Welcome to Short Hills Provincial Park. This park is home to some fantastic hiking trails and Carolinian vegetation. This Multi-Cache uses several of these trails, locations where existing objects will be used to determine offset values, and upon completion you will have walked over 10 kilometers.
At the time of publication Ontario Parks does not allow the placement of any object, including geocaches, inside their properties without written permission of the park superintendent. Staying on the trails at all times is required and at no time during this hike will you need to step off a trail, not even one foot. The final container is NOT inside the park boundaries.
There are two grandfathered geocaches inside Short Hills, and those geocaches are owned by a father and daughter team. In some way this multi-cache is dedicated to them for preserving these geocaches so that everyone can enjoy our hobby in this fantastic park. As such this cache page is written in a theme that hopefully Flick will appreciate, though likely not the hike which would appeal more to his daughter KDKK17.
The optimal parking to start your hike is the Pelham Rd. entrance. It should go without saying that having water with you is recommended, as well as the standard supplies and for your own sake print this listing. For the purposes of math, Flick's Rule is to take the value you solved and divide it by 1000. Without further delay....
Stage 1 – Have You Ever Had It Blue? That Used To Work But Now It's New!
Maybe by the end of this you will be black and blue. Maybe I will be if you are really annoyed. Hopefully you won't have the energy. At this stop you will find a new sign post with a new map that has some distances on it, and it replaced the old black and blue info sign on a near by tree. Add up the entire length of the main yellow trail loop. Use: “...forms a loop of A.B” (round up) and multiply by the “Distance to Pelham Rd Parking (subtract 60 meters from what is on the new map) in this direction CDE meters”. This should give you a four digit number (checksum = 11). Apply Flick's Rule and add to both N 43d 02.190 and W 79d 14.008 which will lead you to...
Stage 2 – I'm Shocked!
I warned you that this was a long multi-cache. If there are only 10 or so places to go and the route is over 10 km then you should have expected this. Don't waste your water by crying about it. At this point on the trails you will see something shocking if you look in a Westerly direction. An object is labeled with a number in yellow and black. Call that FG. Take that number and multiply it by 10. After applying Flick's Rule again add to both N 43d 04.096 and W 79d 15.934
Stage 3 – Missing Maple
In this section of the park there are labels on many of the trees placed in the hopes of educating people about the different varieties. By the time you reach this point you might feel that you are about to leave the park. Maybe. But at least you are standing on a bridge, so it's not that bad. Standing on the bridge turn back and notice the two labeled trees. The left one is the North offset, the right one is the West offset. Red = 598, Silver = 255, Sugar = 910. As always, apply Flick's Rule to both N 43d 04.569 and W 79d 15.682
Stage 4 – Tree Salad
Did Johnny Appleseed come through here? Such a compact selection of trees varieties. The coordinates should bring you to a cluster of trees and you need to eliminate from the list below the trees that can be found here. Read all the labels and eliminate each from this list. What is left over is your offset. Sugar Maple = 1, Wild Black Cherry = 2, White Elm = 3, Common Pear = 4, Silver Birch = 5, Pin Cherry = 6, White Ash = 7, American Basswood = 8, Trembling Aspen = 9. Take that value and multiply it by A.B and again by FG. Once you use Flick's Rule, add to both N 43d 03.546 and W 79d 15.095
Stage 5 – Sanctioned by Ontario Parks
Sure, we can't put geocaches here but they can dig holes, screw stuff to trees, etc. etc. Geesh, what nerve LOL. There is a man-made object at this location that I guess they felt was okay. What is it? A Bench = 1, A Bridge = 2, A Plaque = 3, A Sign Post = 4, A Fire Pit = 5, A Trash Bin = 6, A Trail Map = 7. Take that value and multiply it by CDE. Of course you use Flick's Rule again. Add that amount to both N 43d 05.133 and W 79d 16.162
Stage 6 – I Just Can't Put My Finger On It!
