Bar bs zl glcvpny TEP'f jvgu ebbz rabhtu gb fjnc fznyy vgrzf, pbvaf, naq GO'f.
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