Halloween is over. The Spirits have come and gone
but if you need a spooky fix, you can still do this cache
for a little nightmare before Christmas
Didn't make it this year for all the
Halloween Festivities? That's okay, you can still do this cash
through to the new year. It has changed a bit. The decorations are
gone. As it indicates below, the cache has three sites associated
with it. Site 1 and 3 will soon have no Halloween decor, but there
will be clues associated with Site 2, where you still get to do a
Halloween themed puzzle to ultimately enter a Halloween Cache.
Below is the original entry for this cache, Mummy and Deady wish
you fun in solving this cache!
Geocaching certainly brings a bit of
fun into the world, and takes you places at home and abroad just
about everywhere on this earthly plane of ours…but has it ever
taken you to…the other side? Mummy and Deady at Mummywale feel it
is time for an otherworldy cache and invite you to come geocaching
with the ghosts, goblins, and ghouls that roam our fine street when
the shroud between this world and the next is most thin…All
Hallow’s Eve!
JOIN US AT MUMMYWALE—WE ARE JUST DYING
TO MEET YOU
We here on this fine street in
Mummywale take our Halloween quite seriously. We are a two block
stretch with three major haunts (front yard set ups) and a
supporting cast of many spooky houses that decorate more than is
average (visit http://www.carkees.net/halloween/ for a sneak peek).
People have come from all around the Bay Area for over 15 years to
trick or treat on this street. Last year we had 923 trick or
treaters (yes we count! when you need that much candy, you have to)
and probably nearly 1500–2000 in total on Halloween night. If you
are planning a trip here, know that we here at Mummywale set up all
month long, but the last week of the month is best to experience
the entire street.
This year since Halloween is on a
Saturday, we expect quite the display along the entire street. It
is the only night, too, that the Rickety Railroad train actually
runs, though their light displays are up much of the month and are
well worth visiting after dark, even without the railroad. But
beware! On Halloween, the muggles leek through into our spirit
realm of Mummywale and are thick as, well, wrappings on a mummy. So
take great care if you come that night.
Can’t make it by Halloween? That’s
okay, the spirits have agreed to leave up the pertinent pointers so
you can still get to this holiday cache through the remainder of
this year—just in case you need a little nightmare before
Christmas.
A SHADE OF HALLOWEEN HISTORY
This is a very special time of year,
with four special nights and days back to back, all generated by
association with Halloween:
Mischief
Night
October 30
Mischief night is an
obscure tradition that has roots that reach farther than you think.
It is a time when fairies curdled the milk, ghosts “ride” horses to
exhaustion, and things generally go bump in the night! Originally
it overlapped with Halloween on October 31 but moved to a day
earlier. On this night, spirits that have slipped the veil into
this world (or jokesters blaming said spirits!) play such pranks as
TP-ing trees, ding dong ditch, and soaping car windshields. Perhaps
the most famous Mischief Night prank was the Orson Wells 1938 radio
broadcast adaptation of War of the Worlds, which caused widespread
panic!
Halloween
October 31
Once upon a time,
Halloween was a harvest festival of the Celts called Samhain. The
day marked the beginning of winter. It also it also was the
beginning of the new year, and more importantly the end of the old
one. Peoples then believed that when the year changed, the veil
between our world of the living and that of the dead grew
tremulously thin. Thus, spirits escaped their realm to visit ours.
Many Halloween traditions like wearing costumes and trick or
treating have their roots in the ancient traditions formed in this
early time.
All Saints
Day
November 1
All Saints day is
the day after Halloween when saints who have no other day dedicated
to them are worshiped. Samhain became All Hallows Eve around 600
A.D. when Pope Gregory the first declared that missionaries should
consecrate to Christ the trappings of pagan worship that kept
bleeding through into their efforts to bring Christianity to
Britain. So a sacred tree would be consecrated instead of chopped
down (thus we get Christmas trees) or the festival of Samhain gets
associated with All Saints Day and becomes the evening before a
hallowed day.
All Souls Day
November 2
Plopping All Saints
Day down on Halloween didn’t have the mitigating effect that the
was hoped for. The association with a day of the dead was
apparently too strong to mitigate thusly, so in the ninth century,
another day was added to the calendar of holidays generated by
Halloween: All Souls Day. This was a Christian feast day devoted to
praying for the souls of the dead, which not only tied into the
spirit traditions preceding it, but reinforced those traditions
going forward.
GETTING DOWN TO BARE BONES: THE
CACHE
Eager to join us in the realm of the
undead? Okay then, let’s trick or treat!
Trick and treat are the guiding
principals in this cache. You will start at one location and then
visit three more to get at the treat…and there are tricks along the
way! We suggest you plan several hours or even two visits to
complete this. It's not tremendously hard (the hard rating is
mostly because of time), and if you come in two visits, it won't
take overly long at the sites because part of the puzzle can go
home with you to do at your convenience. Bring pencil, eraser, and
reading glasses if ever you use them. If you come at night, a tiny
flashlight will be helpful at one site. Finding this cache is a
little thorny—literally, so you may also want a pair of gloves and
to watch the little ones. I trimmed most of the bramble back, but
left a few leaves as camouflage.
From the initial waypoint you will
visit three other sites, all of which are less than 5 minutes walk
from each other.
Site 1: the Mummywale Mayhem: a Hag’s
Tale gets you from the waypoint to the first site and gives a
little hint of what you are looking for. You need to look for a new
clue, which is hidden in plain sight (no looking or touching under
or around things is necessary).
Site 2: Here you have to find
something hidden, decode a puzzle, which directs you to a third
location. Once you find this part, take a good look at what is
frustrating your progress before you leave (this thing can be
tempermental, if it gives you trouble, email me, and I'll go fix
it.
Site 3: Like Site 1, this is a look
but don’t touch clue out in plain sight.
So, are you dying to get started?
Follow this clue…if you dare!
Mummywale Mayhem: A Hag’s Tale
Listen trick or treaters and you shall here
A tale of woe and horror and fear
A geocacher went out one Halloween night
A disbeliever unaware of his plight,
For as that day fades away in Sunnyvale
Night casts its shadow over Mummywale.
The safe little berg full of hustle and bustle
Gives way to ghouls and shadows that rustle.
This is where our cacher went,
Focused on treasure one hundred percent.
He found a Way called Heatherstone
And a creepy old leathery crone
When his footfall took him past her
South onto South Knickerbocker
She let out a flesh-curdling scream
That almost turned his brain to melted ice cream.
Stunned, he turned to eye this horrific hag.
She stood in her billowing cloak of shadow and rag
With screechy black bats caught in spider-web hair
And a golf-ball sized eye with horrific stare.
Her gnarled old finger she pointed at him
“Away ye casher or face a fate grim!
Tonight is for goblins, and ghosts, and ghouls
Not for the likes of you and clueless fools!
I’ve a skeleton friend in need of a bone or two
Over the centuries, he’s lost quite a few,
I think you’ll agree, new found friend of mine
It’s hard to geocache without a spine!”
That bony old hand grabbed his neck
And gave it a shake as he cried “What the Heck?!”
The last words of our cacher ’fore he went to his grave
Here in Mummywale’s cemetery to be enslaved
Now ’neath gravestones, in earth he does wallow
Pointing the way for geocacher’s to follow.
Good luck, and may the spirits move
you…and protect you. Goodness knows you’ll need that here in
Mummywale…
Muahhhaaahhhaaa!
