The Story:
In a nearby field, on June 5th, 1864, the US army of General David Hunter crushed the smaller Confederate army at Piedmont, killing the CS commander (General ``Grumble'' Jones) and taking nearly 1,000 prisoners. Piedmont was an unmitigated disaster for CS arms in the Valley. The disorganized Confederates could do nothing to delay Hunter's advance to Staunton, where he was reinforced by Brig. Gen. George Crook's Army of West Virginia marching from the west. United, the US forces moved on Lynchburg. Hearing of Jones' defeat, Gen. Robert E. Lee first rushed J. C. Breckinridge's division back to Rockfish Gap (June 7th) and then detached the Second Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia under Lt. Gen. Jubal Early to confront Hunter at Lynchburg (June 12th). This detachment severely limited Lee's ability to undertake defensive-offensive operations on the Richmond-Petersburg lines and served to open up the Shenandoah Valley as a second front in the 1864 fighting in Virginia. It is believed that Round Hill was the location of a CS signal station for the right flank of the CS cavalry. I have included the coordinates for the historical marker located at the aforementioned battlefield.
The Cache:
I have posted the coordinates for parking at Mt. Tabor Methodist Church. You will need to turn off of Round Hill School Rd. at the sign for the church and proceed past the disposal site up a dilapidated dirt road to get there and park. I usually start off following the old jeep trail that begins at the trail-head coordinates. I follow this until it hits the fire/logging road where I turn right, this goes on until it comes to a fairly dense cedar thicket. I turn off here to the left and make my own path to the top. You will come to other logging roads that crisscross the mountain all the way to the top, some connect but none are a direct route to the cache or the top. This cache is located on private property, permission has been granted by landowners, as a precautionary measure, you may want to print out the permission information and carry it with you. There is a link at the bottom of this listing to the PDF as well as a copy of the permission information located in the cache. This hike can be increasingly difficult headed into late summer and early fall due to vegetation and undergrowth, this is another one of my hikes that I prefer to do between November and May. In the winter/early spring this is still probably a 3 or 3.5 terrain rating due to lots of down trees and the steep incline, in the summer/fall it is at least a 4 and pushes towards 4.5 with all the small trees, briars and plant life. The views from here are SPECTACULAR! 360 degree vistas of all the areas surrounding, an absolute perfect spot for a military lookout/signal station. Take some pictures and post them if you would.
Original contents include: Ziploc bag containing Log book and Ink Pen, 2 unopened Hand Warmers, Ziploc "Swag bag" with miscellaneous trade items, Ziploc bag containing printout of permission information, a "Christian Soldier" travel bug to move along and for the FTF, a lucky "Horseshoe" Geo-Token and a brand new, 50 piece, firm shell, compact first aid kit on a carabiner.
Permission information:
***Alert: You are about to download a file that contains further details needed to find this geocache. As the cache owner, I represent that this file is safe to download although it has not been checked by Groundspeak or by the reviewer for possible malicious content. Download this file at your own risk.***
Permission Information PDF