Geocaching in Radnor Twp. - The Willows, Skunk Hollow, and Saw Mill Park - Part 2

I feel that I should explain something - part 1 of my little series on The Willows, Skunk Hollow, and Saw Mill Park didn't have much actual Geocaching in it, aside from the list of caches and a comment or two.  This is because I picked those caches up months ago.  The caching in these parks is very enjoyable, but since I found these well over 100 caches ago, I did not have any fresh stories to tell.

This is not the case with Part 2.  I have three caches to share, and all of them have a tale.

Picking up where we left off:

Entrance to Skunk Hollow from The Willows.

Skunk Hollow is a really neat area.  This is where Radnor Twp. takes all of their compostable material and dumps them into huge piles for composting.  This composting area takes up most of the center of the park, and there are trails, fields, and streams (Darby Creek, specifically) peppered throughout the area.

From the entrance at The Willows, you come in at a community garden area, with the huge compost mounds located behind that.
 

Nice little community garden area.  There are usually people gardening here when I visit.

If you immediately turn right once you enter this area, you'll find some beehives up ahead. This is one of the reasons I wanted to take Jack to this part of the park. He's really into insects and it was pretty neat to get up close and personal (relatively speaking) to some active hives.

They left us alone until I stood there for a while trying to get a video.  Even then, it was really just some harmless swooping and buzzing, but I took the cue and walked a little farther away.

It's hard to tell from this picture, but those mulch piles are immense.

That's the back fence for the community garden to the left, and the mulch piles in the distance.

Jack enjoyed this area, even though we didn't get too close to the piles.  I guess the proximity to all of the dirt was enough to keep him happy.

Walking a little farther up the hill, you come across the entrance to the trail.

The trail entrance.

The trail itself is pretty scenic.  It's a nice little trip through the woods, and it has enough scenery to keep things interesting, even with a 7 year old.

It's hard to keep him focused on looking where he's walking.

It's a tiny bit hilly, but nothing steep or dangerous.

Twin trees.

Within a few minutes walk of the trail entrance, you come across the first cache - The Willows Two-Step: Step 1.  I had been looking at this cache on the Geocaching site for a while, and since it had quite a few favorite points I was very interested in finding it.

The cache location is simply along the trail; no amazing sights or anything. However, the cache container is freaking sweet!  I would never have found this without checking the hint and reading through previous logs, and it was well worth checking out, especially if you are looking for ideas for a well-made hide of your own.

I had picked this cache up on my first trip here, so with Jack in tow on trip #2, I had him find this one more or less on his own, with only a little help from me.

Here's where things started getting fun.  Apparently, these trails are really popular with dog walkers.  Jack had the cache in hand and I was helping him sign the log when someone walked by with a dog in tow.  They gave us a little look, as it was obvious we were up to something, so I just said something about Geocaching to Jack right as they walked by.  I don't know that I got a knowing look in return, but at least they seemed to think that whatever we were doing was legit.

The two of us then proceeded down the path another 10 minutes or so to pick up the second cache in the series: The Willows Two-Step: Step 2.

He's really just looking for swear words.  This has been an issue with him since he learned how to read.

I'd love to know what kind of storm cracked this huge tree apart.  I wouldn't necessarily want to have been there when it happened, but maybe a weather report or something would be interesting.

Here's where it got fun.  Jack was off from school due to a teacher in-service day, so I took the day off of work.  I'm the entire IT department where I work, so even on my days off I expect the occasional call and I try to help as best I can.  Of course, being 1/2 mile down a trail in the woods doesn't mean I can do a whole heck of a lot, but I make the effort anyway.

Right before we found the second cache (which ended up being pretty standard but well hidden), I received a call from work.  While I was trying to diagnose the tech problem, Jack was poking around looking for the cache.  Out of nowhere, this huge, I mean one of the largest dogs I have ever seen, came bounding down the path right toward us.  I could hear someone shouting in the distance down the trail, but my attention was pretty evenly split between my tech call, Jack (who was scared half out of his wits), and this massive dog running full speed directly at us.

It looked like a gigantic German Shepard, and I have since Googled for what breed it may be, and the best I have come up with is... an oversized German Shepard.  Whatever it was, it was coming right for me.

