16 November 2012 South Mountain GeoTrail and Home

Today was the day I had a few moments to hunt a couple of South Mountain GeoTrail (SMGT) caches before my journey home. I was in Carlisle and the SMGT office is in Carlisle. It seemed perfect... wrong. The journey ended before it started. I was sad to see the offices closed leaving no way to pick-up the required passport. The trail may be a hit woth locals, but it went to zero for me with the closed office. I decided to hunt a few SMGT caches anyway to see what they were like. My first stop was a resort called Allenberry. Allenberry was pretty amazing and certainly a place I wouldn't mind staying on a future visit. The next SMGT cache was pure retail. The cache was at a farm market. I had a great stop and found some cider, but it wasn't the cache location that makes a geotrail a winner.

My next target for my journey home was at Colonel Denning State Park. It's a new state park for us and had a couple caches in the park. My first stop in the park was at the ranger station for a puzzle cache that was "hidden" in the ranger's station. I was worried the station would be closed, but my real problem was the park employee. She seemed as though she had no knowledge of the cache, but finding the cache requires the assistance of a park employee. It's a great example of why caches should never require interaction with a person. I had fun hunting the one cache in the park that was hidden in the woods. I won't waste my time on a return visit to try finding the puzzle at the ranger's station.

I almost passed by my last find of the day. I was on my way to Port Royal and late to head home as usual when I noticed a game lands cache off the parking area in one of the passes. I was really happy I stopped when I got to the hide location and was given a view of the valley below. It was the highlight of my trip home.

Colonel Denning State Park

View From a Gamelands