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Boulder Dam Traditional Cache

Hidden : 5/22/2015
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
2.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   small (small)

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Geocache Description:

This is 1 of 4 new caches placed in Iron Hill Park which currently contains 25 active caches.

The park has the following amenities: Pavilion (reservations required through New Castle County), picnic tables, porta-potties, playground for kids, bark park, 18-hole frisbee golf course, and loads of trails for hiking and mountain biking. Remember this is a dusk to dawn park so no night caching.

Recently I was in Iron Hill Park searching for locations to squeeze in a few more caches and this is one of the spots I found. The first part of the directions is the same as if heading for the "Iron High Low" cache [GC5W02T].

Park in the main Iron Hill parking area near the dog park and follow the paved path up to the left side of the pavilion. Located here is the trailhead for the yellow blaze (yellow/green) trail which skirts a very deep depression on your left--the remains of the old Whitaker Iron Mine. There are 3 splits in the trail before hitting the main yellow trail. Just keep bearing right. Continue on the yellow trail past the FSC-2013 Newark (Iron Hill) cache [GC4MAD3] and stay straight at all other junctions. Continue down the trail until you reach the listed trail junction. You will see a big tree with a red arrow on your left and another big tree with a green and yellow arrow on your right. There are 2 ways to go from here. The first way is to go straight on the trail between the 2 marked trees. It is the continuation of the yellow trail. Follow the yellow trail to the listed unmarked trail junction (UT) at N39_38.715/W075_44.928. Turn right at the stacked rocks. Take this unmarked, somewhat rocky trail and eventually you will pass within 30' of the cache. NOTE: The large deposits of iron ore in Iron Hill and the abundant tree cover causes satellite signals to bounce a bit so let your GPS adjust to the local conditions. If the signal is still jumpy you may have to use the hint. Overall this will be a 1.5 mile round trip from the main parking area.

The second way to go from the listed trail junction is to stay to the right of tree with the green and yellow arrow and follow the directions to the "Black and Blue Bison in the Woods" cache [GC5W149]. At N39_38.530/ W075_44.990 turn left. This is the white trail. The white/green post that was here has been removed so the trail is now unmarked. Continue on the somewhat rocky trail passing close to the "Iron Hill Renew" cache (on your left) until you reach the post at the yellow fence line trail at N39_38.498/W075_44.680. Turn left and stay on the yellow trail passing the "Black and Blue Bison in the Woods" cache. At N39_38.622/W075_44.747 you will get to the end of the unmarked trail mentioned above in the first way to the cache. Here you will see a pile of rocks at the trail junction. Turn left and head 140-150' uphill to the cache. To get back just reverse the directions from the first way listed above.

Warning: Mosquito/bug repellent may be required during the summer months. Also some days you may need to watch out for mountain bikers!

All 4 of the new caches are placed on the other side of the park. They can not be accessed from I-95 or 896, so please use the listed parking and plan accordingly. Once all of them are published you can make a 2 mile loop on both marked and unmarked trails to retrieve them and return to the main parking area. I recommend starting with the "Iron High Low" cache[GC5W02T] then the "Black and Blue Bison in the Woods" cache [GC5W149], then this one, and finally the "The Roots of all Evil" cache[GC5W0XG].

Have fun and happy caching!

Congratulations to shorttripp for first-to-find!

Update as of 2/20/2020> I checked on this cache today. For this one I replaced the log sheet as it was full. Other than that the cache is in good shape. I also noticed that some trail posts have been removed.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Ng onfr bs ovt obhyqre. Ybbx haqre syng ebpx.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)