During my lunch break, I usually take a good, brisk walk around
campus. Earlier this week, I happened to walk the perimeter around
a nice sized chunk of woods on campus and did a double take when I
saw what appeared to be a small Prickly Pear Cactus on the edge of
the treeline. "Excuse?" I walked a little further and saw several
of these cacti plants in a row. "Preposterous!" I harrumphed. "Must
be some prankish Botany students' idea of a joke!"
Needless to say, I took this apparently misplaced plant as a
sign that a cache belonged in the woods beyond. I scouted around,
found a potential spot, and began my preparations. However, after
consulting online resources, I learned that the Eastern Prickly
Pear, Opuntia humifusa, is fairly common in dry, sandy, open
areas in the Coastal Plain, but is found, albeit rarely, in the
Mountains and Piedmont of North Carolina.
This is my first ammo box hide, and I went a little crazy with
the swag. FTF can choose between a $10 Harris Teeter Gift Card or a
book of Forever Stamps. I also put a goodly amount of nice swag in
the box. This cache shouldn't be hard to find, once you find a good
entrance to the forest.
You might have to walk around much of the perimeter of this
woods swath to find a decent entrance point. There are a lot of
sections of the perimeter where the drop-off from the sidewalk to
the forest is pretty steep. If you are lucky and enter at the right
spot, you might see a cactus or two. Though there is no trail, the
bushwhacking is not extensive. I'm terribly sensitive to Poison
Ivy, so I'll point out that there are some plants in this woods, as
there are in almost every chunk of woods in these parts, but I had
little difficulty navigating around them.
Outside of M-F, 8:00-5:00, parking shouldn't be difficult along
parts of Circuit Drive or Towerview Drive. There is a huge parking
lot along Circuit Drive near GZ, but it is gated. It's possible
that the gates come up on the weekends, so that might be something
to check.
Some stealth might be required getting in and out, but once
you're actually in the woods, you will see few, if any, people
about.