The fifth cache in the Coastal Trail Memorial Series,
Anchorage has a wonderful tradition of allowing residents to establish memorials within park boundaries. These memorials can be as simple as a bench or as elaborate as rock gardens and giant iron sculpture. The Coastal Trail is home to at least five memorials. I thought it would be nifty to establish caches at or nearby each of the memorials.
Shima's View
"Her spirit soared up to Alaska and will keep flying very high above the clouds."
This bench is a memorial to Shima Funakoshi. Shima was a pilot for Hageland Aviation services. Her plane went down in August of 2003 in open waters 30 miles off of Barrow. Her mother was also on the flight.
The cache is a two-stage hide. The initial stage of the hide is the bench. You will derive the coordinates for the actual cache hide. Here's the puzzle/formula.
The caption under the above photo is the first sentence on the engraved plaque on the bench. There is a second sentence on the plaque and you'll need to look at the second sentence to figure out the coordinates.
Final Location Coordinates: N 61 11.X9Y W 149 57.Z90
X= number of letters in the 3rd word of second sentence * 3.
Y= number of letters in the 4th word of second sentence * 2.
Z= number of letters in the 3rd word of second sentence * 3.
Verify your coordinates: Geochecker.com.
Before heading off to cache, be sure to enjoy the view!
Three local cachers angling to get the FTF.
Congrats to Tundra Tim on the FTF! It's real honor to have Tundra Tim as the FTF on this cache. And he beat out the three ungulates pictured above!
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