OddMushroom and I have been wanting to see more geocaches get placed out in this lovely state game land on the slopes of Tussey Mountain above Williamsburg. For over a year, we have made some plans to do so. Slowly, the area has grown with two gold cans (one of which has a related traditional), a letterbox, plus a micro traditional and a multi up by the tower. Since OddMushroom and I (mrGreen317) have been the primary hiders in the area, we affectionately have been calling the SGL "GreenMushroom Land" (oh, and green nikki has a very nice point-of-interest cache in here as well... and there is a nicer older cache that was here first, Spiderweb Cove, placed by dfcaver). Without much further ado, Welcome to "GreenMushroom Land!"
Once upon a time, a geocaching log was written that said: "TFTC. Every sgl gate should have one. :)" I could not agree more. It sounded like an idea for a possible series, so here is another cache at another SGL gate.
May 3, 2000 (18 years ago from the placing of this geocache at the gate): Dave Ulmer, a computer consultant, wanted to test the accuracy of GPS receivers (after the removal of "selective availability" which had previously hindered the accuracy of such devices) by hiding a navigational target in the woods. He placed his own container, a black bucket, in the woods near Beavercreek, Oregon, near Portland. Along with a logbook and pencil, he left various prize items including videos, books, software, and a slingshot. He shared the waypoint of his "stash" with the online community on sci.geo.satellite-nav. Within three days, two different readers read about his stash on the Internet, used their own GPS receivers to find the container, and shared their experiences online. He called the idea the "Great American GPS Stash Hunt" and posted it in an internet GPS users' group. The idea was simple: Hide a container out in the woods and note the coordinates with a GPS unit. Paraphrased from https://www.geocaching.com/about/history.aspx
Celebrate the "birthday" of geocaching with a gate cache, a nice extended walk in the state games lands for a good ol' fashioned ammo can hidden away from the hustle-bustle of urban life, and maybe even a tree climb. This gameland should have plenty to offer now and in the near future. The adventure awaits you beyond the gate. So get out and enjoy some geocaching on this 18th anniversary.
This geocache is a small, plastic, top-latching container with some camo tape wrapped around the main body and a little tape on the top and bottom. It is placed in a stump at the given coordinates. It should basically be a park and grab. There may be some thorny bushwhack between the cache and gate, so I upped the terrain to 2.0, but it should not be too difficult. Be aware of the presence of ticks in this game land and take appropriate precautions. The location is SGL 118, just off Covedale Rd, just west of the road's crossing over the mountain between Williamsburg and western Huntingdon County. Even though the cache is at the gate, please exercise sensible precautions if hunters are in the area. During the peak hunting seasons, orange is required to be worn in SGL (except on Sunday, when there is no hunting).
There is ample room to park in the wide gravel parking area. Please do not block the gate with your vehicle. DO NOT attempt to access the cache directly from Covedale Road. While in the area, feel free to enjoy the other geocaching opportunities that exist down the road beyond the gate.
FTF: A small "FTF Hippo" was provided to the FTF geocacher. That geocacher was TheGeoSleuth, who it seems beat Profbrad by thirty minutes or so...
A congratulations on official FTF goes to TheGeoSleuth, and then Profbrad for the STF, both of them likely enjoying a nice day in the woods on the 'Original Stash Cache' anniversary. Thanks for stopping by this gate today!
(A pre-published, unofficial FTF shout-out goes to OddMushroom who found the cache without coordinates while he was waiting for me to finish my final container preparations for our cache-hiding hike today on 5/2/2018. Well done!)