The Mysteries of the
Great SoCal Mojave Mega-Triangles
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We are proud to offer a scavenger hunt type cache event of epic
proportions! This event cache marks the finish line and everyone
will congregate here for a potluck dinner, tallying of the scores,
and prizes/awards.
WARNING! MYSTERIES OF THE GREAT SO-CAL MOHAVE
MEGA-TRIANGLES EVENT IS A HIGHWAY-BASED THRILL ATTRACTION IN THE
DESERT FEATURING SURPRISES AND WONDERS WHICH MAY CAUSE GEOCACHERS
TO HAVE FUN WHILE BEING TAKEN ON A MYSTERIOUS LOOP DETOUR THROUGH
THE DESERT IN SEARCH OF EVER-ELUSIVE GEOCACHES AND ODD SIGHTINGS
WHICH CAN COMBINE FOR A MEMORABLE OCCASION. USER-DISCRETION IN
JOINING THIS ADVENTURE IS ADVISED!
There are be three different starting points south and east of
here. Western Vertex (nearby this end
event), Southern Vertex (in Hesperia, where we
estimate most cachers will come through) and Eastern Vertex in Barstow. The
three STARTing points each form one vertex of one of the two
triangles (see map to understand this). Pick the STARTing point
closest to you! Trying to be a brainiac and compute which one is
more advantageous will likely not get you ahead in this event.
For those who are interested in camping out in Red Rock State
Park, the favored lots for camping at this geocaching event are
#17, #18, #19, and #22. These lots form the greater cirle around
which we intend to hold the potluck dinner. Rates are only
$12/night including one vehicle (extra vehicles additional $5/ea.).
Although this is not the Taj Mahal of camping facilities per ce,
there are both running potable water and bathrooms on sight (sorry,
no showers at this one). Dumpster and recycling bins are also
available for use and across the road from these sites is a formal
picnic area. If you camp out here, it's suggested your START event
is the one to the Northwest (due South of RedRock)... Campsites are
generally first come, first serve.
From the START events at the ends of the triangles from 9AM
until 10AM, you can receive breakfast (first come first serve) and
directions about the mysteries you will encounter and clues to
locate the requested information you must scavenge for points! Each
triangle has three segments, thus there are six total possible
segments to visit before the 5 PM end of day activities here at Red
Rock State Park. It is highly unlikely that anyone will have the
time or ability to visit all six segments and collect all the facts
before the day is out. Thus you will have to make choices about
which places you want to visit and which mysteries to go after.
This is where being a brainiac might come in handy. Most segments
will offer very unique and interesting places to visit while you
scout for answers....
To avoid the "pile up" or "cache mob" effect and keep things
mixed up, a devilish system was developed which will send cachers
from either START event in one of ten possible unique directions so
everyone will disperse more evenly.
Each triangle segment has a minimum of 4 caches, 1 scavenger
hunt, and 10 drive-bys.
This will not require any hiking really, and many locations will
offer combinations of things to visit outdoors and indoors. Some
places called drive-byes will be simply collecting facts at
pull-overs and won't even require leaving the air-conditioned
comfort of your vehicles, so worry not about being over-heated on
this quest if the weather is hot. Drive-byes and scavenger hunts
ensure adequate recovery time from any potential hot or hostile
weather problems between caches sought.
Everyone is expected to work as teams, there can be no
single-driver vehicles (for safety). Each vehicle is a team. There
can be no multi-vehicle teams for obvious reasons that it would
allow teams to cheat and cover more territory than single vehicle
teams could. Teams that split into multiple vehicles will be
disqualified from winning the event and it's top prizes. All will
win something though. There is, a way to cover all the segments
without breaking any rules, but it involves choosing between
skipping either caches, drive-byes, or scavenger hunts based upon
your best estimate after a few of these as to which things you can
do faster to gain more points. Of course there are geocaches to get
en-route at all of the mystery locations (and between). Choosing
which ones to visit is of course part of the fun. That being said,
there are particular bonuses for visiting the caches nearest to the
mysteries.
SOME of the caches neighboring or at the mysteries will contain
one of the four ELEMENTS. These are special and worth extra points!
Anyone collecting one of each of the four elements will get an
extra bonus worth more than just the sum of the four bonuses alone.
Not all elements will be in a cache. Some will be located directly
at or near the coordinates given for the mysteries. You will have
to intuit on site the best places to look. It won't be that hard to
guess.
The 7th Scavenger Hunt occurs luckily for everyone at
Kramer's Junction (the 4 corners where the two triangles
come together connecting 4 of the 6 segments) Everyone must pass
through here at some point during the event as this is the heart of
the dual triangles and the gateway to all destinations north,
south, east, and west in the event. Don't pass up these points!
There are no points awarded for obtaining duplicate elements.
Each one needs to be unique to earn points. As there are four
elements, obtaining all four will net your team 100 points, PLUS a
special 100 point bonus for getting all four--A total possibility
of 200 points for just elements alone! These may seem like easy
points, but they will not all be so easy to find!
You will see and uncover things here in the desert that are
strange and bizarre or out of the norm for those used to the urban
life style. That is of course part of the fun. The things selected
as mysteries or drive-byes are truly one of a kind sights! And
again, it's all for fun. The points you collect will earn different
awards and prizes which will be handed out here at the park around
6PM after tallying each group's points. This event is the finish
line.. and comprises not only the coming together of cachers for
dinner and prizes at Red Rock Canyon State Park, but also the
coming together of the 4 elements during a whirl-wind tour of the
desert like none other!
SKILL & EQUIPMENT REQUIREMENTS: Most regular (if not
all) rear wheel drive passenger vehicles should be absolutely fine
with all the locations chosen for this event. All locations have
been tested with either a front-wheel drive Prius or a rear-wheel
drive Jeep. All that's truly required to participate is a working
GPS, some spare batteries perhaps, a well-running vehicle
(hopefully with AC), and a desire to have fun! It is advised
cachers be familiar with how to enter coordinates manually into
their GPS to be ready and primed for this fast paced adventure!. It
is the desert, so a snake-bite kit is recommended although it is
not very likely you will encounter any. It's always better to be
prepared than not of course. For those who are snake-phobic, one
could likely avoid most if not all potential snakes by not visiting
any caches and only doing the drive-bys and scavenger hunts, but
what fun would that be? :O
Speaking of being prepared... those wanting a head start
on this event (necessary to get the maximum points possible) should
do the SoCal Mega-Triangle Series to the south
of here to jump-start this triangular odyssey with a generous
head-start points advantage of up to 240 points or 12% of the total
points possible for the event before it even starts!.. The 34 cache
series has some unique hides, great locations of interest and
drive-byes meant to give you a sneak peak of tasks that may be
similar to those found in this event (although we will say the
event drive-byes are much much more odd!).