Things You Find Along the Trail

I frequently find odd things when I’m out trail hiking, and some of them make one wonder “Why this?” Today, it was a plastic bag containing a couple of hard-boiled eggs, one of which was decorated for Easter. I’d gone out to do maintenance on a couple of my night caches along the Osprey Trail in north Greensboro, and on my return hike, I happened upon these items near the banks of Lake Townsend. I sort of wonder if they've been out in the lake since last year —or perhaps longer — since it’s still a few weeks until Easter. Since I wasn’t hungry, I didn't eat ’em.

Both night caches — “The Tripods” (GC690XE) and “The Witch’s Woods” (GC70RY0) — did need maintenance, more than I could perform with the supplies I had on hand, so I’ll be making another trip out there quite soon, preferably at night, which is the way to experience these caches anyway.

The Osprey Trail is one of my favorites in the area as it’s usually less crowded than most (I saw only one other human being out there on today’s venture), and it’s got some of the best views of the lake. Not far from the Church St. trailhead, there’s an old chimney standing next to the trail, all that’s left from some old homestead going back Yog knows how many years. Once upon a time, there was a cache at the top of the chimney, courtesy of friend Ranger Fox (a.k.a. Christopher), which required particular tools of the trade or a very dexterous climber (if I remember right, we fashioned a tool out of a long, forked tree branch). Sadly, that cache is long gone; it was something of a local classic.

It’s supposed to rain all day tomorrow, so it’s not likely I’ll be out there to finish up maintenance until probably next week. Bummer, sort of.