Old Man Boyd stubbed out his cigar as he stood near the water's edge, staring at the two men who wanted to take a boat out on the lake. After placing what was left of his cigar into his tattered caching jeans, Old Man Boyd looked at the two men, both wearing leather jackets made of fine Italian leather, long pants made of twill, and slicked back greasy hair. One fella had a moon-shaped scar on his cheek and was wearing a pair of dark aviator style sunglasses, the other man looked like Tony Soprano. It was 11PM. In July. In Ohio. Boyd laughed to himself knowingly. Well, here we go again he thought. After 40 years at the park, he'd seen just about everything, twice.
Boyd said, “So I'm guessin' ya'll got a reason for wantin' to take a boat out at this late hour, with the fog and whatnot rollin' in.”
Tony didn't speak, he just stood there with a sheepish grin. The other fella, Shades, said, “We just need a boat, won't be long. I think we want that wooden Jon boat over there, the 23 footer.”
“So then, I'm guessin' ya'll will be carryin' some sort of package out there. Yer gonna want to take care. Funny things spill out in the lake from the Emerald Woods over yonder this time o'night. You ain't gonna want to take the wooden boat, you want the aluminum boat, next to the pine tree by that picnic table. Trust me. And you're gonna want me at the stern, keepin' the boat out of the obstacles.”
Shades shook his head. “We ain't gonna be needin' no help.” Tony just scowled.
Old Man Boyd said, “Then I guess you'll be takin' that there package back home to your tool shed...”
Reluctantly, the two men agreed to the help from the Old Man. The two greasy fellas loaded the boat with a package about 6 feet long, lumpy, and covered in plastic. Old Man Boyd navigated the waters with barely a wake and it was as if he were doing it by feel, because visibility was less than a few feet out into the water as the darkness set in. Once in the middle of Cowan Lake, the two men grabbed the package and dumped it over the edge of the boat. At about the same time, Old Man Boyd grabbed his oil cloth jacket and buttoned it tightly, tied himself to one of the ribs of the boat with a large mooring rope, and then hunkered down below the gunwales. Shades said, “What're you doin', Old Man?!” Before he could sputter the next few syllables, a long snakelike shadow appeared to enter the water from the Emerald Woods and a wake made of serpents began to follow in its trail. Shades whipped a revolver out of his jacket, wide eyed, and began shooting in the direction of the shadow. Tony began to whimper.
The shadow began twirling, like a rotating thunderstorm, snake-like and twisting around the boat with fang like projections spiraling into the two greasy men. The aluminum boat clanged and banged but it held together, no splintering like the wooden boats used to do. In a matter of seconds it was over. The serpents' shadows disappeared as quickly as they had come and went back into the forest, without so much as a single drop of water splashing into the dark murky waters. The two men were gone, only their boots left in the boat.
Yep, the lake gets funny this time of night. Old Man Boyd smiled to himself and slowly began his journey back to the dock, puffing on what was left of his cigar, leaving nothing but a trail of smoke in his wake and little glimmer of orange light in the darkness...
You will be looking for bright white fire tacks. The best way to find the tacks is to hold your very bright LED flashlight at eye level and scan the surroundings until you find one. This would probably be a 3 terrain in the daylight - 3.5 in the dark. You will bushwhack - wear appropriate bushwhacking clothing. There are some areas here that might be tough to navigate in the dark so take your time - you won't be on a trail. Lastly, unlike my other night cache, the entire round trip will be less than a mile so you won't have to spend your whole night on this cache. Have fun, be careful, keep an eye out for the serpents...