Riddle of the Rubbing Rocks Traditional Cache
Nomex: No response from owner. If you wish to repair/replace the cache sometime in the future, just contact us (by email), and assuming it meets the current guidelines, we'll be happy to unarchive it.
Riddle of the Rubbing Rocks
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On the top of an ancient sea stack.
The time is twelve thousand years ago. You are a paleoindian hunter. You are an experienced middle-aged hunter, about 22 years old, leading a hunting party of eight other men. It is your duty to bring meat home to your tribe. You carry long wooden spears with fire-hardened tips and quivers of stone-tipped arrows. You are walking through a meadow. Twelve miles to the west, the distant sea gleams in the sun. On the plain below, long lines of giant bison, horses, camels, and antelopes stream toward the coast. Here and there you can see the prowling shapes of giant American lions, sabre-tooth cats, dire wolves, and immense short-faced bears stalking the herds. It is too dangerous down there for men to hunt.
Up here on this windy ridge, you come to a group of huge twisted rocks thrusting up like broken teeth. One of your party points out that at one corner the rocks have been rubbed as smooth as water. You look up and see that the polishing extends up three times the height of a man. A well-beaten game trail extends up over the ridge toward the river beyond. The rocks on the trail are crushed by the immense 12-ton weight of the largest land animals on earth.
You need a place to lie in wait and watch for your prey to appear. You point to an even larger rock a short distance to the south, that affords a safe place to wait, out of the reach of the big cats and bears. You climb the rock and tell your hunting party to hide themselves among the rocks. As you settle down to wait, your hand clenches on your spear. A trumpeting thunders in the hills. The ground begins to tremble.
What rough beast slouches toward you? That is your riddle to answer. From the cache location you can see the rubbing rocks to the north (now called Sunset Rocks and the site of another cache by that name, which is why I moved this one here). The polished rocks are still there to be seen.
It's a short but hilly .6 miles from Goat Rock Road or a longer but flatter .8 miles from the Shell Beach trailhead. There is a climb involved, but if you go up one of the trails at the south end it is relatively easy. Not for small children.
The rubbing rocks are an important paleontological site. Please do not disturb anything in the area.
You are looking for a clear plastic jar 5" square.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Haqre n yvpura-pbirerq fgnaqvat ebpx nobhg 30' fbhgu bs gur fhzzvg.
Treasures
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