Klipnocky State Forest Geocache

Printer Version   Spy on this Cache

Hidden On: 20 Apr 2001
Waypoint (Landmark): N00153
Open Cache:  Personal use only
Cache type:  Unknown
Cache size:   Unknown

Difficulty:  (hard)
Terrain:  (moderate)

Misc:

Comments:

Clues:    decode

• Cache Clue! 
  Gur ubyr va gur orrpu gerr vf ng tebhaq yriry ba gur jrfg fvqr bs gur gerr> Jr cynprq gur erznvaf bs n uryvhz onyybba nobhg !% srrg sebz gur pnpur gerr
  

Like is the case with most Monday’s, I must have fallen into my usual zombie like trance. Usually I do this to ward off the shock and nausea of starting another work week. It’s a wonderful thing really. You pull into the parking lot, head into the office and somewhere between the time your butt hits the seat and the computer greets you mockingly with that iridescent glow, your brain has left your body and is off in a euphoric dream world called La-La Land. Anyway, after you work for 6 or 7 million years (who’s counting right?) your brain quickly begins to understand the pattern and each and every Monday at 8am it’s somewhere else having fun while your physical being is typing reports, filing papers, and pretending to comprehend the correlation between budgetary variances and the amount of time accounting decides to pop in and gnaw your buns off.

I say this because today was Monday. And although it was indeed Labor Day, a day of reprieve from the melancholy of employment, my brain is such a creature of habit that at some point today I suddenly came too, finding myself in my car careening down a boulder filled obstacle course. My body, in shock at suddenly being thrust into a precarious predicament with no recollection of the events leading up to it, was now absorbed in a battle for survival along the back roads of Allegany County. Now mostly conscious, Chicky and I rolled along to the sound of the tinks and thuds you hear when driving down access roads in state forest property. Occasionally there would be a huge bone chilling crunch, followed by some swearing and a frightful moment of silence where I fear that when I get to heaven, the many oil pans I’ve mutilated on roads like these just might hunt me down and kick the crap out of me.

Finally after a lot of driving round and round, and a near-moment of insanity when I thought about taking my car through the muddy moat-like swamp that had formed across one of the roads, Chicky and I found a reasonable spot to park. After a quick peek to see what items where still attached to the underbelly of my car, we headed down the road towards the FLT access point. The initial hike along the FLT was awesome, with several magnificent rock formations that were absolutely stunning. After a short hike, we realized that the FLT was going away from the cache, so after a brief huddle we discouragingly began to bushwhack. Now I say discouragingly as we hoped the FLT would be a magical trail that would show us much splendor while navigating us right to the cache. The FLT did not serve this purpose…but the trail we did find was that and so much more. Ironically enough where we parked the car was where the start of this magical mystery trail began. So with a renewed sense of joy, we started down this old path along the ridge on our way towards the cache.

I should backtrack momentarily on the history of how we came to find this cache. As Rocky and others may recall, this cache was hand picked out of millions and millions of caches by a good friend of ours – Hucklebuckle – as his choice for cache find number 1,000. Although fate (and a couple feet of snow) would intervene and prevent him from achieving that dream, it brought this cache more directly to our attention. We had known of it previously, and had even plotted it upon the top of our “to-do” list, but we never got the pieces in place to make a trip out here and experience why this is such a touted caching adventure.

So this morning as I searched feverishly for a unique and enjoyable cache to seek, this one caught my eye. The details of what happened after that are a little hazy as I eluded to earlier…but as I found myself entering the woods and heading down the trail towards Rocky’s illustrious Klipnocky Cache, I had this overwhelmingly powerful feeling. It was sort of like a spazzy out of control giddy school-boy excitement…only much less sissy-sounding.
The infant stages of our trek went superbly. The forest enveloped us and the woods became silent and peaceful. Chicky and I chatted a little at certain points, a couple of times laughing at the circus-driving we had to do to get here. Even after all that, it was absolutely worth it. Every damn bit of it. The woods were simply spectacular, and to our left we saw the hill come in to focus as we continued on along the ridge. Then miraculously the woods changed. The trail seemed to come to an end, and there before us we found the old remnants of a farmer’s stone fence and although it was nearly covered by years of neglect and brush – you could still see the distinguished line. Here the forest was at its most brilliant. The woods opened up, with many tall maples spanning above our heads, and with the narrowing of the ridge the forest was so open you would nearly see all the way across it. It was outstanding, and for a short time we explored along the old stone fence and visited with some of the huge trees in this area. This was without a doubt our most favorite moment along our adventure – and I would come back again and again just to sit and savor this spot.

The trail of magic and mystery had since vanished, but with the forest as open as it was, it was an easy and extremely enjoyable hike towards the cache location. Upon arrival near our zero we did notice a few old remnants of logging, although nothing seemed to be recent. We zeroed in on the cache location and within moments had the cache in hand. It was humbling to know that this cache has been located in this beautiful cachethedral (I’m making up words now, you like it? Haha) for over 7 years. We opened the cache and checked out the swag. We also checked out the log book, and realized it was the second to be placed in this cache. For a few moments we enjoyed the cache site, and once we had signed in, we rehid the cache and headed back along the ridge to our car. We once again enjoyed the solitude of woods, and after a slow enjoyable hike back out we arrived back at the car.

Rocky, this cache is fantastic – but really we don’t expect anything less (so no pressure, haha). Our only regret is that we didn’t come here sooner, but at the same time now that we’ve explored this gem we have a greater understanding of the area and are eager to bring others back to not only find this cache, but to share everything we have seen with anyone who’s willing to see it. As you said in the cache description, this is why we too bought a GPS. It’s almost disappointing to know that there are so many people out there that have never seen beauty like this – and they probably drive near it each and every day. This is what caching is all about to us, and we are glad there are caches/cachers out there that we can always rely on to provide us with adventures as downright wonderful as this one. Thank you so much for this cache and for allowing us to spend time with people we care about doing what it is we enjoy most.

