The cache is hidden near a small but rather energetic mountain stream. There is a short but fairly steep scramble from the road down to the stream; then a little bouldering along the bank is required to get to the cache. The dangers here are the possibility of having your feet go out from under you as you go down the slope or slipping on wet and mossy river rocks. The stream runs all year long. During the winter and early spring, it can be a torrent.
From the view point of scenery (pun intended), we think this is our prettiest cache to date. The name of the cache derives from the “troll” who MAY be under the bridge and the fact that a toll used to be required to pass over his lair.
Troll of the Toll Cache is located at the confluence of the East and West forks of Patrick Creek. The easiest way to approach the cache is to take Highway 199 to Patrick Creek and turn left on County Road 316 just past the bridge. Proceed north about 3.5 miles to the “Old Gasquet Toll Road”. An alternate route would be to take the OGTR out of Gasquet. It’s 14 miles from Gasquet to the Troll’s bridge. Although a little rough and rock-strewn, the road is in generally good shape and the views are spectacular. When we placed the cache, we took HWY 199 to Patrick Creek then came home via the OGTR. In addition to the wonderful mountain vistas (see photo), there are numerous places along the OGTR where you can look down into the Smith River Canyon and see both the river and the highway. At the highest elevation, this “look down” is over 1,400 feet.
The cache is in a clear 1 gallon plastic jar with a screw on lid. It contains the usual assortment of rare and exotic treasures (read we went to the Dollar Store). Please bring small items to trade as there’s not a lot of room in the jar and its mouth is only about 4” wide. It is with great sadness, remorse, regret, chagrin and embarrassment that we must report our inexcusable failure to put a “first finder” blue ribbon in the cache. We hope that our stupid, thoughtless, and unforgivable blunder will not deter certain cachers (you know who you are).
A picture of the cache hide is included below along with a photo of a funky looking “clue” tree that is associated with the encrypted cheat. Please replace the hidey rocks as shown in the photo.
Now for the scary part: Everyone knows that Del Norte County is home to Bigfoot, but few know of the “trolls” that purportedly live (or may have once lived) under certain bridges. In Redwood Country, these trolls are known as Rho-DOD-en-drons. It should be noted that no Bigfoot has ever been sighted near a Rho-DI’s lair. Local scientists, imagineers and certain whackos have conjectured that the Bigfoot are deathly afraid of them. It should also be noted that no geocacher who has “cached in and trashed out” in Del Norte County has ever been bothered (much) by a Rho-DI.