Saturday, May 7, 2011

Letchworth Part II - C of Team CCC and CCC in LSP (follow all that?)

My cell phone buzzed indicating a new textual message.  It was an important announcement informing me that Cayuga Crew had just entered the northern end of Letchworth and was officially requesting my affable company in tackling CCC in LSP by Wolf Creek.  This cache is a multi-part adventure that highlights all the Civilian Conservation Corps (also known as CCC) locations in Letchworth.  The CCC was created during the Great Depression as a way to create jobs for the unemployed.  The CCC existed from 1933 to 1941, and in Letchworth alone over 3,000 men played a huge roll in developing the park and making it much more accessible for tourists and other exploration.  They built roads, buildings, fences and other structures that still stand in the park.  One of the most famous CCC accomplishments is the Stone Arch Bridge that spans the Genesee River below the Lower Falls.  It's the only spot inside Letchworth that you can cross from the eastern side of the park to the western side (legitimately of course...haha).

Anyway, this particular cache drove you around both sides of the park, showing you many informational kiosks, as well as remnants of CCC structures.  It was pretty cool actually, because it permitted me to visit many spots I haven't been to in quite some time, and also a spot that I had never known about before which made me all giggly and shat.  Haha. 

The twist to this cache, is that not only did you have to get certain information off the kiosks, but you also had to find a container with information that would help you decipher the final coordinates.  At first it was far too complicated a concept for Cayuga and me, but after some intense head and rear end scratching, we finally figured it out and started to quickly move between the legs.


The above stone lovely is all that's left of a CCC officers barracks.  It's hard to believe this is over 70 years old!  The kiosk beside this cool structure had an awesome picture that really resonated with me and so I'll share it:


I was amazed to see the same stone chimney I was currently loitering next to in this picture!  The notion of standing in the exact same spot where these two guys were sitting all those years ago was a mighty sweet slice of cool for me.  Alright so I'll stop drooling and get on with this post...haha.

As I said earlier, once we got the hand of what we were supposed to be doing, we did a pseudo decent job of working through the legs and getting the needed information.  The cache eventually took us to the east side of the park, and to a spot I had driven near before but did not know it existed until today!


Tucked away in a young grove of pine trees, was another old CCC chimney.  I would have looked to see if there was a similar picture to the one above, but as you can see here Cayuga's butt was in my way.  Haha.  This was a really great spot, and something I had never known about before.  See, I'm learning cool stuff all the time!  From here, we had all the necessary information and started the drive to the final cache location.  The final's location was at the northern most spot in the park that you can access from the Portageville East Side entrance.  The latter half of this road is a dirt road in every sense of the phrase, and is pretty remote considering the last couple miles there are no cabins, facilities, etc.  What you do get to discover is an awesome and probably rarely-visited overlook of the gorge.


Now that's a nice view into the gorge - not to mention it gives you a great perspective as to how steep these walls really are!  From this spot, it was a really short hike to the cache - where we found a juicy ammo can for us to crack open and log into.  All in all, this was a great day to be in Letchworth, and certainly a dandy day to hang out with my homeboy Cayuga Crew.  To finalize our adventure, we soaked in this vista, and cracked a couple of Yuenglings to celebrate.  It just don't get much better then that kiddies.

1 comment:

  1. The CCC had a big hand in the development of Rothrock too...so we can be thankful for its temporary existence all over the place! haha.

    One of the caches I'm thinking about placing would actually indirectly highlight some of their activities. But you know how I am. I'll never actually place the cache and/or go through the approval process, lol.

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