The cache is not at the coordinates above.
The first curiosity happened last Sunday while visiting my friend’s house. We were outside in the pool when his neighbors started talking. At first, I wasn’t really paying attention to what they were saying, until after a brief silence I heard the voice of a boy. “We gotta find that box Old Man Creosote said was hidden around here.”
My geocaching instincts were turned on as I became intent on the conversation. Unfortunately, the wind was gusting, so I had to creep over by the fence to hear better. As I got nearer, through the wooden slats, I could see two boys around 7 or 8 studying a piece of paper. One of the boys snatched the sheet from the other muttering, “forget it, this paper ain’t worth @!#%,” and threw it over the fence into the wash behind.
As the paper was being tossed, an old man joined them from inside the house. He was in his late 60’s, I would guess, with a thin wiry frame, wild beady eyes, and unkept hair. One of the boys called him by name, “Creosote, before you leave Friday tell us more…” Just then my friend yelled out asking me what was going on. Quickly, I moved away from the fence, trying to play off the fact I was spying on his neighbors. Before leaving that night, I hopped over the fence and retrieved the tattered paper from underneath a cactus.
By the next day, the paper I found was forgotten. After all, how would it be possible to locate the “hidden box” without more information? All that changed Thursday evening while visiting one of my favorite parks…
It was about 7:00 and I was just returning from a brisk evening hike, when I saw an odd shape underneath a palo verde tree. At first, it appeared to be a large animal but as I got closer I could see it was a person hunched down over the ground. It looked to me like he was in the process of digging.
He was so intent with his business on the ground, I got to within at least 15’ before he spotted me. Upon detecting my presence, he jumped up concealing something behind his back. It was then I noticed who this guy was…it was Old Man Creosote!
As I walked past, he didn’t take his eyes off me. He kept shifting his position anxiously to make sure I couldn’t get a glimpse of what he had in his possession. Every time I looked over my shoulder I could see the bizarre man peering at me through the trees. What was it he had that he so desperately wanted to keep secret?
After ascending the hill to the parking lot, I rushed to the trunk of my car and grabbed my binoculars. I focused in on the palo verde tree but he was no longer there. I lowered the binoculars and scanned the area below for movement when I spotted him crouched behind the low wall that bordered the farthest ramada. The low light conditions were making it impossible for my binoculars to focus that far away. I didn’t want to get out into the open and risk him seeing me. It was possible Old Man Creosote was insane enough to be dangerous so I decided this would have to wait until tomorrow to investigate.
At the crack of dawn the next morning, I arrived back at the park and ran down the path to where I had last seen Old Man Creosote by the ramada. I didn’t see anything hidden under the trees or under the rocks. It was then I noticed that the dirt behind the ramada was kind of spongy and looked like it had been loosened. With my bare hands, I pawed at the ground until I uncovered a small black case. I was so nervous about being caught I stuffed it in my pack and ran back up the hill to the parking lot.
Back at home I opened the case and found two items, a 3.5“ floppy disk and an old audio cassette. Unfortunately, the audio tape had been damaged and almost everything on it was lost or removed. I made a WAV file out of the only discernible sounds on the cassette. The disk had two files on it, a puma made of many squares and a photograph of an unknown location. I believe somehow these all must be important clues to find the “hidden box” but my attempts at understanding them have been unsuccessful.
My hope is that some geocacher out there will be able to help me locate the “hidden box” so we can share in the treasure. If you are lucky enough to find this "box" please don't post hints of any kind to this page. May the puma be with you.
Note: Do not park on private property that is reserved for residents and/or guests even if it would provide easier access.