Tri-Angles Mystery Cache

A small lock 'n' lock hidden off the green trail (lime green blazes) in the section of the Angle Fly Preserve east of Primrose Street (Route 139). Not a super-difficult find -- except for the fact that the cache is not at the listed coordinates, which are for the main entrance to the Preserve. For the cache coordinates, you must first find three other caches in this Preserve, each of which holds some of the missing numbers, and then do a little bit of geometric computation.

Congratulations to GRSCHMID for posting FTF logs on all four parts of this series!

The coordinates for the cache are:

• N41 A.B
• W073 C.D

For A, B and D, you will have to find the Acute Angle, Right Angle and Obtuse Angle caches, also hidden in Angle Fly. Check inside the lid of each container, or inside the front cover of the log book. (Please bring a piece of paper or a notebook with you so you don't have to rip a page out of the log book for something to write on.) To find C, you will have to dig out your high school geometry textbook and solve for the missing angle in the following sketch. The number of degrees in the missing angle equals "C." (You have to do the simple math required. The sketch is an approximation, so don't try to measure the angle with a protractor.)

Although this is an easy hide, the terrain and difficulty ratings reflect some of the trail conditions at the time the cache was hidden, the total distance you will have to cover to find this cache and its three partners, and the fact that some of the distance (but not too much) may involve walking along a road with no sidewalks, depending on the route you choose.

Parking:There are two options for parking. You can use the main parking lot for the Preserve, then follow the blue trail across Primrose Street and look for the green trail. Or you can park at the Somers library and find the blue trail behind the right side of the tennis courts. (This particular section of trail is not often used, and tends to become a bit weedy and overgrown.) If you come from the library, you will see a few parking spaces where the trail enters the woods off Plum Brook Road. Those spaces are reserved for hunters, but for some unfathomable reason they do not include cache hunters in that category. Somers police will issue tickets if you park there without a permit.

Cautionary notes: Officially, this is a daylight-only cache (the signs say 7 a.m. to dusk). If you use the main parking lot, be aware that the Somers police usually close and lock the gates in the evening. Also, as mentioned above, bow hunting is allowed in the Preserve as part of a wildlife management program during deer- and turkey-seasons. Take appropriate precautions.

Download a trail map. (Note: the orange trail is colored magenta on this map, and the pink trail is not shown.)