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The End of Yonge Multi-Cache

Hidden : 11/13/2010
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size:   small (small)

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Geocache Description:

The cache is not at the posted coordinates.

The cache is a small camo’d peanut butter jar near the end (now not used) of the original Yonge St. as it was conceived for military purposes. It contains a logbook, pencils, small tradables, and a Tim’s card for FTF. The final is within 5 km of the posted coordinates. First you must find an item mentioned below at the posted coordinates. Then... Add date of Robert Irvine's "Holland's Landing Depot" to N 44° 06.895 and subtract weight from W 079° 34.203 (last 4 digits, ignore decimals) to calculate the final coordinates. .................................................................................................................................. Yonge Street was fundamental in the planning and layout of old Upper Canada when it was built in the 1790’s. With the outbreak of hostilities between France and Great Britain in 1793, the Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada (now Ontario), John Graves Simcoe, was concerned about the possibility of the United States entering British North America in support of their French allies. Simcoe planned to build overland routes to the upper lakes as soon as possible. To provide communications with the upper Great Lakes, he planned a road running north from York (now Toronto) to Lake aux Claies (now Simcoe). This would allow overland transport to the upper lakes, bypassing U.S. strongholds. He was shown a new route, this one starting on the eastern branch of the Holland River and thereby avoiding the marshes of the western branch (today's Holland Marsh). Simcoe selected this eastern route for his new road, moving the northern end to a proposed new town on the Holland River, St. Albans. The following spring, Simcoe instructed that a small trail be blazed marking the route. Simcoe named the route in honor of the Secretary of War, Sir George Yonge. Simcoe started construction of the road by granting land to settlers, in exchange for them clearing 33 feet of frontage on the road. In 1795 the Queen's Rangers took over. They began their work at Eglinton Avenue and proceeded north to St. Albans, which was reached on 16 February 1796. Expansion of the trail into a road was the task of local farmers, who were ordered to spend 12 days a year to clear the road of logs, which were removed by convicted drunks as part of their sentence. The southern end of the road was in use in the first decade of the 19th century, and became passable all the way to the northern end in 1816. St. Albans never developed as Simcoe had hoped, but a town eventually grew up on the land, Holland Landing, settled by Quakers moving into the area after having left the USA in the aftermath of the American Revolution. The settlers were branching out from their initial town of Newmarket. The road almost served its original military purpose during the War of 1812, when a large anchor was shipped from England for use on a frigate that was under construction on the lakes. The war ended while the anchor was still being moved, and it now lies just outside Holland Landing in a park named in its honour. Adapted from Wikipedia article “Yonge Street”.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Fgntr 1 - Lbh pna’g zvff vg. Svany - Lbh pna gbhpu obgu gur pnpur naq gur byq thneqenvy ng gur fnzr gvzr. Gur lryybj tngr vf abg gur thneqenvy. Xrrc tbvat. Pbeerpg pbbeqvangrf jvyy abg gnxr lbh vagb gur fjnzc.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)