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St. Marys Rocks Traditional Geocache

Hidden : 9/4/2004
Difficulty:
4.5 out of 5
Terrain:
4.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:

St Marys Rocks

This is a very secluded, but popular rock and cave area. It's on State Game Lands 25, and there is a roadside parking area. BUT ... it's a long hike!

Correction on cache location. Maybe I gave the coords that are for the lunch spot as the cache location. Here is what Guitar dude sent:
N 41 27.058
W 078 38.093
and this is from PA Wingers:
N 41 27.060
W 078 38.091
So I averaged them to the new posted coords

Thanks you guys for the help!

Also note the cache is NOT among the larger rocks, rather, it is in a flat open woods! You don't have to wrestle bears, climb cliffs, rappel or explore caves to find this cache.... BUT you may or may not want to do one or all of the above just for fun while you are there!

St Marys Rocks

This cache is on State Game Lands #25 between St Marys and Johnsonburg on rt. 255. There is an old road side park, that is now a roadside parking lot. There are remnants of old fire places (cement grills) near the parking lot. The Cache is on top of a ridge surrounded by large rocks and caves. It's about a 2 1/2 mile hike to the cache, and the hike takes about 1 1/2 hour ONE WAY. The cache is hidden in a very old hollow tree stump, and the ammo box is covered with birch bark. This rock ridge has been popular with the locals for many many years and among the graffiti(carved and sprayed) you can find many old names and dates. Although it is a very popular spot, it's remoteness, keeps it fairly litter free. It is probably visited more by serious hikers, explorers and environmentalists, than teen-aged "party-ers", so many people carry litter out, as I hope YOU will do! This is a very nice, scenic, WILD (watch for bears!) area, so bring your camera and have fun!

Directions:
Heading south out of Johnsonburg on Rt. 255, when you get to the top of the "hill" and after you pass Taft Road on your left, find a parking lot on your right. This is the trail head.

Heading north out of St Marys on Rt. 255, at the top of the hill, watch for the parking lot on the left hand side, before Taft Road (you went too far if you get to Taft). Park in the state owned parking lot. This is the trail head.

There is a trail heading south out of the parking lot (S SW) or walk the shoulder of the road south toward St Marys, a few yards (40?) until you see the main trail, a forest road (closed to motor vehicles).

Hike the main trail or road. It's a newer looking re-surfaced gravel road. You will pass a small gravel pit on your right, and then a bigger gravel pit, further on, also on your right.

The trail will turn from heading mostly west, to mostly south and head more down hill.

At a point where you will see a grassy road on your right, you will take the grassy road, and leave the well traveled gravel, MAIN road. There are old logs on each side of the road at this intersection (see pic's of this turn). Maybe "first finder" can provide coords of this trail turn-off. THERE ARE THREE OR FOUR "FALSE" "GRASSY ROAD" TURNS TO THE RIGHT THAT ARE NOT THE CORRECT TRAIL! LOOK AT MY PICS OF THE CORRECT TURN BELOW!

Once you leave the main gravel road, stay on the grass covered road and hike down hill and down stream (there is a creek on the LEFT hand side now) until you see where the creek turns away from the grassy road.

This is at:

N 41 27.151
W 078 37.545

There is also a "rock arrow" on the ground, a tree marked "rocks" in old red spray paint, and there is a steel pipe in the creek that points to the trail you want to turn RIGHT on to. Currently this is a "four wheeler" trail. It's a steep bank on the right you will climb up.

THIS is the trail that leads to the rock area. It will trend in a south west direction up to the rocks.

The original cache contains:

  • A log book (please sign)
  • New- Multi knife tool
  • New- 2 flag stickers
  • New- Stereo headphones
  • New- Mc D's pedometer
  • Red Les Paul mini guitar
  • New- Package of 3 Caribieners
  • Please practice cache-in trash-out

    There is a very nice large flat rock (lunch spot) just a little south-south-east of the cache. And there is a great panoramic view of the rock area from that flat rock.

    Be careful of the hidden-by-mountain-laural cracks, crevices, and cliffs!

    We documented 10 different caves in the area.

    There is bear sign all over (including a rock marked: BEAR AREA) ... so take appropriate precautions! (BEAR REPELLENT: Pepper spray!)

    Additional Hints (Decrypt)

    Vg'f va n irel byq ubyybj gerr fghzc, arne n ebpx! YBY!

    Decryption Key

    A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
    -------------------------
    N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

    (letter above equals below, and vice versa)