THANKS TO IOWA TOM FOR FIXING THIS CACHE!!
To find the container you must go through
a 2-step process. First you’ll need to locate the name of the
buildings marked on two aerial images. Both buildings are within
the Waterloo/Cedar Falls city limits. Using the names, a
letter-to-number conversion and equations, you’ll obtain a
correction that you’ll use to correct the false coordinate at the
top of this page. That will lead you to a playground. At the
playground you’ll need to find a sign labeled with a name and the
year of its acquisition. Finally, you’ll use that information in
another conversion to obtain the coordinate of the
geocache.
THANKS TO IOWA TOM FOR THE HTML AND EDITING OF THIS CACHE ON
4/20/08! He was my science teacher at the time I originally set
this geocache up.
The idea for this cache is one that I came up with after
completing Iowa Tom’s
Hello ISS! cache. As stated above,
like Tom’s cache, this one involves using aerial images and in this
case locating buildings and finding their names. I have listed it
as taking more than an hour, but if you're quick, you may be able
to complete it under an hour. I also said that it is available
24/7, but not to do it at night. It can be done at night, though it
may be harder to spot the caches.
(1) Now, onto the cache. As
described above the first part begins with a virtual and ends with
a container. First locate
image-1 using a source like
Google
Maps, the aerial images display in MapQuest or the aerial image feature in
Black Hawk County online. Black Hawk County Online
(BHCO) will give an aerial photo option only if you zoom in close
enough. Under “Layers” select “Aerial Photos” and “Refresh Map.”
Secondly, locate
image-2.
No matter what source you use to locate the areas my aerial
photos represent, you will ultimately need to use BHCO to obtain
the name of the building in each photo. In BHCO zoom in on the
rooftop then look for the identify feature in the top-right corner
of the web page. Click on the “i” under “Map Tools.” Now click on
the lot the building is on. You will get some statistics at that
point. On the left side of the page, scroll down and click on
“Detailed Report.” Scroll down to the bottom of that document. On
the bottom left you should see the name given to that building. For
both images, record every part of the name of the
facility.
(2) Now that you have the
name for the buildings use the Letter-to-Number key below to
convert each letter to a number. Once that is done add all the
numbers for each facility so as to produce a number for building
one and a number for building two. Plug the sum for building two
(A) into equation-1. Work that
equation to get the correct latitude for the virtual part of this
geocache. Do the same for building two and plug its value
(B) into equation-2 to determine
the longitude of the cache.
Equation-1 [virtual’s latitude]
N 42 32.439 - (A
÷ 100)
Equation-2 [virtual’s longitude]
W 092 26.565 - (B ÷ 100)
Letters-to-Numbers
Key:
| Letter |
Number |
Letter |
Number |
| A |
13 |
N |
12 |
| B |
14 |
O |
1 |
| C |
15 |
P |
2 |
| D |
16 |
Q |
3 |
| E |
17 |
R |
4 |
| F |
18 |
S |
5 |
| G |
19 |
T |
6 |
| H |
20 |
U |
21 |
| I |
7 |
V |
22 |
| J |
8 |
W |
23 |
| K |
9 |
X |
24 |
| L |
10 |
Y |
25 |
| M |
11 |
Z |
26 |
(3) Now that you know where
the playground is, you should go there and find these two things:
(1) it’s name (including the word park) and (2) when it was
acquired. Convert its 2-word name to a number in the same way as
you did the names above. Consider that sum the letter
C in equation-3.
Consider the date of acquisition as letter D in equation-4. Work those equations to get
the correct latitude for the actual geocache.
Equation-3 [cache latitude]
N 42° 32.177 - (C
÷ 100)
Equation-4 [cache longitude]
W 092° 26.176 - (D ÷ 1000)
The cache is hidden very well! Happy
hunting!