Sunday, March 24, 2019

Furnace Run in the PA Gamelands 58


This is an old post from a geocaching trip to  Mainville [Columbia County, Near Catawissa] to hike to 3 caches in State Gamelands 58.

To park for the Furnace Run Trail, we went to the coordinates:
N 40° 57.184 W 076° 23.200

Take 339 through Mainville, then turn on to Fire Tower Road.
I don't think any of the caches are active any more, but it's still a beautiful area to hike.

An Inuksuk Along The Trail

Our first hike was up fire tower road, about .6 of a mile up an access road that is closed most of the year.  The road is a gentle uphill climb - all uphill, but not too steep.  It's a really pretty walk!  About 400 feet off the path we found the Software Cache, hidden in 2002, in a green rubbermaid tub.

 The contents are dozens of old software cds.  Remember when software came on cds?  Some of this has probably been in the container for 15 years - and it's all dry!  The cache is in great shape, with the FTF going to CCcooper back in 2002.  

It's amazing how "out in the open" these older caches are, in the middle of the woods.  

Then we walked a bit further up the hill to find the much newer mountain top cache - a quick find right along the path.

After hiking back to the car, we drove to the next parking area and hiked to the Furnace Run cache.  This was my favorite - what a gorgeous hike! 
 

 A mostly wide trail, which gradually lead down through a gorgeous tree lined trail, and on down to a small creek which had at least half a dozen runs (mini waterfalls). 


 

 The cache was hidden in a beautiful stone area, which was a pretty narrow overgrown trail and might be more difficult to get through in the summer, but wasn't bad at all in the winter.  Icicles were dripping off the edge of the stones, even though it was nearly 60 degrees that day.  

This is a beautiful walk, even if you are not interested in geocaching!


On our way home, we stopped at the PA Pyro Exhibition, and watched the fireworks at Whitenights Farm - https://www.facebook.com/events/279142096331124/

All in all, it was another beautiful day in central PA!

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