Mike McGann: Wow! Things have changed in High Ridge.
The small footpath below the gazebo that runs along the river is no longer there. Heavy machinery has cut a huge swath from there all the way up to old access road near the cache site.
East of the first creek, few trees survived the wrath of the machinery. Shredded wood is everywhere. The really cool tree perched on a huge boulder, which was nestled away from the trail, now stands out alone from everything else. A small bypass trail still remains to circle around a fallen tree that is no longer there. The birch tree by the first creek crossing got chainsawed to allow the machinery to pass. Up the hill and through the open field area is now a straight shot as all the obstacles along the way have been removed. A "bridge" now exists at the other creek crossing made up of small tree trunks. Only one small fallen tree lies along this wide path which has one of the managed hunting area signs resting aside. It appears this path has been cleared to give easy access to the pipeline running through the area.
Anyway, when I got to the cache site, the cache was definitely missing. It looks like the larger fallen trees that provided a nice wedge to hold the cache have shifted. I searched the surrounding area to see if it had fallen down the hill, but I couldn't find any evidence of the cache. I was planning to drop in a replacement but now I'm going to archive it instead. What I liked about this cache location was that it provided me with a fun walk through the woods when I wanted to go check up on it. Without that, it isn't all that fun anymore.