Great local caching area - The Springfield Trail

I found a terrific caching area today - the Springfield Trail.  This is another one of those things where I had no freaking clue that there was a hiking trail back in this area, so the thrill of discovery just added to the caching fun.

I have a confession - I actually found this trail back in August, but since I couldn't find the cache at the time I denied its existence until today.

Everything about today's caching experience was cool.  I left to go to work a little earlier than usual, and parked my car by Jane Lownes park in Springfield.  This is a cute little park, with a little basketball court and some playground equipment.  As the school year is in full swing, nobody was around and I had the park to myself.

Bottom right corner is the road to park on, and you can see
the basketball court on the way to the trees (and the smiley).

Go down the hill and across the basketball court.
The trail entrance is through the trees, near the red circle.

As I reached the basketball court I heard a noise and looked up to see a large hawk perched on one of the basketball backboards.  I must have startled it, as it flew off right away, but it was seriously impressive.

If you didn't know the trail was accessible from here (there are other ways to get there) you would have no idea that it existed.  To get there, you push through the underbrush and trees just past the basketball court, cross a little gravel drainage wash, and then follow the blazes on the trees.

When you cross into the woods and follow the blazes, you have to descend a pretty steep little trail to a rickety little bridge that crosses a stream.  Part of what I found fascinating is that the nature trail is obviously at least partially man made, with giant concrete storm drains placed periodically.  Things are pretty well overgrown, so this work must have been done quite a few years ago.  There's actually a sign down the trail a bit which uses an old font on it that looks to be from the '60s or '70s.  I could be totally off, but that's my guess.

Walking the trail, looking across the creek to a bit of sunlight peeking in.

There are a few caches back here, but I only really had time to pick up the first one - Stilted Stash.  This had been a previous non-logged DNF for me back in August, but I thought about where I was looking back then and adjusted my search and found the cache in a few minutes.  It's funny - I remember thinking how much I learned between July and August, and here it is October and my caching knowledge has probably doubled since then.  I love finding caches that I struggled with before, it really gives me a sense of accomplishment.

Coming back down the trail toward where I entered. 

I took a little stroll down the path a bit, toward the next cache, but I really didn't have a lot of time to waste so I turned back and went on to spend the rest of the day at work.  I'll come out here again in the next week or two to go for the other hides.

A little farther down the trail.  

I'm beginning to sound like a broken record (wow, that reference is really helping me show my age), but if you're in the area, check this trail out.

Cache in this post:

• Stilted Stash