Foxlair Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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This medium-sized plastic container is hidden on property that was once Richard Hudnut's estate, "Foxlair." The property along Route 8 in the abandoned community of Oregon (in the town of Johnsburg) is now owned by the State of New York.
Description from the Adirondack Mountain Club's Adirondack Trails: Central Region (Forest Preserve Series, Volume 3), page 39:
"Fox Lair [sic] is the name [Richard] Alexander Hudnut gave his estate, which is now state property. Its ruins, along with those of the Oregon Tannery, provide points of interest for a short walk of up to a mile over the roads and paths of this land...
...a grassy road slants toward the river 3.0 mi SW of the Siamese Ponds Wilderness Area parking lot and 1.7 mi NE of the Shanty Brook parking area (SEE TRAILHEAD WAYPOINT). The grassy road is within eyesight of a more obvious pullout and a dirt road that dead-ends a few yards into the woods...
...A faint trail drops down the bank L toward the river about 100 yd from the rock barrier across the grassy road. The remains of the tannery can be found in the undergrowth. Continuing on, the grassy road soon passes steps leading down to a swimming hole L and then a more elaborate set of steps heading obliquely R up a knoll to the Fox Lair ruins."
To find this cache, you should use the description above and follow the trail to the "elaborate" steps. It's much easier (and more fun) to stay on the trail past the GZ, and use the steps rather than bushwhack. The geocache is hidden NEAR, but NOT IN, the ruins of Foxlair. Nothing from the ruins needs to be disturbed to find the cache. Tree cover is pretty thick at GZ. The coordinates were derived by averaging 222 readings on me DeLorme GPS. The hint is a dead giveaway.
Before or after finding the cache, take some time to explore the interesting ruins. I'm assuming the ruins at the top of the "elaborate" steps are the main camp, but details about what was on the estate and where things were located was pretty impossible for me to find.
SOME HISTORY I DID FIND:
The owner of Foxlair, Richard Hudnut, owned a successful cosmetics business, and built the estate, which including several buildings and a 9-hole golf course around 1900. The main "camp" was enormous, being 215 feet in length. In 1922, Hudnut's stepdaughter and her husband, actor Rudolph Valetino, famously honeymooned here. The property was endowed to the New York City Police Athletic League in 1938. It was then purchased by the State of New York in 1959. In the 1970's, after falling into disrepair, the buildings were burned in accordance with the Adirondack Park Agency's Master Land Use and Development Plan. This controversial document requires all state land within the Forest Preserve be kept in a "natural state." All buildings on state land must be razed to return the area to a "wild" state.
Sources:
http://www.adkmuseum.org/about_us/adirondack_journal/?id=49
http://books.google.com/books?id=JFIo-NF6PBwC&pg=PA94&lpg=PA94&dq=richard+hudnut+foxlair&source=bl&ots=bPpZAJI4CP&sig=RN1tVOFyS8-J_N3lNR5vhRstQg8&hl=en#v=onepage&q=richard%20hudnut%20foxlair&f=false
http://www.americantowns.com/ny/bluemountainlake/news/the-lost-world-of-foxlair-and-the-valentino-summer-at-adirondack-museum-6269145
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Pyvzo gb gur gbc bs gur "rynobengr" fgrcf naq ghea evtug. Pnpur vf fyvtugyl qbjauvyy sebz gur ehvaf. Gur cynfgvp pbagnvare vf uvqqra vafvqr na byq eryvp, juvpu va ghea vf uvqqra va na byq ybt.
Treasures
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