RVT - Long Point Tunnel #2 Traditional Cache
RVT - Long Point Tunnel #2
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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Placed with permission from the Redbank Valley Trails Assn (RVTA). See below for closest parking coords. Trail is open dawn to dusk. There is food and fuel in Widnoon, 3 miles from the parking area. Trail surface has been improved. Should be a quick find, especially if using the hint. Coords have been updated very slightly due to moving the cache about 20' from it's original location in 2016.
The Redbank Valley Trail has been honored by Pennsylvania as "2014 Trail of the Year". In 2016 a picnic table and shelter were added to this spot. Also added was a red stand alone bicycle repair center with tools to fix your bicycle, change a tire, or add air to the tires. Also at this site are a bathroom and an Adirondack shelter for camping overnight. This area is between the 8 and 9 mile marker at about 8.3 miles. See redbankvalleytrails.org for more information.
Congratulations to PghRunner and Val Cox for FTF.
This is in a remote area so be aware that you could see all types of wildlife. It would be advisable to wear orange during hunting season since you are in the woods. Good idea to bring a really powerful flashlight so you can explore the tunnel, plus get the caches on the other side. This curved tunnel should be safe to walk or ride a bike through, but it's long, so a light of some sort will most likely be needed.
While you're here, check out the benchmarks on the tunnel. Facing the tunnel on the bottom inside stone on the right is an unlisted (no way to log it) mark chiseled in stone that says B.M.10. If you walk through the tunnel, KX0950 is chiseled in stone as B.M.9 on the 1st stone on the lower right side (inside) - it is hard to make out. KX0951 is on the 2nd stone up on the left side (outside) - it used to have a metal disk but all that is left is the cement and the impression of the wording.
I'm bumping all the difficulty and terrain ratings up slightly along here due to signal bounce and trail surface, and the distance from "official" parking areas. Terrain to cache is level but rocky a lot of the way until it gets improved in (hopefully) 2014 - it is about 2.4 miles from listed parking coords at the Lawsonham Trailhead (but you may find a closer parking spot). You will need a flashlight to get through the tunnel if you want to get the caches on the other side or explore the natural stone walls inside the tunnel.
The tunnel got it's name because the area was once known as Long Point. From what I could find out, it extended from the creek up to include farms way up on top of the hill. Back in the mid-1850s there was a farmer in the area that harbored runaway slaves as part of the Underground Railroad and helped them on their way to Canada. An 1877 atlas map shows a road off to the right side of the tunnel as you exit it towards Lawsonham, that is marked as "road to ore bank". The map also shows 4 buildings in the flat area along the creek (to your left as you exit the tunnel), 1 building between the tunnel and the road to the ore bank, and 1 building right at the tunnel mouth marked as "RR Watch House". The map shows that the railroad grade originally followed the creek along the flat area where the buildings were, but was abandoned by 1877.
Long Point Tunnel has the date 1898 stamped in the keystone at this end of the tunnel. I'm assuming that although the railroad started operating in 1873 that there must have been parts of it that weren't connected up to each other until the 3 tunnels along the length of it were all completed, although an old 1877 map does show the tunnel and lists the part along the Redbank Creek as "original grade abandoned". I'm confused about the 1898 date, unless that just means the brick & masonry entrances were completed then.
This tunnel has brick & masonry entrances, but otherwise is the only one on the trail that is made entirely of natural stone - if you explore it with a flashlight you can see where it was carved out through solid rock! Makes you wonder how on earth they managed to do that back in the 1800s. It is 644 feet long and is the only one on the trail that is currently open, although it is listed as "travel at your own risk". It is curved and when you stand in the very middle you can barely make out the openings at each end.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
gb gur evtug bs gur ovt ebpxf ol gur jbbqra srapr, haqre n envyebnq gvr orfvqr n ynetr gerr