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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
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Traditional rectangular clear plastic cache. Easy, mostly shady, 12-minute walk from parking at:
27 51.108 N
082 13.569 W
which is on side of road. Please be careful when you pull slowly off of the road. There is a sidewalk here, we park parallel to the road in between the sidewalk and the road. This is a Hillsborough County nature preserve at which you do not have to climb the locked gate to enter.
THE STORY OF THIS CACHE.
Woodpecker Hollow is located on the side of small, hard-to-see Little Fish Hawk Creek that you can really hear babble when there’s lots of water in the area. Stay on easy-walking path until you get to within about 50' of the cache. Then the path ends and you will be walking through the low ground cover and vines. The area is heavily overgrown.
The water sound comes from the change in elevation in this area. We were there after heavy rains and the sound of the small creek was pleasant and a little surprising because we could not see it. We suspect that most of the time it will be without water.
While most of Hillsborough County is flat, this area near Little Fish Hawk Creek slopes. It is a shady walk all the way to this cache. Children will have no trouble, except the last 50 feet, when the trail ends.
There are several branches of the path/trail/cleared area, and you may want to explore them on your way back to the car. You may want to follow the creek bed if it is dry. We did not try this because it was full of water when we were there right after very heavy rains.
We saw no trash in this area except for a very old beer can and a plastic bottle which we removed on our first visit.
We heard many birds, especially mocking birds. We saw a Brown Thrasher follow along the path in front of us. The first time we went to the site, which about an 1.5 hours before sunset, we saw a large armadillo. When we went back to place the cache we saw where an animal had been digging along the path.
We did not see any woodpeckers, but suspect they are in the area of Woodpecker Hollow. I think the common woodpeckers in this area are the Downy, Pileated, and Red-bellied Woodpeckers. The Downy is Florida’s smallest woodpecker (6.5") and the Pileated is the largest (16").
The Red-bellied Woodpecker is Florida’s most common woodpecker. Its head is red on the very top, but is not red on all of its face and neck like the rarer red-headed woodpecker.
The seasons are a good teacher. At each part of the year, we are reminded of some event in the history of Florida wildlife. For example in June, the month this cache was placed:
On June 1, 1952 - was first sighting of cattle egrets in Florida, and on June 14, 1969 was the last sighting of ivory-billed woodpeckers in Florida.
Each sound is a story, each tree, bird, and animal is an encyclopedia, and their interrelationships are worthy of a PhD. At Woodpecker Hollow nothing dies to nature’s service.
Some might think that the time we spend with our children outdoors is not as educational as when we sit reading a book with them at the dinning room table. Geocaching parents know that the pages of the Big Book of Life start to turn when they stop the car and say, “Yes, the cache is off in that direction, let’s start walking.”
THE TABLES TURNED
By: William Wordsworth
UP! up! my Friend, and quit your books;
Or surely you'll grow double:
Up! up! my Friend, and clear your looks;
Why all this toil and trouble?
The sun, above the mountain's head,
A freshening lustre mellow
Through all the long green fields has spread,
His first sweet evening yellow.
Books! 'tis a dull and endless strife:
Come, hear the woodland linnet,
How sweet his music! on my life,
There's more of wisdom in it.
And hark! how blithe the throstle sings!
He, too, is no mean preacher:
Come forth into the light of things,
Let Nature be your Teacher.
She has a world of ready wealth,
Our minds and hearts to bless
Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,
Truth breathed by cheerfulness.
One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can.
Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
Our meddling intellect
Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:
We murder to dissect.
Enough of Science and of Art;
Close up those barren leaves;
Come forth, and bring with you a heart
That watches and receives.
ORIGINAL CONTENTS OF CACHE
The outdoors is also fun and the cache has several items for children.
The original contents of this cache are:
Log book and pen.
Geocache-Site Notice in case of accidental discovery.
1 - 3-CD set of “Best of Country” for the first finder who wants to listen to country music while traveling to your next cache.
1 - Twist-n-Fly Flying disk toy.
1 - Incredible Hulk tiny (non-hulking) jigsaw puzzle
Match-box size Hero City Helicopter
2 - Water squirt guns
4 - Fishing flies. (Three are for salmon, trout fishing, and bass fishing. One is a metal spinner for trolling for trout, perch, pickerel, walleye pike, and other varieties of fish.) Thanks NP for the donation of the fishing flies.
4 - 4" x 6" US flags
2 - Small sea shells
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Fgnaq ng ynfg srapr cbfg, snpr perrx. Pnpur vf ng onfr bs gnyy gerr ng 10 b’pybpx.