Friday, June 12, 2015

Day 4 of SNAP!!!'s "Geowoodstock13 and more" trip.

Day 4 was supposed to start with rising from our slumber about 6 and maybe hitting the road by 7 or 7:30.  I guess it was the anticipation of the Day 4 "TARGET" cache that awoke us early, but as it ended up we were packed up and headed towards McD's for morning coffee just a few minutes after 6AM.
A mini version of the Vietnam Memorial
We grabbed a few roadside caches heading west out of Hagerstown and then proceeded slowly to the TARGET area grabbing a few caches here and there.  I had set up this trip planning to hit one main target cache each day.  While traveling between targets we mainly concentrated on 1) Virtuals, 2) Earthcaches, Memorials, and of course Nana's favorites: cemetery caches.
Circle of Soldiers Memorial
We made it up to Altoona, PA and grabbed our first Virtual of the day along with 2 cemetery caches before heading onward.  As we continued on grabbing caches here and there I managed to surprise Nana with a stop in DuBois, PA.  The city was renamed DuBois and was established as a lumber town by a relative of mine back in the 1800's.  A monument stands near the site of his grave and the view of the city from there is amazing.
Nana & Papa at the DuBois Memorial
Shortly after leaving DuBois we arrived near our TARGET cache for the day.  It must have been almost 3 years ago, while scrolling through some videos on You Tube, or maybe it was on Facebook, anyway, I happened upon this video of a cache near an old abandoned railroad tunnel and bridge.  Amazed at what the video showed, I immediately added Train Trestle Falls [GCT397] to our watch list and always planned on dropping by the next time we were in the area.
The entrance
After leaving the four lane highway, the leaving the two lane highway, then the country road, the gravel road and driving down the dirt road we turned around and found the parking spot.  We took several minutes to load up some water, apply the bug spray, grab the hiking sticks, the flashlight and change into the boots before eventually making our way down the trail.
At the entrance

Minutes later as we rounded a corner, the temperature dropped and we saw gaping before us the entrance to what must have been an awesome railroad tunnel.  There were some friendly muggles standing near their ATVs who quickly assured Nana that there were "no critters" of any sort anywhere inside the tunnel.  Ever so slowly we made our way through the tunnel (which we now know was about 0.45 miles) and slowly made our way towards the light, literally, at the end of the tunnel!

The view was fantastic, the walk out on the old trestle (which is NOT required for this cache) tested my intestinal fortitude just a little but in the end I was glad I went out as far as I did.  No, Nana did not venture out onto the bridge, in fact, she did not even make me leave the SNAP!!!-mobile keys with her before I ventured out!!!
The other side!
Would you venture out there?
All that was left from this point on, was a half mile walk down a really nice path to get to within 170 feet of the cache.  From there I will simply tell you your adventure has not ended.  I do not want to spoil all of your fun but I will tell you this:  Once we were back through the tunnel nestled snuggly in the SNAP!!!-mobile, waiting for the AC to cool us down, Both of us agreed, this cache was definitely in our top 3 caches of all time!  A real must do cache!


Part of the view
Can you see Nana?
Papa on the way back!
The cache is down this path
We finished off the day with a quick trip down the road and spent the night near Meadville, PA.  Can you guess which cache will be our TARGET for day 5??  It is really close by!

The Day 4 totals added another 18 finds for us.  1 Puzzle/Challenge, 1 Virtual and 16 Traditionals.


Our next blog will cover Day 5, the Target Cache for that day and , of course, the others we managed to squeeze in.

As Always - - Stay Safe & Keep Caching!!!

Suffolk Nana & Papa - - - or - - - SNAP!!!

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