Friday, October 4, 2013

Cemeteries in New York - and Other Haunted Caches

Only fair to head to the east coast to talk about a few haunted geocaches.  I called my friend Joe, and asked him how to write this with his Italian Brooklyn accent and he just called me a few names, that I for sure can not repeat.  So I called his brother, Vinnie, and he just hung up on me.  Guess I should have expected as much.  Use your imagination if you like, and add a bit of an accent, as you read some of these stories of haunted and graveyard caches.  I gotta say - these are pretty good.

I am so so not a fan of nano caches but this one has a nice little story.  Nice if you like plank walking and poltergeist.  Check out GCYW17 - Haunted NY - 17 Barrow Street, by pelagori.

Geocache description:

Third in a series of caches at famous haunted locations in New York! Overcome your fear of the unknown and visit the site of this restaurant where the poltergeist of Aaron Burr and others regularly play tricks on staff and guests… 

 The Life: 

 Famous mainly for his dueling skills these days, Aaron Burr was a stand-out in so many ways, and an active political career didn’t prevent him from having the time to be a prolific womanizer. He “gave the gift of his virginity” to a “lady” at 17 and then got down to business seducing everything in a skirt, including a married woman who later became his wife. 

He did have a very special relationship with his daughter Theodosia. Some say that Hamilton was able to goad Burr into the duel by suggesting he enjoyed an incestuous relationship with her. Whilst hard evidence for this is thin on the ground, there is certainly enough to suggest the relationship was one that modern day child services would frown upon. 

Theodosia died when pirates captured the boat she was sailing on and made her walk the plank, leaving Aaron alone with no wife or daughter, and with a dwindling money supply. The solution – marry a rich old lady! In this case none other than the Madame Jumel featured elsewhere in this series of caches. This didn’t last long – some say she booted him out for running through the family fortune too fast – I like to think he bailed after seeing the pitch fork being sharpened. Either way he died shortly after a pauper. 

The Haunting: 

Here, Aaron is reunited with this daughter for some after-life mischief. He is famous for pranking the guests for example by pulling the chair out from underneath them as they are about to sit, and she is known to tweak the ear-rings of the lady guests sitting at the bar. 

One thing for sure – if you see a ghostly apparition approaching armed with a pistol – run for cover – he shoots to kill! 

The Cache: 

Nano cache placed in what should be a fairly obvious spot. Look out for the muggle staff in the garage opposite! 

Tell  me, please, did you ever hear this story of Aaron Burr before now?  The writers of school books must have left out a few details.

Moving on

Creepy name and creepy location, this could be pretty neat to do on a foggy evening.  GCM972 - Knickerbocker Boneyard  is a multi cache, and thank goodness it ends with a regular size treasure.
Perfect Tommy  established this cache in 2004 and has 140 smiley faces to it's credit. Check out the info and make sure you check out the link to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.  Truly haunting.

Geocache description:

This is a four part multicache, consisting of three virtual stages and a final ammo can cache. You will start at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery and need to gather information from some of the tenants of that necropolis to find the final cache.


The coordinates above will bring you to the family plot of "Dietrich Knickerbocker," a scribbler of some reknown. The black metal entrance gate to the burial plot has two numbers on it above Mr. Knickerbocker's real surname. Take the lesser of the two numbers, add 31 and then times that total by 4 to complete the North coordinate for Stage Two: N 41° 05.____. Now take the greater of the two numbers, subtract 44 and then times that total by 5 to complete the West coordinate of Stage Two: W 073° 51.____.

