Flyfisher's Letterboxes
Diamond in the Rough

Diamond In the Rough
Trotwood, OH  Montgomery County
Difficulty: 2 (1 mile round trip)
Placed 28 November 2001
By Flyfisher ([email protected])

State Route 35 Bisects Dayton into North and South.  Five miles west of town, it intersects Diamond Mill Road.  North you go on Diamond. 

Through a couple stop signs and across 3 miles of country side you pass.  Cross the valley that holds Wolf Creek.  You may think you are in heaven – or not.  Regardless, trust to Providence (Road).  On the south side a mile down, is the entrance for the picnic area of
Sycamore State Park.  Go there and park near the small fishing lake.  If you are as addicted to GPS navigation as I am, you will know you are at N 39 47.922 W 84 22.596. 

You are actually at the beginning when you follow the asphalt path to the handicapped fishing platform.  Where else would Flyfisher begin a quest? 

From the platform aim your step at 40° and count 20 paces.  1 pace = 2 steps here.  Turn your head to a heading of 120°.  See the new gravel and wood steps?  Follow them to a larger and lower lake. 

At the lake, start off at 70° and keep the water at your right shoulder until you come to a small "beach" half way round.  Eight paces later turn 120° onto a path which takes you more or less east for several hundred yards until you reach a fork in the trail
with a large lone sycamore tree.  (It is Sycamore Park)

From that tree, you need to climb a small hill on the trail that leads up toward 340° .  47 paces later you have nearly reached the top and on the left you find a great ball of granite left by some passing glacier eons ago.  It is a wonderful place to sit and catch your breath. 

Much of the path you came through was just overgrown fields and pasture.  Now look around you and enjoy the maturing hardwood forest.  See what birds you see flitting through the trees.  Enjoy the sound of the torrent in the wooded glen somewhere in front of you. 

In the foreground, note the small lump of granite on the far edge of the path.  Here you sit, near the site of the Diamond Mill.  That stone is the Diamond in the Rough.  Roll it to one side and you will find what you seek.

Before you set out read the waiver of responsibility and disclaimer.

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