This is Vermont: Windham County Mystery Cache
This is Vermont: Windham County
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(small)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
This is a challenge cache that requires you to find a cache in every town in Windham County before you can claim a find on this one. That's 23 towns, 23 caches.
The cache is at the posted coordinates and you are welcome to find it and post a note anytime, but please don't log a find online until you have completed the task.
Windham County Towns:
- Athens
- Brattleboro
- Brookline
- Dover
- Dummerston
- Grafton
- Guilford
- Halifax
- Jamaica
- Londonderry
- Marlboro
- Newfane
- Putney
- Rockingham
- Somerset
- Stratton
- Townshend
- Vernon
- Wardsboro
- Westminster
- Whitingham
- Wilmington
- Windham
Unlike some challenge caches, you are welcome to use previous finds to claim this one. My research shows that only a few cachers have done this already (12-15?). Charter members of the Vermont 251+4 Geocaching Club need not post a list, unless you want to, but please post a favorite. You may also count caches you have placed.
(You cannot claim this cache as a county find in the town of Newfane.)
I'm placing this cache to commemorate my finding every active cache in Windham County. I found my last unfound caches in the county on Stratton Mountain on April 17, 2010. (And I'm still working on it. It's getting tough to keep up!)
I'm also placing this cache in support of QSeekers Vermont 251 Plus 4 Geocaching Club, to bring some more recognition of this challenge to southern Vermont cachers.
A big help in determining which caches are in which towns, is Geocaching Swiss Army Knife (GSAK), which can be used with pocket queries to record your finds by town and to plan searches. Or, go to the Geocaching.com map, open the left side bar and choose Set Map Preferences, choose Leaflet (unless you have already set that preference), click the layers box in the upper right hand corner, choose Open Street Map Default. You'll be able to see the town boundaries for Windham County and see which caches are in which town. I'm glad to verify cache towns for you or provide more info - contact me through my profile.
About this cache: The cache is placed near the highest point in the Newfane Town Forest, just off the Blue Beech Trail. The longest loop round trip is about 2.5 miles and has an elevation gain of over 600 feet. There are shorter options, but not by much. This was placed at the top on purpose! (It's not the top of the hill, but it's near the highest point on the property.) The trails farther up aren't used much so they can be hard to follow. They are marked with lots of blazes, which can be hard to see. My hike, including placing three caches, was about two hours.
The difficulty/terrain level is for the difficulty of finding caches all over the county. Actual difficulty is 2D/3.5T.
Park in the grassy area next to the driveway to the Newfane Town Highway Dept. Walk up the drive to the yellow mailbox and follow the trail into the woods. The mailbox may contain maps -- there is a large map posted 50 feet in along the trail.
When logging your find, please list a find for each town with GC#, cache name and date found. Also tell us about your favorite cache in your favorite Windham County town.
Example: GC2AROC This is Vermont: Windham County June 24, 2010.
I reserve the right to delete found logs of finders who didn't find a cache in each town.
FTF congratulations to DJ and Cal.
Congratulations to FTFWHFATB (FTF who hadn't found all towns before!) co-finders bren1467 and lizf13!
About Windham County: Windham County is in the southeast corner of Vermont. The county has a total area of 798 square miles. According to the US census in 2000, there were 44,216 people, giving a population density of 56 people per sq. mile. Brattleboro is the most populous town. Newfane is the county seat (and is roughly in the center of the county, which is why I placed this cache here). Windham County is bordered by Bennington County, Vermont on the west, Windsor County, Vermont on the north, Cheshire County, New Hampshire on the east and Franklin County, Massachusetts on the south. (Information from wikipedia.com.)
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Gjb urzybpxf ba yrqtr.
Treasures
You'll collect a digital Treasure from one of these collections when you find and log this geocache:
Loading Treasures