~Szuchie

I've been wanting to do this cache for quite some time, due to how much I really like previous Rocky caches I've done. I wanted to make sure that deer season was over and that the woods would be empty of hunters. Today was another beautiful warm, sunny day, and there was still no snow on the ground so it looked like the perfect opportunity to go after this one. I noticed that it had been quite a while since the last visit was made and couldn't understand why. So off I went into parts unknown to me and before long was was arriving at a place to park and to start my journey. My first obstacle to overcome was to get across the creek, this was no easy task because we've had so much rain lately and the creek was really swollen. I finally found a log I could walk across and once on the other side I realized that I had quite a hill to climb ahead of me. This was an endless, slippery climb, but once I was finally at the top I was rewarded with a beautiful view of the forest. I was getting a little concerned as I started in the direction my GPS was taking me because there had been a lot of logging going on in here and I was hoping that the tree that hid the cache would not be cut down. I checked a tree and there was no cache, so I let my GPS settle and it steered me about 25 feet away and this tree did have the cache hiding in it. It was partially exposed but in really good shape. I was thrilled that it was there! I opened the can immediately and couldn't believe how stuffed full the cache was. I traded a blue bandanna for a belt buckle and then signed the log book. I stashed the can back to its hiding place and then cammoed it really good. The next finder will have a little more challenge to find this than I did. Rocky, this was another great caching adventure you took me on and I thank you for it. -Paleoman52-

Did the same as the previous cachers - crossed the creek shortly after entering the woods and then climbed to the cache. Took nothing, left nothing.

This was the hat trick of the day for myself, KillerB & Bo....Found this one about 1:45PM.

I think we took about the same route Brogan & Geo did in March....Crossed the creek at the road, and climbed....and climbed....and...well...you get the picture...

Lots of scenic forest service roads to check out...probably want a 4x4 in the wet months, though... :)

Very cool area, and nice hide. TNLN

Thanx Rocky!

After Fawcow'ee's challenge and a few other caches today, Brogan and I were warmed up and ready to give this one a shot. Just finding the place was interesting but with topo maps loded in the GPSr, we got to the area w/o too much trouble. Once there, we took the shortest path to the cache which requires crossing a creek. That part was made interesting by the strength of the stream fed by the melting snow. Next, the hike up the hill in the deep snow also made for a good workout. Brogan found the cache in minutes once we got to the top, proof that 2 GPSrs are better than one ;-) Thanks for a nice cache and a great hike.

Undoubtedly one of the tougher and more rewarding hunts. Other than having my wife "stuck" half way up the hill (couldn't go up, couldn't go down), it was a great adventure. By the way, you can always go sideways, until the terrain becomes more favorable. Lost the GPS lock often with the tree canopy, but with patience and a good compass bearing, we found it. Had a nice quiet lunch on an adjacent log, and swapped a few items. Then took an easier route out. Definitely want to mark your parking location AND take a good compass bearing before heading in. Lots of fun on this one! Geo G and POG

Mrmeasure and wife (the gofer) found this Rocky chace today. Walked .7 miles, which is a little than some of the previous hunters, but it was just about level all the way, with some logging road and hiking trail availability. This old man couldn't make it up the hill if he tried! Beautiful day, crisp, a few on and off flurries. Saw about 10 deer crashing through the woods ahead of us at various times. Took the spot clock and left some Taiwanese currenty, a 10 NT note, a pocket knife and a 6: ruler.

Mr & Mrs Measure

My wife,my friend buzzard[Bryan]and I found this with no problems. It was a nice walk. We logged in and traded sunglasses for compass. Bryan is 12 and he had fun using the compass to go back to the truck. Thanks for the hide!

Donna's first find! Got her new hiking boots yesterday, so thought she should break them in. What a beautiful sunny day, 55 degrees on the 27th of January - who would have thought? Still some snow on the ground at the cache, but that made for better traction climbing up the hill coming in from the north. Donna complained all the way up. Good thing she found it or she would have killed me for draging her up the hill for nothing! She still might if she finds out there is another less steep way in. Cache is in good shape. Took our pictures and signed the book. Forgot and left the goodies in the car, so took nothing - left nothing

Ok the last one of our day. Was not very easy to locate as we are not familiar with this area. But the GPS and determination of spirit, we made it through the confusion. As we set the coordinates for the car we were thinking of what Roadkill had wrote, but couldn't home in the site he spoke of. Our travels for this were not bad, and had no trouble reaching 200ft. mark.. But after that the coverage got to us and we wandered back and forth for 30 minutes getting the lay of the land. But good 'ole trick with the compass ;) We found it. Again logged in and had quite a story to tell the kids about the lightening tree, the doe we saw.. Oh and the tree that I knocked over on the way back to the car. It was rotted and I went to grab it.. It kept going... Anyway We Both feel like Real Cachers now. We are very familiar with compass readings... Thanks Rocky for our great day! Wendy & Anthony w/Delta team

Boy did I ever luck out with my approach. I found a trail from the car to 15 feet of the cache. That's all I'll reveal here. I will say if you see an old tire on the left of the trail about half way on your walk, then you've taken the same trail I found. Don't need to look it's not an any maps I've found. Other than the breeze this place is quiet. Wanted to take the little stuffed puppy but change to a magnifying glass and left a desk Triva Calender. There is very little air space in this 30 cal. ammo can. A great nature walk.