Test your senses with "A Sense of Albuquerque" - Step two in
the NE "QUADRANTS" series. If you haven't conquered
"QUADRANTS - A place to start" yet, please do so before
starting this one - it will help you on your travels and
understanding!
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Explanation of Methods and Generalities for the "QUADRANTS"
series:
The City of Albuquerque has 4 Quadrants - The initial narration
gave a bit of history. With the "QUADRANTS" series we are trying to
expose the Geocacher to all 4 quadrants of our beautiful city. From
the Suburban to the Urban to the outer Wilderness each in it's own
quadrant, each a journey of discovery and goodwill. As far as we
know, there has never been a series of geocaches like this in
Albuquerque, so we decided to do it! Best of all, they will all
lead you to a place in New Mexico hereby deemed: The "Heart of New
Mexico"!
All of the distance/bearing and final cache location
calculations for the series "QUADRANTS" were done on National
Geographic's TOPO! New Mexico software, on the 7.5' map level. If
you don't have the software, you can run your calcs using it at REI
or easily work from a standard Albuquerque/New Mexico map or even
better, USGS Topo maps (to be found at "Holmans" on Jefferson
Street, NE), using a protractor or plotter, a ruler and basic math!
RELAX - It's really going to be pretty easy.
You will find many similarities in the "QUADRANTS" series and
you should keep that in mind with each subsequent "QUADRANT" trek -
To the point of even being able to solve pieces of multiple
quadrants on one visit if you prepare well (and don't wish to
partake in repeat visits, each seeing interesting things)! The
Cache containers are similar (at each step) between Quadrants and
in general idea.
We've tried to cover all bases with this series, Multi, Virtual
and Standard Caches are all included and, with the exception of the
"A place to start", they are ALL offset caches. There are also
varying cache sizes, Virtual, Medium, Micro, Standard and Large.
The containers are either well camo'd or "army green" containers
(some are Ammo Boxes).
We've tried to make this series worth your time, with some
quality cache contents! Please keep that in mind when you show up.
We've all seen too many caches with (ahem) "junk" in them, where
the search was more fun than the contents! In this case we wanted
to make both aspects of the hunt fun and hope you'll help us to
keep it that way!
In the spirit of challenge, we'd ask that you follow directions
and the natural order of these caches diligently. Sure, you can
always try to skip a step and end up at the culmination of the
series, but you'll have to live with yourself and that nagging
question: Do I really deserve this (grin)?!
Most of all, relax, take your time and enjoy this series - it
has taken over a month to set up and has caused minor headaches and
major car problems (not to worry). But it has been fun to prepare
and we hope it will be even more fun to conquer! Consider it a
"Thank you" for the caches that you've put out there for us!
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Each of these "Suburban" QUADRANT caches is located in an area
that will give you relative privacy for what you'll have to do to
solve them - so don't rush! They are also located in areas that
will be prone to flooding at some point in the future (like once
every 100 years - grin).
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QUADRANTS - "A Sense of Albuquerque" - NE Suburban -
TASTE
(A Short Narrative)
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The North-East Quadrant of Albuquerque is by far the most
affluent Quadrant in the city, but that doesn't mean it has no
character or history. From times early on in Albuquerque's recent
history the move was traditionally to this part of town. The
rolling hills and jutting boulders of the Sandia mountains were
mighty inviting to many a New Mexico immigrant from back east. The
rugged terrain held the promise of cheap land and great views of
Mount Taylor and Cabezon peak to the west. The weather was cooler
and less windy than the west side of town and the natural
tendencies of growth pushed nearly all early Albuquerque adoptee's
in this direction. The first large shopping centers were in this
area as was the first Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. Nowadays, the
North East of Albuquerque has matured into a slowly growing mix of
locals and transplants with many commuting to Sandia Labs and other
high tech ventures around the city. There are many beautiful parks
interspersed with great commercial and retail areas in the North
East quadrant and it shall continue to thrive, if for no other
reason than it's great views and great people!
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"A sense of Albuquerque - NE Suburban" was inspired by our
Senior Female Geocacher - a locally born/raised woman with the
incredible ability to cook great New Mexican food!
To solve this cache you'll need:
1. A working GPSr unit (or for you "purists" out there, a
compass, plotter and a topo map).
2. A Car or bike to get to the parking area (shown below), but
you might live nearby!
3. A LOG sheet to keep track of all the numbers you'll need for
each QUADRANT.
4. A Pen/Pencil and good "scrambling" shoes.
5. A sense of the taste of New Mexico.
The best, but not only, parking location is at: N 35d
10.2810, W 106d 30.5847 - The sign says that the gates close at
dusk so if you park here, be timely!
First though, a disclaimer:
DON'T SLIP ON THE ROCKS AND DON'T WORRY ABOUT RIFF-RAFF, THIS IS
A NICE SUBURBAN SETTING WITH RESIDENTIAL AREAS AND A FIRE STATION
AROUND IT, HOWEVER BE SMART AND AWARE OF EVERYTHING AROUND YOU!
At "A sense of Albuquerque - NE Suburban - TASTE", you will find
the closest thing to Green and Red Chile that can stay good over
time. It also doubles as the Geocachers "favorite snack". It is
contained in a box about the size of a large "Crayon" box. To find
the actual cache, one must take the numbers found on the front
(top) of the container of snacks, eliminate the decimal point and
add them together [and then add 9] - this will be the
bearing to the actual cache. Then, one must turn the container of
snacks over to the back (bottom) and find the "Servings" listing.
This will be the approximate elevation gain in height (feet) from
where you are to where the actual cache is. Feel free to enjoy a
TASTE of Albuquerque.
Please bring small items to trade as the container is about the
size of a large "Crayon" box, and is chock full of goodies. Browse
the contents and box carefully for there will be clues and if you'd
like some information for you to take/replace for the next step in
the NE Quadrant!
PLEASE, write down and save all of the information you've
acquired (on your new handy, dandy "QUADRANTS" LOG sheet) for
future use!
Upon completion of this cache, you may move on to:
"QUADRANTS - "A sense of Albuquerque" - NE Urban - SMELL!
Good luck and hope you get to see some horses!