Santa’s Workshop, the cache, is a fun adventure on the Eastern slope of Whiteface Mountain. It is located near Santa’s Village, in North Pole, NY, a Santa-themed amusement park that may well be the oldest amusement park the universe (having opened its doors in 1949). You can get to the cache from various access points, depending on how difficult you want the hike in to be; any of the options require some bushwhacking for the final approach, and GPS signal drop-out is commonly reported. The cache is Christmas-themed, so if you visit, plan on trading Christmasy items.
I found this cache with a foot and a half of snow on the ground, after 2 DNFs and 1 “found-it” in the logs, so I wasn’t sure that I would get more than a nice walk out of my afternoon. It was a great walk through the woods, with animal tracks on the ground and the sound of wind through the treetops. My GPS signal wasn’t much help once I got close, and I spent 20-30 minutes hunting in likely spots before finding the cache. After finding the cache, I enjoyed a picnic, sitting on a rock looking out across a valley unspoiled by the things of man. I drove home via the back way (there are those who would say that all roads in North Pole, NY are the back way…), shaking balsam needles out of my hair and smiling while humming Christmas carols as the mid-winter sun dropped behind the mountains.
