This Cache is placed as part of the 2016 New York State Park Saratoga/Capital District Regional Geocache Challenge. There are 76 geocaches hidden within 18 state parks and historic sites in this parks region, and geocachers finding 40 or more will be eligible to receive a commemorative, unique, and trackable geocoin. The first 100 people to find 40 or more caches will receive a special geocache challenge coin. If you are interested in taking up the challenge, you can pick up a geocache passport at any of the participating parks and sites or download it at www.nysparks.com New for 2016 – NYS Parks Central Region will be hosting a similar challenge!! 10 caches found in the Central Region Challenge can be used toward the Sara-Cap Challenge!
This cache contains a unique stamp which must stay with the cache. Use this stamp to mark your passport. This stamp is NOT a trade item. Some of the items in the cache are park souvenirs and do not need to be replaced with a trade item.
Please note that due to Park Improvement Construction, access to Cherry Plain is limited on weekdays. The campground has a portajohn available daily, but bathrooms, camping, and swimming are only available on weekends. You are free to park outside the gate and access these caches by foot. Please do not wander into the construction zone.
In the forest, nothing is simply dead. Even in death, a tree takes on new life, so to speak. Near this cache (but not attached to it), you will find an impressive nurse log that is doing just that. Most likely it was once a towering white pine, but now it is a nurse to many young new trees. Hemlocks and a black birch are sprouting from the supply of nutrients the decaying tree offers up. Notice the black birches roots are straddling the log. Someday the white pine will have rotted away, and then the birch will be strangely perched on stilts! Birches love taking advantage of dead trees and rotting stumps, so this is an an odd feature you’ll often see in their structure. So we think the cache may take you some time to find, but at least you can enjoy the surroundings while you look!