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Located in the heart of Harold R. Rafton Reservation, the largest of the 22 AVIS conservation properties in Andover. The shortest route in, as the crow flies, is 0.5 miles, but you’ll cover more ground than that as you navigate circuitous trails, swamps and creeks. You can get most of the way to the cache on fairly flat trails, but plan on considerable bushwhacking at the end. However, your reward will be visiting a beautiful, wild and peaceful place.
This cache is named after one of the most stunning solo guitar creations of all time, Embryonic Journey, written and played by Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen. This complex, high energy, joyous, almost frenetically ecstatic piece first appeared in 1967 on the Airplane’s 2nd album, Surrealistic Pillow. It’s hard to know exactly what Kaukonen was thinking when he created and named this piece, but based on its title I have always assumed it reflected his thoughts on the raw excitement of early life, floating peacefully in the warm soothing darkness of the womb---heartbeats racing, neurons firing, pre-language pre-thought oceanic consciousness. Sounds from the outside world would certainly have been heard, but would have meant nothing---yet. Like me, you may find yourself pondering the meaning of Kaukonen’s Embryonic Journey when you seek out this cache, in a dark primordial place of peace and solitude, but with the constant low thrum of the outside world---road noise from I-93 and I-495---heard in the far-off distance, yet totally irrelevant.
I’ve listed 4 parking coordinates below along with their “as the crow flies” distances. If you come in from one of the 2 High Plains Road trailheads, you’ll have to go under some serious high voltage power lines, with the usual wide clear-cut ground corridor. If that troubles you, aesthetically or geomagnetically, I recommend coming in from either Chandler Road or the Chandler Road/River Road junction trailheads. Either of those 2 trailheads will maximize your "wilderness experience", distant I-93/I-495 road noise notwithstanding.
The cache is an ammo box. Heavy canopy near the cache site may be an issue with GPSr readings year-round. The posted coordinates represent an average of 15 readings made from a point 10’ W of the cache where there was a better shot of the sky for GPSr readings. Please feel free to post your own coordinates if they are different. Since getting a really good reading near the cache may be a chronic issue, the hint below is quite detailed, so be aware of that if you decide to decrypt it. Your GPSr will certainly get you close enough to figure things out with the hint, if needed.
Finally, I saw two huge white-tailed deer en route to setting up the cache, although I did not see any White Rabbits.
NOTE ADDED 4/21/07: PLEASE REHIDE CAREFULLY due to newly-constructed lean-to about 200' away. Not sure how much of a threat it actually is, but better to be safe in order to minimize muggle risk. The hint is detailed enough that it's not necessary to leave anything showing. Thanks!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Va fgbar jnyy 25’ A bs A-zbfg bs 2 uhtr bnxf obgu chfuvat ntnvafg R fvqr bs fgbar jnyy