Guardians of The Tanbark Trail
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This is not your typical park and grab micro cache. This is a multi cache for serious cachers who don’t mind spending up to a half a day taking a wonderful hike in a beautiful area and getting a nice cache for their effort. The hike features a nice trek up the Tanbark Trail from the trailhead on U.S. Route 62 along the Allegheny River in the beautiful Allegheny National Forest. The hike will be from three to three and a half miles roundtrip. The first 0.25 miles of the trail is very steep coming up the side of the ridge from the River, but it closely follows a beautiful mountain stream with many small waterfalls to admire as you take your time and enjoy frequent rest breaks. The rest of the trail is much less steep, as it turns and slowly works its way up the rest of the slope to the top of the ridge. The trail winds through beautiful timber, large boulders, and fern glades crossing a few nice little springs flowing out from under boulders. The soothing sounds of the flowing water quickly replace the noise of traffic on Route 62, and you are able to enjoy the sounds of Mother Nature and all her creations. The trail is marked with white diamonds.
The area is covered with older forest which affords you the opportunity to observe wildlife of that habitat type. On the lower slopes there is Hemlock mixed with some hardwood trees. Farther up, you get into mostly hardwood forests with Black Cherry, Oak, and Hickory. You will pass numerous boulders on the lower slopes of sandstone and conglomerate.The total distance round trip is about 3.25 miles and the elevation change is about 650 feet. If you can step from stone to stone when you encounter the spring runs, you can get away without rubber boots. However, we strongly recommend sturdy shoes with good support.
The coordinates listed at the top of the page are for the first stage micro cache, Tanbark #1. Note: To begin this cache, find the Tanbark Trailhead along Route 62 at these coordinates N 41* 45.212 W 79* 17.616 There is a good spot to park about 100 feet from the Trailhead traveling either North or South from the Trailhead.
Did I mention that this is a multi cache. Well, since it was a fairly good hike to the real traditional cache, we thought it would be nice to break up the trip into segments. Each segment is about a quarter of the way and gives you a little diversion from the hike and allows for a rest period. The first two stages are micro caches containing only the coordinates to get you to the next stage. Tanbark #1 and #2 are small metal Altoids tins. The final stage is a traditional cache in a .30 caliber ammo box and is filled with camping and hiking goodies and useful items.
The cache is named “Guardians of the Tanbark Trail” for several reasons. Each stage of the cache is hosted by a guardian of sorts. In addition, the trail passes very close to a pair of nesting Northern Goshawks, who also acted as Guardians of the trail and made several dive-bombing runs screaming at us as we walked through their territory. Goshawks are fairly rare and tend to exhibit aggressive behavior during their nesting period. I have heard of instances where the goshawk swooped down and grabbed someone’s hat. It was really a neat experience as they made several swooping runs at us both coming and going to the cache. None of the intermediate stages of the cache are close to the nest, so our best recommendation is to keep quiet and keep moving once they spot you and they will leave you alone as soon as you get far enough past their nest. Farther out the trail, we also heard several red tail hawks screaming. All in all, a wonderful hike, but take some insect repellent just in case. The blackflies were bad down by the river, so we put some spray on, but then the bugs never bothered us on the whole trip. We hope you enjoy our first of several caches to be placed along the Tanbark Trail to encourage people to visit this wonderful trail.
Additional Hints
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Gnaonex #1
Sebz gur Gnaonex Genvy, gjb snyyra ybtf, nobhg 25 srrg ncneg ng gur genvy unir orra phg jurer gurl uvg gur rqtr bs gur genvy. Gur ybtf perngr n angheny shaary gb thvqr lbh evtug gb gur onfr bs guvf thneqvna, n oebxra bss urzybpx fant. Purpx nebhaq gur onfr bs gur thneqvna.
Gnaonex #2
Va guvf pnfr, bayl n erzanag bs gur bapr-cebhq thneqvna erznvaf va n snveyl bcra cngpu bs jbbqf. Gur pnpur erfvqrf va gur gbc bs guvf zbffl pbirerq, ebggvat fghzc haqre fbzr yrnirf.
Gnaonex #3
Ybbx sbe gur znffvir gevcyr pureel gerr pyhzc bs thneqvnaf jngpuvat bire gur svany fgntr bs gur pnpur. Gjb bs gurfr znzzbguf frrz gb fgvyy or nyvir, juvyr bar unf qvrq. Gur snyyra unys bs guvf zrzore bs gur gevb yrnqf gur jnl gb gur pnpur.