Let me
preface this by saying, I love micro caches but have been known to
hide small ones. I do have a few regular caches but generally
speaking, I dislike them unless there’s a trick to them. So
here is a regular sized cache. That you can only find in the
dark.
I will
also tell you up front that downloading trail maps from this
link
won’t help you here. There are no trails. And even if
you are handed the final coordinates, you’re not going to
have an easy time of this because the tree cover is going to wreak
havoc with your GPS. Besides, it will be much more fun if you
decide to play past dark.
Now, on to
the yadda, yadda, yadda instructions.
Park at
the posted coords. They are on the street side of the gate, since
the gate gets closed and locked each night at dark. You would like
to be able to get home after you find this cache, right? So even if
you go in at dusk, it’s a good idea to park on the correct
side.
Walk in
past the gate and take a hard left toward the sign that says
“Ben Page Plantation 1977”, which is the start of your
journey. The trail is directly behind and to the right of the sign.
Take it. Follow it.
You’ll have to cross a bit of washed out trail, but
it’s nothing as long as you watch where you’re going.
You did bring your flashlight, right? The LED flashlights
are really bright; I highly recommend them. The trail (enjoy it
while it lasts) veers off to the left and goes out to the road. You
can see a fire tack on the tree just before that happens.
It’s your very first tack so look at it closely, and you
might want to make sure you have this downloaded as a waypoint
because once I get you to the cache, I’m not going to tell
you how to get back out. Heading for this tree might help you find
your car without swimming through wetlands.
Stand near
the tree and tack and shine your flashlight around in any and all
directions. It’s best if you hold the flashlight at eyelevel
for this. The tacks are all up high on trees and you should not
leave one tack before locating the next one. As I mentioned, the
trail veers off to the left but you want to go to the right, where
there are no trails. Well, there are bits and pieces of trails all
over, going every which way. Please use them if you can, and be
aware that the best way to get from one tack to another is rarely a
straight line. Just take note of where you’re trying to get
and find the best way. Which will be hard to do in the dark, but
not impossible.
Let’s talk about this lack of trails. With the
dense tree cover there isn’t a whole lot growing down here
but ferns and wild roses (ok, maybe some nettles, too), which will
be nasty in the spring and summer but are easily tolerated and
avoided the rest of the time.
That’s pretty much all the instructions you need.
Don’t leave one tack before finding another. It may be to the
left or the right, or maybe straight. Or behind you. Keep track of
where you’ve been. Make your way forward to the new one and
find the next, then the next. On and on it goes, till you find two
tacks together and then make your way to the cache which is very
near the tacks, but not accessible from where they are
visible.