There are a lot of signs in this park and a vast variety of styles, sizes, designs... nearly as much as the trees. The marker at this location features one living object. What is it? A Dog = 1.6, A Horse = 2.5, A Bird = 3.4, A Deer = 4.3, A Man = 5.2, An Octopus = 6.1. Take that value and multiply it by the unused value from Stage 3. And guess what! Right, Flick's Rule time! And again add it to both N 43d 04.380 and W 79d 15.002
Stage 7 – A Rainbow is like A Bridge of Colour!
Finally a flat section! There is a bridge at this location made of metal. What colour is the metal painted. Brown = 1, Red = 2, Orange = 3, Yellow = 4, Green = 5, Blue = 6, Violet = 7, Grey = 8. Take that value and multiply it by the one you used for the North offset in Stage 3. Subtract from this new value the offset you used at Stage 4. Do I need to keep mentioning Flick's Rule? Add the value to both N 43d 05.140 and W 79d 15.350
Stage 8 – Finally Back to the Parking Lot... Hey!!! Where's my Car?!?!
Depending on your math you are either at the Roland Rd parking lot or the Wiley Rd parking lot. If you came with friends then maybe your should have left a second car here. Maybe you did and you picked the wrong lot? There are two P.O. Box numbers listed here. You will use them for two different calculations. First multiply them together and save this five digit number for later. Flick liked doing that in his multi-caches so I will do that too. But you need to keep going don't you? Now take the difference between the two P.O. Box numbers and then multiply that number by the remaining tree number from Stage 4. Flick that number and add to both N 43d 06.097 and W 79d 16.274 then off you go.
Stage 9 – Half a Bridge is Better Than No Bridge At All!
If you've hiked areas of the Bruce Trail you have probably noticed that the bridges that cross the streams or small ravines seem to only have a railing on one side. Cost saving? I couldn't tell ya! Even though this is not the Bruce, or is it?, this bridge is built to the same standards. Find the four digit bridge code here. Take that value and add to it the West offset from Stage 3. A little dose of Flick which gets added to N 43d 02.970 and W 79d 15.062
Stage 10 – George Lucas Was Here?
The Rebels and an Empire? No wonder this cache was made on May 4th! Remember that base offset you calculated in Stage 8 with the P.O. Boxes? Let's call that QRSTU. Rewrite that to give you a North of 4Q 0R.STU. But why are we here? Take that same QRSTU and multiply it by B.A and then add the year of the Rebellion in Upper Canada. That gives us VWXYZ. Again, rewrite that to give you a West of 7V 1W.XYZ
So you have some coordinates but the problem is that you have too much North and not enough West. Note that offset means before you divide by 1000, not after.
To adjust the North you need add together the Stage 6 offset and the Stage 2 offset and then after that add FG multiplied by A.G then finally that total amount needs Flick's Rule applied and subtracted from the North of 4Q 0R.STU
To adjust the West you use the choice from Stage 4 “Tree” and subtract the choice from Stage 5 “Item”. Take that value and multiply it by A from Stage 1. Multiply that new amount by the choice from Stage 7 “Colour”. Again multiply by the choice from Stage 4 “Tree”. That new amount needs to be multiplied by C from Stage 1. Now subtract the North offset from Stage 3 and then finally subtract S. Whatever you got there, apply Flick's Rule one last time and add to West of 7V 1W.XYZ
Wait! You thought you were done? Heck no! Those coordinates might look good but you gotta do one more adjustment! Add 0.051 to the North Coordinates and then subtract 0.020 from the West coordinates. This will keep you clear of any questionable boundaries!
Sure, you've walked over 10km for this Multi-Cache but you didn't have to use your brain too much. Now you get to! Hopefully you've enjoyed a tour of some of the trails in Short Hills.
Guest Reviewer: Riviouveur - One of the greatest tools we have was created by this reviewer and it helps us make sure park permissions that we are aware of are confirmed before publication. Heck even this cache would be flagged. Beyond that this reviewer looks awesome in a kilt, but doesn't everyone?
The Cacheport Series: This is cache #186 - Please make sure that you perform your cancellation with your Cacheport book, if you are participating in this optional activity.