Major Welch Series #5: Bear Buffaloes Traditional Geocache
Walkin' Ed: The State permit has expired so its time to pull these.
Major Welch Series #5: Bear Buffaloes
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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The Major Welch trail is named for Major William A. Welch, the first General Manager of the Palisades Interstate Park. He helped found the Palisades Interstate Trail Conference (which later became the NY-NJ Trail Conference) and served as the chair of the Appalachian Trail Conference.
The trail begins behind the Bear Mountain Inn on the western side of Hessian Lake (red circle on white blaze). It follows the western shore of the lake along a paved path for almost .5 miles then turns uphill on a rocky trail. It climbs steeply to the summit of Bear Mountain, and then descends to Perkins Drive where it meets the Appalachian Trail. The best way to complete this series is to start at the Inn and follow the Major Welch trail to the Appalachian Trail then follow the AT back up and over the summit to return to the Inn. If you have two cars and Perkins Drive is open, you can leave one car at the Perkins Tower and shorten your hike. This cache is accessible from the parking area at Perkins Tower but it is only open seasonally. During the rest of the year you can add a star and a half to the terrain rating.
Do not search for this cache from Perkins Drive. Parking is not allowed along the Drive and you will probably receive a ticket.
The cache is asmall Lock and Lock container. It is starting out with only one type of trade item, but there are a lot of them. Feel free to leave something else. It should be easy to trade even or trade up. Due to NYS Park regulations the cache is hidden only a few feet off the trail. Please rehide it as you found it. The coordinates were obtained by averaging over 200 readings using a Garmin 76Cx.
Park at Perkins Tower (seasonally) N 41 18.721 W 074 00.419
or at the Bear Mountain Inn (fee charged onweekends and in the summertime) N 41 18.747 W 073 59.341.
NYS Parks Permit # BM07-05
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Qrnqjbbq.