This is the bonus for the Opal Creek cache. You’ll have to find that cache first, the coordinates for this one are in its logbook.
This cache takes you farther up beautiful Opal Creek, a great way to cap off your visit to this remarkable area. The above coordinates are for a place called Cedar Flats, home to a trio of gigantic Western Red Cedars. These trees are a thousand years old; their trunks are seven feet wide at the base. I like to think of them as “alpha trees”. For ten centuries they’ve managed to survive forest fires, insect invasions, drought, lightning strikes, countless windstorms and the best laid plans of mice and men. They are partly responsible for the controversy that once enveloped this place. The cache is not far beyond these behemoths.
The trail you'll take to get here was built illegally in 1988 by a small group of people in a last ditch effort to bring public attention to Opal Creek and save its ancient forest. They dubbed it the "Bear Trail" and were threatened with prosecution over its unauthorized construction. Oddly in the 50 year battle over this area the trail seems to have been the single most effective thing.
The whole story of this area is pretty fascinating, running the gamut from armed conflicts at Jawbone Flats to eco-guerrilla tactics to political infighting in Salem and Washington, DC. If you're interested in learning more about what happened here there's an excellent book available called "Showdown At Opal Creek" by David Seideman, a reporter for Time magazine.
Today this place is nothing but peaceful and amazing. Hopefully it will remain that way for another thousand years. It's interesting to note that as far as you’ve hiked to get here you still haven’t reached the actual wilderness area, though it’s not far beyond. The Bear Trail only penetrates a short distance into it though, so for the time being the vast majority of this watershed remains untouched and inaccessible. Plans exist however to extend the trail up the creek to the headwaters near Opal Lake.
Sat lock here is even worse than at the other cache. If you click on the TopoZone link on this page you'll see the coords I've posted for Cedar Flats as being on the west side of Opal Creek. Don't believe it! I'm not sure how much of that is the NAD27 datum difference and how much is my lousy coords, but in any case the trail, the big cedars and the cache are all on the EAST side of the creek. Stick to the trail and use the very wordy hint & you'll be fine. Feel free to post your coords here for the cache.
Since you’ve already found the Opal Creek box you’ll know what you’re looking for. For the lucky first finder there’s a nice bonus in this bonus cache: a brand new Princeton Tec LED headlamp.
Enjoy!