Bobcat 3 Oaks Traditional Cache
Rexrider98: Archiving this after 15 years - read the last several posts from today for reasons why. Will attach here 3 last photos of the hidden little knoll on this almost unfindable peninsula, now returned back to nature.
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Located in the Wildcat Conservation Area of Boxford. The shortest route in is about 0.8 miles on good, fairly flat trails, with some bushwhacking at the end. The cache is a small ammo box. Muggle factor is non-existent.
Wildcat Conservation Area is a pristine, fairly good-sized woodlands with clearly-marked and well-maintained trails. It has deep woods, marshlands, rocky ledges and, like most woods in these parts, is crisscrossed by old stone walls marking off long-forgotten fields and pastures. In fact, these fields and pastures have something to do with the “Wildcat” name, which has been associated with this particular area for centuries. In Colonial days, pasturing animals in this area was risky due to locally high numbers of bobcats, wolves, bear and other predators. Back then, both Rowley (which then included Boxford) and the Massachusetts Bay Colony paid bounties for wolves and foxes. Deep stone-lined pits were dug in this area, baited and concealed to capture these predators. You can still see the remnants of one of these pits along the Wolf Pit Trail (see coords below). The last recorded sighting of a Bobcat in Boxford was in 1850, but maybe you'll be the first to see one again as you seek out Bobcat 3 Oaks! [Historical information taken, with thanks, from the Boxford Trails Association/Boxford Open Land Trust (BTA/BOLT) trail guide]
Park on Herrick Road at coords posted below. You can do the cache as part of a nice 2.5 mile loop which takes you around a central marshlands. I suggest going CCW on this loop to do the cache first, by going right on Witch Hollow Trail at the 1st major intersection (your GPSr will tell you to go straight on Marsh Trail, but don't). Go up Witch Hollow Trail to Long Marsh (not Marsh) Trail, go left and head for the cache. (If you want to see the wolf pit, go straight here instead of turning left on Long Marsh Trail; see 5/27/07 Owner's Maintenance log entry below). After the cache, return the way you came, or keep going CCW on Long Marsh Trail to its intersection with Marsh Trail, where you go left to get back to your car. If you do the whole loop, consider taking the side loop Ledges Trail, off Marsh Trail on your return leg, to check out the ledges, where you look down on the forest below you (see coords below). Then keep going on Ledges Trail to rejoin Marsh Trail further down for the final return to your car.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Jung'f va n anzr?
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