You are going to a very special spring on the "Conforth Place", part of the Frye Mountain Wildlife and Game Preserve. This can be a hike if you go in from the Montville end as the core road has many washouts and is impassable by regular vehicles. ATVs can navigate the road, even some 4 wheel drive vehicles, and in winter you may try to access the spring by snowmobile. IN THE SUMMER OF 2009 THE TRAIL FROM THE STEWART ROAD WAS IMPROVED SO IT IS NOW ACCESSIBLE FOR SOME VEHICLES. Follow the road and it will take you around to the cache, unless you prefer to follow your GPS cross country (ugh). I PREFER TO HIKE TO THIS QUIET PLACE. (Speaking of 'quiet', on a rare occasion, you may hear gunshots. There is a gravel pit nearby which is sometimes (rarely) used as a shooting range. ) Little John will feel right at home at my favorite place in the world. My grandparents' farm abutted the Frye Mtn Wildlife and Game Preserve, and more closely, the "Conforth Place" as they called it. I've spent many a day with my Grandmother here, picking berries, haying, cutting wood, exploring the old cellar holes of this 1800's farming community...but most importantly, every visit, taking a drink from the Conforth Spring. Though this was back in the 1940's and 50's, and the fields have grown up into forests and the cellar holes have all but disappeared, my family still goes there on a regular basis to see the spring, take a drink and "annoint" any new member of the family. I have hesitated to share this special place with strangers (though many others know and visit it) but I think Geocachers will appreciate and respect this spring. PLEASE leave all as you find it.
Little John of Sherwood Forest
Robin Hood would have needed a strong and loyal second in command. Keeping order of a band of outlaws, enforcing the principle of giving to the poor what they took from the rich, would not have been an easy task. Robin came across the ideal man for the job in John Little, an excellent swordsman and archer who stood just over seven feet tall, with scrawny beard and unkempt hair. It was a brave man indeed who would dare face up to John Little. But to test his skills, that's just what Robin Hood had to do.
Their initial encounter took place on a narrow bridge over a stream. Neither man would give way and let the other pass. Robin Hood drew his bow in anger. John thought him cowardly, having no bow himself, and challenged Robin to settle the dispute with quarterstaffs.
A long hard fight ensued in which both parties took injury before Robin was finally defeated and thrown into the river. Will Scarlet and the rest of the outlaws then appeared from the forest, threatening to kill John Little. But Robin, recognizing what a fine lieutenant John would make, invited him to join his merry band, and wear the Lincoln green. It was at this point that Will Scarlet gave John Little the name of Little John, the man destined to become Robin Hood's most loyal friend and second in command of the Merry Men.
Today Little John's body lies in an outsized grave in a Hathersage churchyard.