These coordinates will lead you to an immigrant's simple headstone. This individual was by occupation an expert cigar-roller. By avocation, he was an agitator. From this headstone, take a bearing of 111 degrees magnetic and go approximately 160 feet to arrive at a Celtic cross marking the grave of another immigrant, a bobbin boy who did well for himself (and did good for others). From this headstone, note the years (disregard the months and days) of the birth and death of the husband and wife and calculate two numbers: The age difference in years between the husband and wife and the number of years the wife survived the husband. Those values will be designated as A and B, respectively. Now add those numbers together and multiple it by the number of headstones in the family plot other than the Celtic cross and the headstones for the husband and wife. Take that number and add it to the following to get the North coordinate: 4105536; and the West coordinate: 7351366 for the Final Stage. You can walk from Stage Three to the Final Stage. Be forewarned that it gets a little muddy near Ground Zero (particularly after it rains) so you may want to wear appropriate footwear.

If you're not sure you have the right numbers, check the clues for confirmation. Keep in mind that the cemetery closes its gates promptly at 4:30 p.m. Maps of the cemetery are available at the cemetery office on weekdays. On the weekends, maps may sometimes be found outside the office. Although you can drive up to the first three virtual stages, some of the roads in the cemetery may not be suitable for vehicular traffic. If you drive, it is recommended that, on your way to Stage One, you pay your respects to the veterans of the Army of the Potomac interred near the Civil War Monument (N 41° 05.584 W 073° 51.726). Following the asphalt road to and then from the Monument will lead you to Stage One. Please rehide the physical cache as you found it, if not better, and keep an eye out for muggles. When logging online, PLEASE DO NOT reveal the identities of the internees!!

 After reading about Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, the cache description and then some of the comments about the 'finders', I asked myself just what kind of guy Perfect Tommy is, to come up with this creepy cache.  Then i saw this pic of him and many answers were answered. 






This one is definitely for October hunting.  GC36K3P - Haunted Wold Woods - was established by Tundra Wolf, and with a name like that, it is no wonder that he is comfortable with an area haunted by angry wolves and other nasty, biting creatures.  Check it out -

HAPPY HOWL--O--WEEN!
  To get the FULL effect of this listing and get into the spirit of the HOWL-O-Day, feel free to use this Utube link to Little Red Riding Hood, and listen to it while you read!
This cache is placed in the Oakley State Forest where you are liable to run across deer, pheasants, perhaps even a bear once in a great while, and of course LOADS of chipmunks and squirrels.

However, on moonlit nights close to the time of year when the sky is gray and the color of the landscape has muted into sedge and umber....when the seasons have not yet decided whether to send forth frost and snow or rainy dark days, you need to watch for the OTHER animals which inhabit these woods.....
 HAUNTED WOLVES! BEWARE THEM!
 They bode naught but ill!


If you insist on going on the hunt for this cache disguised as a "creepy crawly critter" despite the above warning, then start at the listed parking which is also the trail head for trail #1. Follow it back into the woods as it winds through increasingly dark and forbidding forest going from young and relatively thin to thickening Hemlock. 

When you get close to GZ you will need to leave the trail.... BUT TARRY NOT!....Beware the quick sand and grasping branches as well as the entangling adventitious roots! They will do their best to make sure you remain here L-O-N-G hence! 


I believe the area is perfect for this cache.  A couple of the remarks made by a 'finders' of the cache were really fun and I want to share.  Read these and take a brief moment of silence to honor a great cachers who  has parts still missing.  (you'll see what I mean)
ripraff  Found it 09/17/2013
I think that one cacher's creepy is another's peaceful. I found this little patch of hemlock forest to be serene, more so than the larger group by the lake. Even the nearby swamp lends only a quiet variation of color to the scene. (And then the cache spoiler deleted ) [ Thanks for leading us here, so close and yet so far from the path.

