The Mark of Emmaus Letterbox Hybrid
everplaid: Time to join the ghosts of caches past.
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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The last of my Poquoson Benchmark series, "Emmaus" represents a journey of understanding, hope, and discovery. The story of the walk to Emmaus highlights perseverance and growth of the whole person - physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
This cache is a three-part field puzzle that will bring you to your friendly neighborhood weatherman, a municipal benchmark, and a memorial plaque, before bringing you to the letterbox cache with its stamp representative of our own journeys. It's along a well-travelled road, so be careful with the kids and dogs. The cache may be particularly difficult to retrieve if it has recently rained.
The cache coordinates bring you to an overflow parking area and Stage 1. It may be difficult to find a parking spot on Sunday mornings.
Stage 1: Weather Underground. Walk to the west end of the parking area, here: N 37° 08.296 W 076° 23.974. Immediately across Emmaus Rd to the west is the driveway of a red brick home. The number of large pine trees to the left of the driveway = A. What's interesting about this house is this: it is Weather Underground Station KVAPOQUO4, and is the station I use to get current environmentals where I live. You can't see it from here, but the occupants have a small weather station in the back yard. Maybe you can see it on your way to your next cache! (Please note, I did not get us permission to walk into their yard for a closer look.)
Stage 2: Cross Yorktown Road and follow the sidewalk northeast to N 37° 08.295 W 076° 23.939. Inches into the church's front lawn is a City of Poquoson benchmark. You may need to move some dirt and grass to reveal the 3.5 inch aluminum disk. On the benchmark, you'll see "POQ" followed by a number.
B = the 1st digit
C = the 2nd digit
Stage 3: Brings you to a plaque memorializing the Emmaus Elementary School, built over a century ago. From the benchmark, continue walking northeast to the plaque located at N 37° 08.310 W 076° 23.860. On the plaque, you'll find how many rooms the schoolhouse had. The number of rooms = D
On the plaque, you'll also find the maximum number of grades the school was able to handle.
The number of grades = E
Cache: N 37° 08.TUV W 076° 23.XYZ
T = C-A =
U = D-A =
V = B-1 =
X = D+E =
Y = B+2 =
Z = B+C =
Check sum: T+U+V+X+Y+Z = 30
Good luck, and may your journey be fruitful! (PS - the perseverance part of this particular journey just might be trying to get the cache open. Don't give up! It's character building.)
FTF honors go to Paine12 ('s stealthy and wonderful mother)!
Other Poquoson Benchmark Caches:
POQ 52: How to Build a Backyard on the Bay
2 Benchmarks, a Monument, and a National Landmark (premium)
Poq 34
The Trackable Benchmarks of Southeastern Poquoson
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
... gb Tenaqzbgure'f ubhfr jr tb (ohg abg cnfg gur srapr).