This is a three stage multicache (two intermediate and one final). It's
part three of a series of caches:
- Bear Creek "A"
- Bear Creek "B"
- Bear Creek "C"
- Bear Creek Final
The series of caches takes you on a tour of Bear Creek as it winds its way
through King County. Many of the caches/waypoints are in secluded spots,
but several are at places where Bear Creek passes under fairly busy roads.
You never need to stand in the road to see or find a cache, nor do you need to
stand on the road side of a guard rail while you hunt. Since some of the
roads carry heavy traffic, families with small children might want to exercise
some extra caution at those spots. Finally, the water level of Bear Creek
can vary dramatically. Most of the caches/waypoints are well above the
high water mark, but it's possible that if the water is high, some
caches/waypoints might be completely inaccessible, dangerous to reach, or get
washed away completely. Please, please, exercise some caution and judgment
if the situation seems even faintly dangerous.
At each of A, B, C, the cache contains parts of a puzzle which you must solve
to get the starting location of Bear Creek Final. Each cache contains the
puzzle info on slips of paper in a envelope, and printed on a label on the
inside of the lid of the cache container (in case the slips of paper all get
taken). Make sure that when you find each cache, you take a copy of the
puzzle parts so you can solve the puzzle and find the final, final cache.
The hints for each stage are broken into three parts - a 'nudge', a 'strong
hint', and a 'spoiler'. You can adjust the difficulty to match your
preference by reading the hints in order and by reading hints only as you get
stumped.
Stage 1: N47 43.525 W122 04.309
South and East of this point is more property purchased by King County as
part of the Waterways 2000 program. At this point, Struve Creek and Collin
Creek (both to the East) have added their waters to Bear Creek, which is getting
larger as we travel downstream.
Stage 2:
You can park on the wide shoulder east of the coords and walk back to the
waypoint. Be careful! There's quite a lot of traffic and the bridge is
very narrow. You'll need to walk on the road to get to the waypoint, but
you don't need to stand in the road (or on the traffic side of the guard rail)
to search.
The strange thing that looks like a chunk of metal culvert set upright is
part of a gauging station, used to measure the level and flow of Bear
Creek. Pretty interesting, huh?
Stage 3:
At this point, Cottage Lake Creek has merged with Bear Creek, and Bear Creek
is starting to get pretty big. If you're a Winnie The Pooh fan, this is a great
place for Pooh Sticks; there are lots of sticks and fir cones on the trail to
the east. Several folks drop them at the same time on the upstream side, then rush to the
downstream side to see whose stick/cone emerges first.
You're looking for a .30 caliber ammo can painted green. Initial cache
contents include a bouncy ball, plastic apatosaurus, bottle of bubbles, red jelly roll glitter pen, green jelly roll glitter pen, green dolphin squirt gun with mouth that opens when you squirt it, big bouncy ball that flashes when it bounces, and a hotwheels car.
In addition to the log book, there's a disposable camera - please take pictures
of the folks in your group, and leave the camera in the cache. When the
camera is full I'll have the film processed and scanned and post the photos on
the WWW.