Welcome to the winter series of the Central Region Parks caches. This is a test run so we will only be placing caches in a few of the parks to see how well they are received.
Verona Beach State Park, located on the eastern shore of Oneida Lake, is a picnicker's and camper's delight. Shaded picnic areas and the campground are adjacent to the beach with an excellent view of the water. The lake, Black Creek, cattail marshes, and bottomland hardwood swamps give Verona Beach one of the most diverse aquatic habitats in the Central Region, and well worth a hike on the "Woods and Wetland" nature trail. The winter season hosts snowmobilers, cross-country skiers and ice fishermen. The eastern portion of the park is open for hunting deer, small game, and waterfowl, in season.
There are 6 caches along this stretch of the canal that are part of the winter cache series. One of them will have a information needed for a puzzle cache hidden in one of the 5 participating parks. It will have the word prairie in the title, and information in the cache description. Be sure to take note of the 2 letter/number combinations so you can find the final.
Prairie dogs (genus Cynomys) are herbivorous burrowing rodets native to the grasslands of North America. The five species are: black-tailed, white-tailed, Gunnison's, Utah, and Mexican prairie dogs. They are a type of ground squirrel, found in the US, Canada and Mexico. In Mexico, prairie dogs are found primarily in the northern states, which lie at the southern end of the Great Plains,: northeastern Sonora, north and northeastern Chihuahua, northern Coahuila, northern Nuevo Leon, and northern Tamaulipas. In the United States, they range primarily to the west of the Mississippi River, though they have also been introduced in a few eastern locales. Despite the name, they are not actually canines.
Consider downloading the park map. https://www.avenzamaps.com/maps/374817 The caches are all on the Red Trail, on different sides of the road.This cache is a camo'd medium sized container. It has a picture of a prairie dog inside with two umber/letter combinations on it that you will need to record for a bonus cache. The trail here can be very wet, so please wear boots. There is hunting in the park, but not on this trail. Orange blaze is still recommended. Also, coyote tracks were present when these caches were placed.