Two and a half years - kill your car too Multi-Cache
Two and a half years - kill your car too
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(regular)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
This is a 5 stage multi with very long distances, which one should NOT expect to be able to do in one day.
Of course, there are some resourceful cachers in this area, and any of them may dash out to the final before it gets dark today.
I would like to keep this a fun exploration for the seekers, so any logs which I feel give too much information or hints about finding any stage will be deleted without prior notification.
I think the area should be fairly safe from accidental finding or being brute forced. But, I enjoy puzzles, and brute forcing so you are welcome to try any technique you would like, so long as you sign the log and don't give too many hints in your log.
We have now been caching every day for 2.5 years and because of Groundspeak have visited many wonderful places and read a lot of signs, plaques, and monuments along the way. We have driven well over 50,000 miles in this endeavor. Seeking this cache is your opportunity to drive your vehicle into the ground too.
At each of the stages prior to the final you will be seeking a plaque or monument with text on them. There should be more than enough information on this cache page to easily identify the correct monuments from any other plaques or signs that are in the same general area.
Stage one is important to me because my mother taught here. Like many places, I remember a very different appearance. Today there is just this monument for you to enjoy. Every letter has a value you are familiar with a=1 b=2... except o=0.
The following values will help you get to stage 2 only.
A = First letter of the seventh word on the second line of the monument.
B = Third letter on line ten.
C = Third letter of the month this monument was dedicated.
D = Third digit on the monument
E = Second to last digit on the monument.
F = Fifth letter on the third line.
G = Last letter of the first line
H = Last letter of third word on monument
I = Last letter of second word on eighth line
J = Second letter on the first line
K = Third letter on second line
L = Second to last letter on the first line
I wanted to take you to N 37 28.514 W 122 08.178; however, it is not in the nicest part of town and the monument there has been vandalized and is difficult to read. So it is here just as a note and you do not need to go there to find this cache.
Stage 2 (N) ABCDEF (W) GHIJKL is by far the hardest to find. GPSr readings are tricky here. The monument is undercover, rather hidden and may need to be wiped clean to be read. Our friend budd-rdc introduced us to this location and many others too.
The prominent large word near the middle of the monument begins with the letter A, and there are eight digits in a row below. By labeling these digits left to right A-H you may calculate the coordinates for Stage 3.
M = C-E
N = C
O = A
P = D
Q = F-C
R = H
S = G-H
T = G+H
U = B+F+G-A-E
V = B-C
W = B-A
X = G-H
Y = B-F
Stage 3 (N) MNODQRS (W) TUVWXY is a great location everyone should go. There is one period in the first line of text. I am re-using the alphabet so do not confuse these with values for any other stage. The following values will help you get to stage 4 only.
A = First digit on the monument
B = Second letter of third line
C = Fourth letter of the first word on the first line
D = Second letter of the first word on the fourth line
E = Second digit on the monument
F = Last letter of the second line
G = First digit on the last line of the monument
H = Third digit on the last line of the monument
I = First letter of the second word on the second line
J = Second digit on the last line
K = Last digit on the last line
L = Third digit on the fourth line of the monument
M = Last digit on the fourth line
N = Second digit on the fourth line
Stage 4 (N) ABCDEFG (W) HIJKLMN is another location I enjoyed finding, and had no knowledge of before we started geocaching. Line six on this monument begins and ends with the letter “T”. The following values will help you get to stage 5 only.
O = Second digit on the monument
P = First letter of last word on line six of the monument
Q = First letter on third line
R = The month following the one on this monument
S = The day of the month
T = First letter of last word on line six of the monument
U = Third letter of the second word on the eighth line
V = First letter of the second word on the second line
W = Last digit on the monument plus 1 (W is less than 9)
X = Last letter on the first line
Y = Last letter of the second to last word on sixth line
Z = Third letter of second word on the second line
Stage 5 (N) OPQRST (W) UVWXYZ is the final and the only physical cache you need to find for this multi. Checksum for Stage 5 is 67.
The difficulty and terrain rating are pretty arbitrary. But they are intended to keep this off the pocket queries of those looking for a quick easy cache. I'd like to rate it a 1.5 star, but I know many people would complain that rating is too low.
The actual hide is a camo taped nut jar meriting one star, similar to my hides in Rancho San Antonio open space. You will need to scramble the last 70 feet on game trails, but the rest of the hiking is fire roads or better.
Like so many of my caches, this cache has been sitting in place for over a half year while I procrastinate writing the cache page. Recently, I went back to check on it to confirm it is still there and that there was no poison oak around.
Although, I saw no poison oak when placing the cache nor checking on it, there may be poison oak in the area of the final as it seems to appear everywhere. All of the other stages are 1.5 star terrain or less.
Bring protective clothing if this is a concern. The intermediary stages hopefully should be free of it.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)