My Geocaching Adventures: Thousand Steps near Mount Union, PA

This probably has to be my favorite caching trip to date. Not only six caches in one hike, but with my son, daughter, two sisters, cousin, his son, and his brother-in-law. Also, we had to hike to the top of Jack's Mountain using a stairway made of stone that seemed nearly vertical at points to a historic railway site. It was a great time!

Time for a photo opp before the climb

We started off with two caches at the bottom of the mountain, my daughter finding the first, LOST on the Rail (GC2X5XY) rather quickly, picking it right out from underneath my nose, and my younger sister found the second LOST 1.000 Steps (GC2X5X6) after we all overshot it at first. We had not even hit the first steps yet! The gang then started the ascent up the mountain.

We passed a 71 year old woman attempting the climb! She only made it to around step 300 then stopped, but dang! You go girl!


First flight of about a zillion!

The stairway was constructed back in the early 1930s so that the quarry workers could get to the top of the mountain where they quarried a special stone used to make bricks that lined furnaces. The stone was moved down the mountain using a narrow gauge railroad. Special locomotives called "dinkeys" would pull the empty gondola cars up the mountain using a series of switchbacks where the train would move back and forth along the mountain pulling forward, then backing up until it reached the top.

A little history

Example of a dinkey narrow gauge steam engine pulling gondolas

Part of these rail beds make up the trail leading to the top of the mountain. About every 100 steps or so you get a break and get to walk a short distance on a relatively flat surface that used to be the rail bed then back up the stairs again!

Time to goof off on one of the old rail beds!

My sister ascending to the Earth cache

About 1/3 of the way up the stairs, there is an Earth cache called the 1000 steps earthcache (GC1HWVJ). This was my very first Earth Cache! After taking some photos and recording a few answers to the question, we then submitted them in order to log the cache as a find. It was very cool rock with a fossil on it.

1000 steps earthcache, very cool!

Working on the Earth cache

After we reached the 1000th step, actually about 1030 steps, we hit the top of the mountain (almost). We paused here where one of the rail beds stretched across the mountain to take in some photo opportunities as the view down the mountain walking out the rail bed was fantastic.

Family photo opp!

The big family photo opp!

About 3/4 of the way up the mountain, we ran into some nut running down. He stopped and told us a bit of the history of the quarry and how he was a local and actually works for the company now. On the three days of the weekends, he does these stairs 3 times a day and can get to the top in 17 minutes! It took us an hour and a half! Oy! He knows people who do this year round, even in the snow! Uh, I wonder if they've been checked for dementia??


My older sister ascends the stairs with GPS in hand

Towards the top the steps turn into miniature water falls

My daughter stands on the 1000th step very proudly

My son reached the top first and does the Rocky dance

...followed by my daughter

A great view, but we're not quite at the top yet!

Following the rail trail on up the mountain we came to the 4th geocache, LOST on the Steps (GC2X5VE), which my son found after we all did about a 10 minute search.

My son finds one of the caches

We continued on with our ascent following the dinkey trail until we came to the ruins of the dinkey shed where they serviced the locomotives and cars that broke on the mountain. The place offered some awesome views of the valley below, however the best view was yet to come.

Approach to the dinkey locomotive shed

Awesome structure. You can see the service pit filled in with rocks in the middle

View from the dinkey shed

View of the rail switchbacks (where the tree lines are horizontal)

Closeup of the rail switchbacks

Another view of the inside of the dinky shed

We finally reached the location of the original cache on this mountain, the Thousand Steps Cache (GC59AF). I retrieved an awesome dragon geocoin from this cache which I will pass along on its journey. The best part of this location was the view at the overlook. Nothing short of spectacular, you can see the valley below where the Juniata River flows to the east, the main rail line to Pittsburgh, Route 22, and the town of Mapleton Depot. We paused at this spot for a long time to take in some photo opportunities.

Awesome dragon geocoin I retrieved from Thousand Steps Cache

Spectacular view from atop Jack's Mountain

A bit closer view of the Juniata River and the town of Mapleton Depot below.

My kiddos on top of the world (almost)

I can't believe I forgot my caching hat...

We moved on a bit further out the mountain top to another cache with was my younger sister's second first find of the day. We also saw a cool lizard on the way to this cache, 1,000 Steps for Ten Thousand Finds (GC2Z3MG), that was one of the biggest I've ever seen of its kind in this area. I lived in this county for 30 years before moving to Philadelphia and have never seen a lizard that large!

Mr. Lizard entertained us at the top of the mountain

My younger sis finds the last cache on the mountain

After a few more photos at the overlook, we began the descent back down the mountain. And I'll tell you, wow! It was twice as hard going down as I had suspected it would be. By the time we got to the bottom, my knees and ankles were killing me! However, I would do it again in a heartbeat and we all plan on doing it again next year. Hopefully, there will be some new caches somewhere to be found!