ACL Series: Camp Acton Traditional Cache

Traditional cache in Camp Acton Conservation Land. This cache is part of a series of kid-friendly traditional caches hidden within Acton Conservation Lands. There are 7 caches in the series: 6 traditional caches and 1 mystery cache. Each traditional cache contains a digit of the coordinates for the final mystery cache. Hopefully this series will bring you to some new trails to explore or old favorites to revisit.

The Land Stewardship Committee of the Acton Conservation Commission has a website with great trail maps and descriptions of most of the Conservation Land in Acton.

Acton Conservation Land

Part of the description for Camp Acton from that website:

“The Camp Acton Conservation Land, a property formerly owned by the Boy Scouts, was acquired by the town in 1996 with the aid of a Self Help grant. This conservation area is a diverse 59 acres that may be accessed either by a gravel woods road (0.2 mile) from Pope Road, in the most easterly corner of Acton, or from two short (red-blazed) connectors from the abutting Spring Hill Conservation Land. All three accesses intersect with a yellow-blazed main trail that allows a circuit of the conservation area to be made.

At the terminus of the woods road, there is a large parking area, internal to the property. The distance from this parking lot to the Spring Hill loop trail, using Camp Acton’s straight-through route that passes through the camping areas, is 0.8 miles. Please refer to the descriptions for Nashoba Brook and Spring Hill conservation areas, which provide additional information about their entrances and the linked trail systems.

Camp Acton’s unique feature is its suitability for a type of passive recreation that is not offered by any other presently-owned town property. Picnicking, as well as individual or group day or overnight camping may be enjoyed with a permit from the Natural Resources Office in the Town Hall. There are seven large, primitive campsites originally established by the Boy Scouts that are maintained free of poison ivy, brambles, and damp or stony ground. Each is equipped with a rustic picnic table and crude fireplace, and is located in a woodsy setting that allows some privacy. The gated internal parking area makes possible easier access with gear to these sites. Close to the parking area is a large-stone masonry fireplace that is not usable.”

If you park at the end of Spring Hill Rd, we'd recommend visiting the nearby cache GC2FMMD - ACL Series: Spring Hill since both are convenient from that parking area.