Dale Ball Trail 1 Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(micro)
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This is the first in a series of caches in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo mountains, taking advantage of Santa Fe's wonderful Dale Ball Trail system. Please snug the lid up tight to keep the log dry.
At each junction of the trails, there is a sign with a map showing the junction number and the distance to other junctions, making it a little harder to get lost. (If you access the comments for VANILLA SKY cache, by Team Donutdog, you will see a link to a map and description of the Dale Ball Trail.)
This cache, the first in the series, does not require hiking, but the remaining caches do. The trails are steep, and in summer months they are hot. If you can, hike in the morning. Wear good footwear, and TAKE WATER. The trails offer fabulous views of Santa Fe and the surrounding area. All the containers are similar, and are hidden in the same manner. Because of reflected signals from the hills, GPSr directions bounce around a lot. Be patient. I checked all the sites on a different day than I hid them, and the zero point eventually settled down fairly close to the caches. BYOP.
For the first cache, park in the visitors' parking area of St. John's College. The comments for the second cache in the series assume you are walking from that parking area, along the Camino Cruz Blanca trail for .6 miles to the trail head for the Dale Ball trail. However, there are two small parking spots along Camino Cruz Blanca on the way to the trail head. They tend to be full much of the time. The second parking area is at the trail head itself.
Finally, the comments for the series assume you look for the caches in order, although you don't have to do it that way. Enjoy the trails and the views! (Before leaving the parking area, you may want to look for the WALK BEFORE YOU CRAWL cache.)
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Jnvfg uvtu.