America the Beautiful-#1 Shenandoah National Park Traditional Cache

You are looking for a series of 9 caches which will eventually lead you to the final one.  All the caches are in Gunpowder Falls State Park/Hereford Area which is open from dawn to dusk.    If you attempt to do all the caches at one time, you will be completing a 5 mile hike through a beautiful park and you will get credit for completing 10 different caches. Please replace the cache as you found it.

The 9 caches highlight 9 beautiful national parks which we have visited and enjoyed.  We hope these caches encourage you to not only visit more national parks, but to enjoy this beautiful park and many others in our area.

Cache #1-America the Beautiful-Shenandoah National Park

Shenandoah National Park encompasses part of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the state of Virginia. This national park is long and narrow, with the broad Shenandoah River and Valley on the west side, and the rolling hills of the Virginia Piedmont on the east. Although the scenic Skyline Drive is likely the most prominent feature of the Park, almost 40% of the land area 79,579 acres has been designated as wilderness and is protected as part of the National Wilderness Preservation System. The highest peak is Hawksbill Mountain at 4,051 feet.  It was established as a national park on December 26, 1935 and contains over 500 miles of hiking trails.

As you locate each cache, you will find a code listed on the log.  Copy these down as the letters and numbers will lead you to the final cache.  However, only 6 of the 9 numbers will be used.  Wait!  Before you panic to try and figure out which 3 you won't use, we will make it easy for you.

Complete the following popular sayings:

A penny saved is a penny _ _ _ _ _ _.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ speak louder than words.

A stitch _ _ time saves nine.

Take the first letter of the missing words and those 3 letters equal the 3 you won't use.  With the remaining letters, put them in alphabetical order and this will give you the final numbers for the coordinates with the first 3 completing the N coordinates and the final 3 completing the W coordinates..

N 39 35._ _ _

W076 40._ _ _

All caches require minimum bushwhacking.  We tried to place them in areas where there were either no stickers or very few.  The caches are not located far off the trails.  Even though you may think that bushwhacking from one cache to the next might be closer, we would highly recommend that you just stay on the trail and enjoy the beautiful area.  As you approach each GZ, stay on the trail until the last possible moment to avoid extra bushwhacking.

Just as a reminder, the park is open to bow hunting from the beginning of September to the end of January.  The hunters are only allowed to hunt from deer stands and although we've never seen any in all the times we've hiked there, just be aware that they may be around so wear bright colored clothing.

The final cache is located within the park and will not require retracing your steps.  The coordinates for the final cache are not the ones listed.  They are actually the coordinates for the parking area off of Mt. Carmel Road which is where we recommend that you park to start your adventure. We tried to get the coordinates as close as possible to the actual GZ, but with all the tree cover, they may be a little off. If you have better coordinates, please let us know. A pen and a pair of tweezers will be helpful. Congratulations to unusualsuspect for FTF!