FEBRUARY 1, 2012 – Wildwood Park, Lynnmere Trail

The Lynnmere Trail loop on the South side of Wildwood Park was one of the first proto-power trails that I cached as a newbie in early 2005. Ammo cans, TOTT-required caches, caches in animal figures and fake vegetables, I’d never seen such fun and imaginative hides. Except for a brief visit in 2008 I hadn’t been back. When I learned that 3 of my geofriends had NEVER been there we made plans.

We parked at Holey Poley (GCMP08), found it and walked to the trailhead at Fishing Pole (GCMP0B).

We went West on the easy trail. The view North was dominated Mount Clef Ridge. Some call it Montclef. I tried to find the caches across the top in 2006 but the terrain was too overgrown to reach the westernmost 2. Having become less adventurous over the years, it’s doubtful that I’ll ever go back up.

It was Mount Clef again in the background as EcuaDeb, sissopolis & pianofab posed. The temperature was well over 80 degrees. I would’ve been hospitalized with heat stroke if I’d worn long pants.

In between Mount Clef and the Lynnmere Trail is the most popular part of the park. There are 2 parking lots, wide open hiking trails, a waterfall (maybe 2), picnic tables, a giant teepee, a cave and an interpretive center. A handful of caches are there too. Note, that ‘you can’t get there from here’ without driving around the East end of the park.

A cache that looked like an old potato launched us into an esoteric discussion about the word “tater.” Fabrizio was fascinated by it but I advised that he’d sound especially ridiculous if it became part of his regular vocabulary. Far above any ground dwelling tubers there was a 2 on 2 air battle between crows and red tail hawks. They flew out of range so we didn’t see who won.

Just after the westernmost end of our loop we walked carefully through a sea of cactus. There were 5 more caches to the South and West that I’d hoped to reach. They were very close by on the map. From ground level it was obvious that they were on a different trail system. I’ll get them next time!

East past the cactus patch there was a small section of oak canopied trail. We spent a long time there looking for a cache in this tangled mess. I didn’t remember where I’d found it in 2005 and the tree cover caused our arrows to bounce erratically. Eventually the cache turned up in an easy to reach spot.

All the while a big fence lizard ignored us until SOMEone poked it with his ‘Orgon.’ (don’t ask!)

We crossed a residential street at Lynnmere Trailhead (GC1WQAF) and encountered a steep hill that I’d forgotten. Sorry siss, Deb, Fabrizio. At least there were caches along the top and the view was good. We sat, rested and ate trail mix and seaweed before crossing back to the original trail at Lemonade Bush (GCMP4W).

We ended the 6 hour, 7.5 mile counterclockwise loop hike with 24 caches found (8 for me) and 1 DNF. This was followed by a great Salvadoran meal at La Carreta.