Now, I'm 6'8" tall and about 300 pounds, so I wasn't too worried about myself, but Jack could have been swallowed whole by this thing, and while this was happening I was still trying to take this call from a VIP at work while trying not to mention that we're about to be killed by a dog... well, Jack at least.  He was already behind me holding on for dear life when this huge, aggressive dog ran right up to me, slammed the brakes on, took one sniff, and wandered off like we didn't even exist.

I totally lost my train of thought with the work call, but it was Ok because there wasn't anything more I could do over the phone anyway.  Right as I disconnected the dog's owner came sprinting up, very apologetic.  Apparently the big dog is very aggressive (but friendly) when it senses other dogs are around, and when it heard us it took off to investigate.  Since we weren't dogs, it lost interest.

All in all, it was no big deal, but Jack was totally shaken.  Considering that he could have ridden off into the sunset on this thing (...it was big enough that I may have been able to as well) I could totally understand.  Once the dog and its owner were out of earshot, he turned to me and said "That dog scared the crap out of me."  Usually he'd get in trouble for swearing, but considering the circumstances I thought it was appropriate and let it go.  And since he learned the word "crap" from his mother, it's really all her fault anyway. :)

We explored a little farther down the trail before heading back.

More scenery.

That little blob in the bottom left center of this image is Jack near a pretty big tree.

Winding path through a little hilly area.

This is about as artistic as I get.

Between the hike and the stale adrenaline from his near brush with death, Jack was burned out and ready to head home.  Right as we were getting ready to leave the Skunk Hollow area, I mentioned that there was another cache - Skunk Hollow - only about 100 feet away.  Since we were so close, he decided to give it a shot.  I had found this one on Trip #1 the week before, so it would be an easy grab... or so I thought.

You need to go off trail pretty close to this abandoned cart.

 This cache is a little of the trail, in a brush filled area between the trail and Darby Creek.

Off the trail, overlooking the creek.

Woodpeckers?  Termites?  I think woodpeckers.

The area is quite overgrown, and the first time I had looked for this cache a few months back I had come over from the wrong side of the creek.

The creek.

And more creek.

Jack and I were wearing shorts, but since the foliage back there was just starting to sprout, and since there weren't any obvious thorns, we went for it.  Of course, 30 seconds after making the find, Jack wandered off of the little clear path we took and walked right into the only thorn bush for 50 feet.  His first instinct is to panic, and sure enough, he got a little thorn puncture that started to bleed.  And then he totally freaked out.

I guess it was a lot to ask, considering our longish hike and recent dog attack, but I really thought he could handle this one.  Wow, was I wrong.  He screamed bloody murder - loud enough that the people gardening took notice - all while I was trying to get back to the car, which at this point was probably 1/4 mile away.

Our conversation went as follows:

Jack - "It's bleeding! It's bleeding!  I'm going to die!"
Me - "No you're not, it's Ok!  It's just a little scratch!"
Jack - "I'm dying!  Did you bring the first aid kit!  I need first aid!"
Me - "It's in my car."
Jack - (weeping) - "How could you do this to me!  I'm dying!  How far is the car?"
Me - "Err... maybe a 5 minute walk?"
Jack - "Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

I tried to get him to walk it off, but he dragged his leg like he had been caught in a bear trap, weeping and yelling the whole way.  We got a lot of weird looks, but finally made it back to the car where I applied the absolute smallest band-aid that I have ever used to the "wound".  As soon as he was patched up it was like a switch flipped and he wanted to have a snack and play a little while longer, so I broke out a juice box and some pretzels and he was 100% totally normal again.

I've commented on caching with a kid before, and I guess this just goes with the territory.

Well, that's it for this part of the parks.  I'm going to head back to the other side of Skunk Hollow in the coming weeks, as well as pick up a multi that starts in Saw Mill Park.  Until then, if you're in the area, please come check this spot out yourself.   It's scenic, full of caches, and a lot of fun.

Caches in this post:

• The Willows Two-Step: Step 1
• The Willows Two-Step: Step 2
• Skunk Hollow