MASON DIXON Part 3 Drawing the Line Traditional Geocache
MikeOtt: No good trails there any more so time to close out this one
MASON DIXON Part 3 Drawing the Line
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(regular)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
Located in Fair Hills Natural resources area. Parking is $3 for Md cars and $5 for out of state. If you are 65 or over, you can get a senior lifetime pass from the park office for $10 (even if you are not a Md resident.
From the Appleton Road parking area it is about a3.8 mile round trip hike. If you drive through this parking lot (actually on Black Bridge Road you can park near the Nature Center and have a 2.6 mile hike.
In “Mason Dixon Started Here” takes you to the starting point for drawing the westward line. “Mason Dixon Part 2 Moving West” takes you past the Arc Corner stone to the stone marking the Md/Pa/De boundary. This quest takes you further west in to an original Mason Dixon stone that marks mile number 3 from the NE corner of Maryland.
On April 5, 1765 Mason Dixon began to run the line starting at the post marked West. They crossed the White Clay Creek and Christian River. On April 12, they crossed the Big Elk River, climbed out of the valley and saw nice flat ground ahead. Your best starting point is at the Nature Center parking area right along the west bank of the Big Elk River, which will give you about a 3 mile round trip hike. The hardest part will be climbing out of the steep river valley where Mason Dixon had to switch from using measuring chains to 12 foot measuring rods due to the steep terrain.
It’s generally easier to first find the boundary stone—its about 2 feet tall with 10” sides and in the open. (Eight years ago it was, not badly overgrown--near large tree and a trail does go within 20 feet. That way you know you are at the correct location. Should not be hard to find since this is truly a bi-state cache and he stone is marked with “P” and “M” indicating the Pa and Md sides.
For a longer hike, you can start at the parking lot on Appleton Road north of Rt. 213. If you do this, first head NNW about 0.6 miles to: 39 D 43.327 75 D 49.574 to a Mason Dixon mile marker that is in an open field. Then just head due west exactly one mile (or take the longer drier route going south ¼ of mile to cross the river on a horse bridge).
There are other caches by Metazbad located within 0.5 miles-- Angled Arbor, Mini Cavern and part of Fair Hills Multicache. Special thanks to Metazbad for helping with this cache and sharing Fair Hills.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Uvag: Vgf nobhg 6 srrg sebz gur znexre, haqre n ybt naq obneq