GCTW39 Sleight Cache (Traditional Cache) in New York, United States created by Team Smokey

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GCTW39 ▼

A cache by Team Smokey Message this owner

Hidden : 3/12/2006

Difficulty:

Terrain:

Size: Size: regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:

A small parking area can be found at
N 41 42.513
W 073 51.217
You are looking for a standard ammo can.

Located along the Wappinger Creek Greenway, the trail is quite flat, but can be muddy at times. Much of the trail is on town property, but the trail does wander along private property. Please stay on the trail and respect other people's property. There is NO NEED to bushwhack. If you feel you need to, you're coming about it the wrong way. There is an unblazed deer trail to get to GZ. Once at GZ, picking your approach correctly will give you an easy grab. Please don't disrupt the camo and please replace as found. Stealth will be required when no leaves are on the trees.
This is a very kid-friendly trail.

Man's commitment to project makes trail a reality

By Dan Shapley

As taken from the Poughkeepsie Journal 11/14/2005

Visitors to the Wappinger Creek Greenway Trail in LaGrange have Rolf Nijhuis to thank for a pleasant trail that's open year-round to the public at no charge.

The late Jack Rosenmeier started the project about 1990, and Nijhuis started helping in 1992 when he joined the town's Conservation Advisory Commission. The first section of trail was built in 1997 and the latest about two years ago.

A small parking area is located on Sleight Plass Road, about 7/10 of a mile from the intersection of Overlook Road. A small brown sign and a split rail fence mark the spot. Fishing is allowed and at least one property owner allows hunting on his land, so walkers should be wary until hunting season expires.

Nijhuis has, for some time, orchestrated the trail's ongoing lengthening and maintenance. It now stands at about 1 1/4 miles along a beautiful stretch of Wappinger Creek, as it winds under a canopy of sycamore, oak, maple and other trees.

"When the leaves are up, you can't see a house," he said Friday as he cleared downed branches and tacked up a few more yellow diamond-shaped blazes to mark the trail. "There are very few places like that in Dutchess County, where you can wander without impeding on anyone's property."

The creek is broad, clear as tap water and shallow except for a couple of swimming holes. Nijhuis knows better than to expect the creek always to flow placidly as it did on that quiet November day.

During last summer's drought, the creek dried to a trickle — enough that unwelcome ATV drivers forded the creek from the Poughkeepsie side. Then, the record October rains made the creek rise more than six feet within hours, swamping the trail and sweeping off some bank with it.

That's nothing new for the Wappinger, which winds through sandy glacial till that is easily scoured by the current.

Erosion in nature

Upstream development, Nijhuis said, has increased erosion by paving over more land. Rain water flows so quickly over pavement that it fills streams with explosive force. He has watched several feet of bank disappear, and tall trees topple into the creek, in the few years he has walked and worked on the trail.

"Those beautiful big trees are going to go over," he said, pointing to cliff-like banks held in place by precariously leaning trees.

Last summer, he worked with the town, Trout Unlimited, the Dutchess County Environmental Management Council and Boy Scout Troop 50 to repair a section of the bank. The channel, at a sharp bend, was fast eating into the land and might have soon consumed the trail.

Volunteers and a town highway crew transformed an undermined bank into a grassy slope that survived the October flood. Next year, they will plant native bushes and trees with gripping roots to hold the bank firm.

"The projects would not have been completed without Rolf's persistence and leadership," said Dave Burns, former watershed coordinator for the Environmental Management Council. "He also did an excellent job of recruiting and organizing volunteers to help bring the projects to successful completion."