The
hunt is over!
All 6 of the missing
potatoes were recovered and reassembled with their missing appendages! Team
#6, Catchmeifyoucan picked up Julienne's feet and shoes on Wednesday completing
the quest that has taken each of the teams to various locations across the East
End of the GTA. Kudos to each of the rescuers that braved the cold temperatures
of this last bitter week! A final recap:
- Yukon
Jack & Scallop Savard
in the care of Barnies Band of Gold
Although rushing to the last cache was a team effort with BBoG, LimboManSam
and Sliver & Lucy, BBoG capitalized on his portable email technology to
report his successful find back to tater headquarters first at 10:40 AM on
Sunday, January 19th - less than 48 hours after the official start to the
Hunt. This enabled BBoG to get the bonus coordinates which led him to his
own personal cache where he was met by one of my Shinny playing Pals: Scallop
Savard, complete with skates, Team Canada jersey and a hockey stick.
- Baker
and his green nose are living with Sliver & Lucy
After nabbing the first potato and getting a big jump on the field with a
find of the elusive cache #6, Sliver & Lucy rested on their laurels just
enough to allow BBoG and LimboManSam catch up at cache #8, where they narrowly
missed reporting their successful find a mere 7 minutes after BBoG.
- Tater
Tom
hooked up with LimboManSam
Sam was in a dead heat rush against BBoG and Sliver & Lucy to find the
difficult final cache. His report at 10:55 AM on Sunday came in 15 minutes
later than BBoG's which is just about the same amount of time Sam spent stopping
for breakfast that morning...
- Sam
the Yam
has been adopted by Decodoppler and DirtRunner
Although hampered by a Sunday morning meeting which threw the dynamic duo
out of contention for coimpleting the rebuild first, the team continued their
quest and wound up finally finding the last cache Sunday afternoon.
- Huber
the Tuber
happily rooming with CaperGPS
Caper was able to complete his rescue and rebuild on Sunday afternoon after
Sam the Yam had been there, but almost lost his cell phone in the process!
- Julienne
was rescued by CatchmeifyouCan
As reported, Catchme successfully completed their mission on Wednesday afternoon
after taking time to smell the roses along the way. Sure, they were dead and
frozen, but he thought he'd try smelling them anyway.
Final congratulations
to all who particpated and all who tried to participate, but arrived a tad too
late. Perhaps you'll have speedier steeds for the next Hunt.....Next Hunt?...Did
I say Next?...Well it will happen again, but not for a while. Perhaps this may
be an anuual thing! Hopefully this has inspired other geocachers to perhaps
start a themed multi-cache quest to inject some variety into the sport. Time
will only tell!
To all the participants:
Be sure to take care of my pals, and keep them away from the race track!
Status
of the GPH Caches:
The caches are starting to be collected and some are being transformed into
regular, permanent caches. The first being put into place on Tuesday - Spud's
Seaside Stash. This
was formerly cache #5 of the hunt. More to come. Cache #6 though,
is being taken out of service permanently as it caused too many a world of hurt.
Besides, the cache itself was crushed!
What
the heck is the Great Potato Head Multi-Cache Hunt anyway?
A few of Spud's
friends found themselves up to their necks in gambling debts to an unscrupulous
crime family. When the trackside taters were shaken down for the money, they
were unable to pay. Unfortunately, this was not received well and the 6 potatoes
were rounded up and dismembered. Each one of the baked carbohydrates had their
ears, eyes, nose, teeth and appendages ripped out. These body parts were then
placed in plastic boxes and then scattered across 8 different locations
in the area in and around Toronto. The goal of this hunt is for geocachers
to find these body parts and reassemble Spud's pals.
After shaking down
a mole inside the crime family, Spud has obtained the GPS coordinates to the
first cache. This is where the potatoes had supposedly been 'dumped'. The taters
looked as if they just came out of the ground; missing their eyes, ears, nose,
teeth, arms, feet and their headgear. Also inside was a clue that the geocachers
would have to try and solve. Once they do, they'll have determined the coordinates
for the second cache. They then take one of Spud's pals and hunt down the second
cache where they'll find one of the missing body parts. That cache will then
contain another clue to locate the third cache and yet another body part. This
cycle will continue until all 6 potatoes have been reunited with their full
complement of organs and appendages.
What
can be expected if a cacher were to take on this challenge?
1. A heckuva
lot of fun
2. Some great exploring through some really nice pockets of the city
3. Quite a bit of traveling! There's 8 caches spread out across the East
side of the GTA
4. Some muck, some hills, some slipping, some puddles; its winter after
all, so be prepared!
5. No maps! Except for the first cache, you'll be going on coordinates
and maybe an encrypted hint or two!
6. This might take a bit...if you're planning on doing it in a day, you're
nuts! Besides, yu'll miss alot of great scenery if you rush!
7. The overall difficulty factor for the entire hunt is rated at a 4,
just 'cause there's lots to do!
8. The overall terrain factor for the entire hunt is rated at a 3; not
too simple, not too difficult!
As the Great Potato
Head Cache Hunt is only rebuilding a limited number of Potatoes, sadly there could
only be 6 geocache teams participating to actually build them. This does not mean
that only 6 teams can try to find the caches, it just means that there's only
enough body parts to make 6. Each cache will have a logbook to record your successful
discovery! At the conclusion of the hunt, each of the 8 caches will be turned
into traditional caches, therefore, when you remove a body part, be sure to leave
something for this future cache!