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Difficulty:
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(regular)
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The final HAAF series cache at the old Hobbs Army Air Field
11-21-2013. Five and a half years - never figured it would last this long. But all good things must end or move on. The City has decided to build a new golf course and a company has built a major service yard right next door. Between the two, the location for #5 is not suitable any more (if you ever found it, your know why). So, #5 rides off into the sunset. It probably won't be back because of all the development at the old airbase, but in the geocaching world, never seldom means never. My thanks to all those who worked out the clues. No one ever took the shortcut, but that wasn't surprising. The decoy at the 4th stage caught most, but not all. It's been a fun five years!! KK
The long promised HAAF #5 is finally active. Actually, most of it has been in place for a couple of years while I waited for the City to make up it's collective mind what it was going to do with the old Air Base. I think the locations of the final and the current stages are safe from closure or development for at least a year or more.
HAAF #5 combines the features of 1 through 4 (including the now bulldozed #3) and throws in a couple of new wrinkles. If you walk all the stages, it would be around 2.5 miles. You can drive right up to most of the stages and the two you can't are about 100' off the road. Please drive only on the paved roads. The terrain is mostly flat, with some cacti and other nasty desert plants for company. Snakes are possible, particularly near the final location.
The actual cache is an unpainted 10" piece of 4" PVC pipe with end caps & fits in its surroundings.
In each stage, you will need to find something that gives you the coords to the next stage. Below is the info for each stage. For stages 1-3, if you go to the coords you figure out for each stage, you should be able to see what the stage is about and where to get the coords to the next stage. Stage 4 may be a bit more tricky.
For all four preliminary stages the target you are looking for is in plain sight.
I'm going to start this as a Difficulty 3 (3.5 now - 10-03-09). That's a guess. It may turn out to be higher or lower. I'll adjust according to feedback. Remember, in the geocaching world, things are not always what they seem.
I'll be happy to provide additional clues after the FTF prize is claimed. Best of luck & enjoy your tour of the old base!
THE COORDS FOR ALL STAGES START WITH: N 32 4X.XXX W103 1X.XXX. YOU WILL NEED TO DETERMINE THE LAST 4 DIGITS OF EACH COORD.
STAGE 1 (Stage 1 coords are shown at the top of the page)
An easy one to start. To find the NXT coords for Stage 2, look for something that has a set of numbers in this format: 1.234 - 5.678 (not the correct numbers, just an example). That's your coords for Stage 2.
STAGE 2
Another easy one and a test of your basic math skills to get to Stage 3. You are looking for two four digit numbers in the format 1234 - 5678 (again just an example). Take the smaller of the two 4 digit numbers and add 4540 to it to get the last four digits of the N coord. Take the larger number you found and add 187 to it to get the last four digits of the W coord.
STAGE 3
The code solution for this stage has changed 11-7-12, with the moving of Stage 4.
Let's try a substitution cypher for this one to find the Stage 4 coords. You are looking for something with the name "Hamilton" on it. About four lines below the name is a line that reads "Division of". Look at the line below that. You need to use the first four letters of the first word to solve the N coords and the first four letters of the second word to solve the W coords. Here are the keys:
N Coords (last 4 digits):
A,B = 8
L,E = 0
D,S = 9
N,X = 7
F,Y = 3
O,W = 1
G,C = 4
T,H = 2
I,J = 6
U,K = 5
W Coords (last 4 digits):
A,D = 2
V,T = 3
E,L = 1
Z,X = 7
B,M = 3
R,Q = 6
G,Z = 4
I,F = 0
N,Y = 5
S,C = 8
This stage replaces one in an area now closed and seemed an appropriate spot considering Bighornram's recent cache problems in Roswell.
STAGE 4
12-09-12 Correction!!! The coords at Stage four have an error. To get the correct coord, SUBTRACT .180 from the second coord you find.
Almost home, but not without a real challenge here. Just like Stage one - look for something with the NXT coords in the format 1.234 - 5.678 (an example - I hate to keep repeating that, but experience has been a good teacher). Those you find will be the coords for the actual cache. This is also a replacement for an original stage in a now closed area and is the only stage with potential muggle problems from walkers.
FINAL STAGE - THE CACHE
There are two shortcuts available. Firstly, just like for HAAF 4-2 and some of my other caches, the final location is embedded somewhere in this page. Secondly....well that would be giving it away........
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)