LCSM  Found it 10/16/2012 Ode to L.
I met L when she was a freshman in college. I was drawn to her eyes and captivated by her smile. Little did I realize that the first time I went to house, her parents would send me out in a canoe just as the tide was turning, and I would end up slogging back in mud up to my thighs, or that the first meal at her house would be road kill. . . I mean pheasant. I stuck with her, and her sense of adventure drew me in even more. She was great on the trail. . .but she took precautions. . . tons of bug spray, Tech-nu and rubbing alcohol, extra water. . . a trail plan. Today when she went out hiking, she wore her orange blaze vest just to be extra safe. She had a bright little flashlight with her to shine into hidey holes, before sticking her hands in. She had sent me some pictures from various caches, and told me that this was next on her list. She must have seen the cache, because she had logged it into her GPS already. . . but something happened when she put it back. Something awful. When we found her, she still had a triumphant smile on her face, so she must not have realized what was hiding in that hole. But, clearly, it saw her. We didn't recover her arm. . . just her hiking boots and her GPS with all of her logs and notes for the day. Cachers, BEWARE!

Well now - perhaps, if you decide to retrieve this cache, you could be on the lookout for a missing arm.  Time to get out of here and on to another.


North of Hicksville and south of Oyster Bay, and just a bit to the east, exist a great old mansion.  Other than the grafitti, it appears to be in pretty good shape.  Good shape for a haunted mansion.  I think that the ghost must keep a lot of people away.  But they didn't discourage Red 5 from placing this cache in the area.  This cache has some great pics.  Way too many for me to post so I suggest that you go to the link and check them out.

GC10CDT - is simply named Haunted Mansion.  Perfect.

Geocache description:

Located in Manetto Hills Park. 

There's a spooky old mansion located in these woods. Some people say you can still hear noises coming from inside, especially at night, but I assure you it's long been abandoned. No one knows what drove the prior inhabitants from this place, but the open doors and windows make it seem like they left it in a hurry, not caring what happened to the house, just wanting to get away. 

Park at the trail head where Mary Ln. meets Mary Ct. and follow the white blaze trail to the blue dot trail. Stay on the blue dot trail all the way to the old driveway. You'll pass within 200' of the house at a couple of points along the trail and you may be tempted to bushwhack, but I wouldn't recommend it. The thorns in these woods will tear you up. 

The cache is a regular sized Lock & Lock compatible container with the usual assortment of trade items and a log book. 

Enjoy! 

 Many cachers agreed that the area is 'creepy' but all thought it was a great cache.

By now I am thinking that readers are getting bored with these haunted cache stories, but I guess - if I am not totally bored then maybe your are not either, so I will be doing just one more.  Can't resist.  Especially since the word "Haunted" is once again, part of  the title. 



Geocache description:

This is a micro cache located in Bond Lake Park, in Lewiston, NY. The cache was once a micro container, but was upgraded to a small camo'd tupperware container due to a ton of DNFs. 

You'll find this micro near Rainbow Lake; one of the seven lakes in Bond Lake Park. The parking area for this cache is located on Black Nose Springs Road. You can park in the parking area, or hike to this cache from any of the other caches in the park. Like most caches in this region, there is a fair amount of poison ivy in the area. However, we were able to avoid it while placing the cache. I would suggest that people wear long pants when going after this one, just to be on the safe side. 

Local folklore states that both the road and lake are haunted. In the late 1700's, the Seneca occupants of the area had a disagreement with a group of white settlers. It’s said that the settlers were killed; their bodies thrown in this small lake. Over the years, drivers have reported ghostly figures in their rearview mirrors while traveling on the road. Odd sounds have also been heard, as if someone were tapping or running alongside their cars. I'm not sure how much truth there is to this story. We didn't have any ghostly encounters while placing the cache. I can only hope that everyone else is so lucky :) 
Good luck and happy caching! :) 

The fact that the cache has been changed to a small is a super thing - I can't imagine that anyone would want to get lost in this creepy area while searching for a micro.

That's it for now.  There are so many more great New York spooky caches that I am pretty sure that I will return. From what I can tell, New York is almost as scary as New Mexico when it comes to the spirit of caching.



Check back soon and be careful where you wonder. 
 
NOT ALL WHO WONDER ARE LOST T SHIRT AVAILABLE IN MENS, WOMENS, CHILDRENS SIZES AND MANY STYLES.  ALSO LOOKS GREAT ON MUGS, THERMAL GLASSES AND MORE.  

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