Brownies on the Move Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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A beautiful 2.5 mile hike (round-trip total) up a quiet and serene canyon trail. Swag is very kid friendly!
This cache is on a not-as-often used trail in the Iron Mountain County Park trail system. While the trail to the summit is sometimes like a California Freeway, this hike is peaceful and uncrowded.
The cache was placed as part of our Brownie Troop's introduction to orienteering. Several girls, ages 4 to 9 years old, made the hike and had a blast doing it! Now we hope you'll enjoy the cache too!
The hike is 2.5 miles round trip -- an "in and out". You could continue farther up the trail if you like, but we have not done so and are not sure what the rest of the trail is like. The first 2/3rds of the hike is quite easy on a large fire-road-like trail that passes a large pond. The rest is a moderate uphill on an established, single-file trail. The uphill part looks down on a seasonal stream that is quite a ways below and has a great view of the pond. Beautiful!
Start at the beginning of the Iron Mountain Trail, near the corner of Poway Road and Highway 67.
The cache is an 18" section of 4" plastic pipe with two pipe caps. One is sealed with caulk and the other comes off with some work (tight fit!). The contents are kid-themed: plastic bracelets, necklaces, compass patches, a bag of plug covers to childproof your home, some small race cars, fun and colorful pencils, a "San Diego Wild Animal Park" patch, etc.
SAFETY: the sloping drop-off to the South of the trail is quite steep, so please keep the kids in-line (literally) so they don't take a long tumble. Also, as always in the San Diego back-country, keep an eye out for rattle snakes on warm days. (PLEASE leave a snake alone if you see it; they are an important part of the local eco-system and will not bother you unless provoked. Just give it a wide berth and "walk on by" :-) )
PRIVATE PROPERTY: The first part of the trail has signs stating that everything but the trail itself is private property. Please respect the land-owners and stay on the trail. Once you start the uphill portion, you are in County land. The cache is just off the trail on County land ("cache friendly :-) ).
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Sebz gur ovt ebpx bireybbxvat gur fgernz orq, ybbx gbjneq gur genvy. Gur pnpur vf va gur fznyy ebpxf.