Pre-Thanksgiving fun in Skunk Hollow

I have been working a lot of extra hours recently, and with half of my coworkers starting their vacations early, I figured that I could take a slightly longer lunch and pick up a few of the caches in Skunk Hollow.  I had been getting them in ones and twos, but I really wanted to pick up a few before the holidays start and my caching time diminishes significantly.

Alas, I was unprepared and did not bring a camera again.  This sucks, because winter is right around the corner, and I'll probably wait until spring before coming back here to take some scenic shots with actual leaves on actual trees.

Google Map view of the area.  Click to enlarge.

This area is by far my favorite place to go caching.  It's less than 10 minutes from work, and it has a really high cache density.  It's also one of the most beautiful areas I have come across recently.

I started today's trip picking up the first stage of Saw Mill Two-Step, and then walking across Sawmill road to Skunk Hollow, where stage two is located.  As I approached GZ, I saw that there was a major outdoor gathering of a group of youngish folks, exactly where my GPS was directing me to.  I didn't consider that people would actually be over here when I went looking for it, though with schools closed for the holidays I guess it makes sense.  There were so many people there, and I would have been so out of place looking, that I just turned around on the trail and went back toward where I could reach some of the other trails that would take me to other hides in the areas. Sure, it was a bit anti-social, but I deal with people every day at work and have grown to like the solitude of my caching lunch breaks.

I spent about 40 minutes wandering the trails and picking up three caches.  One of the caches took me near the community garden area - in the pic above, it's that big brown blobby area in the upper middle.  There are huge mulch piles there, and a fenced off garden area.

I had actually visited this area on a previous caching trip, but from the other direction.  The Willows is a park located just to the northwest of that garden area, and I have parked there for a few other caches.  I didn't know that the Skunk Hollow nature trails intersected over there, but now that I do I'll be better able to plan my parking for future trips.

That being said, I don't know how much time I'll have in the coming weeks to get back over here.  the holidays are upon us, and much of my lunch time will be spent either working or shopping, so I'll probably be limited to caches in the vicinity of shopping areas.  Not as much fun, I guess, but it's just as well.  I definitely want to take some pictures back here, and I'm sure it's impressive in the spring.

Caches in this post:

• Saw Mill Two-Step (Stage 1 of 2)
• Skunk Hollow #5
• Skunk Hollow #2
• Skunk Hollow #3