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The Trail-Makers #1: Secret and After Hours Trails Traditional Cache

Hidden : 7/19/2016
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size:   regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:

The first of (hopefully) a series of caches hidden near trails that my dad has built around the state. My goal is to tell the stories of how and when they were built, in order to give the world a better idea of the hard work and artistry that trail building involves.


Ah, the memories. Before Dad did trailbuilding professionally, he did it as a hobby. The After Hours Trail got its name from the times when he would get off work and go to build this trail in his free time, starting in the mid-90s and finishing it around 2000. He made it because he wanted to have a short loop that he could mountain bike on. Because the land was owned by the DNR at that time, he was legally allowed to just build it there without any special permission. Do not get any ideas, though, because the land is now in possession of the borough, which does not have such a lenient policy. The trail was built completely by hand, using little more than a chainsaw, a pulaski, and a shovel. Dad's knowledge of trail construction was limited at the time, but the trail turned out pretty well nonetheless.

On the other side of the Skyline Ridge Trail is the Secret Trail. I thought for a long time that Dad had actually built this one, but this was not the case. He went walking up there one day and discovered it, a singletrack running off through the woods without any signage or acknowledgement of its existence. "Huh," he thought, "this must be a secret trail." Thus inspired, Dad started improving it just after he finished the After Hours Trail, cutting into the hillside to make benches where the trail went across the slope of the hill. It follows the ridge down almost to Ski Boot Hill Road.

The whole system of trails in this area wind through birch and aspen forests as well as a few spruce thickets. It is particularly pretty in the fall when the leaves turn, but is available year round. The cache itself had a bit of a small mouth to it, so it was placed only with the logbook and a non-trackable geocoin that I picked up in the Czech Republic. 

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