I do have an update on the Lincoln Log cache that
I posted about yesterday, but I'm saving that for a future post. Today, Emily, Jack, and I found my favorite cache so far -
Italian Water Garden Ruins.
We had been planning to do a short family caching trip today (short as in the length of the trip, not the height of the family. At 6'8" I throw that bell curve waaaaay off, ha ha!), and I was intentionally looking for caches that were more outdoorsy and scenic than the ones we found in the past. This particular cache has quite a few favorite points, and I was familiar with the parking area for the trail, as I had scouted it out a few weeks ago.
The
Leiper-Smedley trail parallels the
Blue Route from
Smedley Park near the Springfield Mall, to the
Leiper House in Wallingford. It's a paved trail, and parking is available at several spots along the way. We parked at the closest spot to the cache, right underneath the Blue Route.
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| The trail, near the parking area underneath the Blue Route. |
Neat tidbit - I had scouted this location a few weeks or so ago using the TomTom and the parking coordinates, and it wanted to put me on the Blue Route itself. If you want to find this cache and are unfamiliar with the area, look on your map or GPS for Avondale Road - that's where the parking area is located.
The three of us started up the trail, which leads right past the first cache on the way -
Leiper Knoll. This was a pretty quick find with a neat container, but very, very thorny. I'm getting used to traipsing through thorns so it didn't really bother me all that much, but Jack got scratched to the point where he bled, and
wow does he freak out at the sight of blood. I keep a small first aid kit with my Geocaching supplies, so we band-aided him up and moved on to the Italian Water Garden Ruins.
The first thing you notice is that the trail is essentially right against the Blue Route. I drive past this spot almost daily, and never knew it was here.
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| The sound barrier wall on the northbound side of the Blue Route. The trail is just behind that wall. |
We walked down the trail for less than five minutes (we would have been there faster, but Jack was dramatically limping from his thorn wound) and saw a stone wall off to the right, with a path leading down below.
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| Stone wall. |
When we went down the path a bit, we turned around to see this:
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| Ruins of an old fountain, with a pool of water below. Very overgrown. |
This site is actually what remains of an estate that was demolished when they built the Blue Route in the '80s. There is an informative cache log that explained that this was the Hinkson's estate, also known as "Lytlecote". These walls are part of a series of gardens by one of the entrance ways.
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| Jack and Emily walking down the trail. |
Things were very overgrown, and there was a good amount of trash in the form of beer cans and bottles half buried in the undergrowth, but it was a very cool place to visit. The cache itself took all of 3 minutes to find, and I actually startled a little rat snake that had been hiding nearby. Very neat to see, though I was unable to get a picture as it slithered off pretty quickly.
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| The cache itself (NOT in its hiding spot, obviously) |
We spent another 15 minutes or so exploring, and took a few more pictures:
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| Stairway leading down toward some woods. |
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| Jack, posing as usual. He forgot about his leg wound as soon as we got here. |
All in all, this is my favorite cache that I've found so far. It had most of what I look for in Geocaching:
- Great scenery
- Connection to history
- Ruins
- Hidden right off of the beaten path
- Local wildlife (snake)
If you're in the area, I highly recommend checking this cache out. While it's practically right against the Blue Route, you're probably looking at a 5-10 minute drive to the parking area from either the MacDade Blvd. or Springfield exits.
Caches in this post:
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