PA Weekend with Jeffie - Saturday Edition (Afternoon) - The Enchanted Forest!

After the fun and frolick(ish) at the Tunnel with the Funnel - Jeff, Galen and I headed out to tackle the main objective of our venture into the PA today.  The golden apple of our lusty eye was The Enchanted Forest by RGBisme and Salvelinus.  Something I should probably note before I get too far...is that I get pretty hyped up to do a Salvelinus cache.  One of my all time favorites is a cache he placed called Serenity which involves a four mile-or-so hike through beautiful open woods, the entire time following a babbling brook with moss, rhododendron, and all the wonderful goodness that you could ever possibly ask for in a outdoor hike.  Since finding Serenity back in 2007, I always eagerly look forward to tackling more Sal caches.  Sadly I don't get to do nearly enough of them (which goes for many superb caches in Central PA...but still!) 

Anyway, this cache was our goal for today for a couple reasons.  It comes highly recommended by many CPA cachers, it's a few mile roundtrip hike, and it's been just over a year since it's been paid a visit (and logged) online.  That seemed like a horrible shame, so Jeff and I eagerly looked forward to trying this.  The first part of the hike was along Stillhouse Hollow Road - an old dirt road, that would have been easily passable for higher clearance vehicles.  Since we had the Mighty Dodge Neon though, we decided it would be best to walk the mile or so to the trailhead. 

Now I won't go into great detail, since that is a blog and change all unto itself, but the Dodge Neon is probably one of the best all terrain vehicles ever designed to not be an all terrain vehicle.  I know this because I witnessed it first hand sometime in May 2005 after doing (ironically enough) another Salvelinus cache called Gum Boot Hill.  But I won't bore you with the immense awesomeness of that adventure seeing as we're already a couple paragraphs into THIS awesome one. 

I love happy little creeks!

Anyway, the walk along Stillhouse Hollow was extremely scenic.  To our left was another wonderfully babble-filled creek - and to our right - low hanging hemlocks glowing in the afternoon sun.  It was a wonderful way to start our journey!

The hike in was phenomenal (and as we later learn, all down hill...haha).  After a mile or so, the road became more a path, and soon we arrived at the juncture with my new favorite trail - the Mid State Trail.  We spent a few minutes enjoying the sun, the creek and the fact that Galen misplaced his frisbee.  Eventually we set off down the MST - and we weren't disappointed!  Just like I had hoped, we spent the majority of the hike along the banks of the creek with the towering hardwoods over our head, the evergreens brushing our cheeks and the rhododendron covering the sides of the trail.  It is far too beautiful to ever try and put into words - and the only way to really know what it's like is to experience it.  So should you ever get the chance, don't ever pass it up! 

After a short distance we came to the first of two very unique bridges we would run into while on the trail.  I can't recall I've ever seen bridges like this - so I had to take a few pictures just so I could share with the masses...and maybe if someone reads this (IF anyone ever reads this...haha...they can let me know where they may have found something similar).  Here's a snap shot of the now infamous two lane - one rail hiking bridge!   

Wicked neat right kids!?!

The cache was probably a little over a half-mile from our jump on to the MST, but I'm pretty sure it could have been 10 miles and we would have hiked every last foot with ridiculous grins on our face.  Well, for the most part.  For a few moments we thought we had lost Galen (shhhh...don't tell Karen), but like the mildy responsible babysitters that we are, we finally found him and tied him up with a demeaning puppy leash.  Haha.  Soon we arrived at the cache coordinates - and from there the search began!  My initial reaction was that since this cache had not been reported as found in over a year - our work might be cut out for us.  Thankfully Jeff was able to get cell reception deep in these woods - and learned from a previous log that the coordinates were a little off - but that a previous finder had given a decent heading as to where to look.  The directions were perfect, and we quickly saw a likely spot - and then - SUCCESS!  We were really stoked to find such a lonely cache!  We cracked it open to check out the letterbox stamp inside.  Hmm...I probably should explain that huh?

Let's define a couple things first.  Geocaching is an activity where you use a GPS to follow coordinates to a specific location, and find a container hidden by someone.  This game is based on a premise that's been around since the mid-1800's called Letterboxing.  While Geocaching relies on technology - letterboxing relies on perception.  Basically to find a letterbox, you would follow clues in order to find the "treasure."  The additional difference with letterboxes is, that when you find one, people usually leave a stamp inside that you can ink and stamp into your own book (should you choose to have one).  It's pretty neat, as some people are extremely creative and artistic. 


This stamp is extremely awesome...
and not just 'cause there's a unicorn on it.  Haha!


The Enchanted Forest is considered a letterbox hybrid - which is just a fancy term for a letterbox you find with a GPS instead of clues.  So within the geocache, was an amazing stamp that was carved by RGBisme Posse (who are pretty renowned in CPA for thier exceptional boxing stamps). 

For some reason I left my stamp at home...because I'm dumb...but regardless, I was able to take a myriad of pictures of this one.  I've tried to make a few stamps before, and it really is a challenge to carve one in as much detail as this and have it come out this good looking.  So needless to say, I was truly impressed. 

For a while we enjoyed our find, the splendiferous of this stamp and the general feeling you get when everything falls into place.  We were really happy, so of course we had to take some celebratory pictures with "the boys."  It was great, and I was so happy I could share this with Jeff.  How could this weekend get any better? 

I guess you'll just have to read on to find out.  Haha.