A 2.6 mile Calvert County round trip hike, on trails until near the
geocache. This is public land used for hunting, so don’t even think
of visiting here even on Sunday during the firearms deer season
starting the Sat. after Thanksgiving. This county, unlike nearby PG
County, allows Sunday deer hunting on private land during the
three Sundays in shotgun season. This geocache should otherwise
also not be visited Monday to Saturday from Sept. 15 to Jan. 31
(deer bow season, etc.) nor mid-April to mid-May before noon
(turkey hunting.) During Feb. only a few birds and small game are
still in season.
Other than the above, you’ll find the geocache area to be a
remarkably remote site, with bald eagles nesting along this tidal
creek since the mid-80s. Bring binoculars! Access by foot is
via a small parking lot down a little sunken 100 yard long dirt
road off of the last 90 degree bend in Smoky Rd. at 38° 38.416’ N,
76° 39.231’ W, 115 ft. above sea level. If this road is too tough, there's another parking lot just a bit further down the paved road.
Leave the lot on the (only) trail (old road) which soon goes
right past the only barn you see, even though this diverts well to
the left of your navigation arrow.... cutting through the big fields on your right can be fine. Look for the trail entering the woods at the field corner furthest from the parking. The trail can get muddy during
wet periods. At the next fork (1.07 mile from the cache) stay to
the right despite your navigation arrow, as the left trail dead
ends 425 meters shy of the cache on the wrong side of a beautiful
but treacherously muddy cove.
Access via canoe or kayak is a wonderful 2.8 mile round trip paddle
from Kings Landing Park’s put-in parking (38° 37.574’ N, 76°
40.447’ W.) If you choose the latter, don’t be bothered when you
(often) don't paddle in the direction your GPS unit
points. Just
paddle to the right (north) on the Patuxent for one-third of a
mile, hugging the shoreline, until you can enter Cocktown Creek on
the right. You can get within 20 yards of the geocache by paddling
on any tide, though high tide is easier. The geocache is 25 feet
above sea level. There's a much less steep scramble up to cache level if you paddle just a bit further upstream to the bend.
Do not try to access this geocache by foot from Kings Landing
Park! Though this is a shorter route, Cocktown Creek presents an
uncrossable barrier on foot. Neither has the park given permission
for that. The park is generally open until 5 p.m. if you’re going by canoe or
kayak.
Upstream paddling from the cache, on a high tide only, brings you after 6 minutes to a fork with two small channels. Picking the left, in another two minutes, entering the forest, you arrive at what passes for a waterfall at the head of tide here, a two foot drop!