4 Ridge Multi-Cache
kleetus: My trips to Tampa have ended. It will be hard for me to maintain this. It sure was short lived. Thanks to all who visited.
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(micro)
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The first stage is kind of high. I put coordinates in the nearby palm if you can't reach that high.
I pass here all the time. I've already done the existing caches. I figured it would be fun to have one of my own. However I figured there had to be something more than just a quick park and grab. If I could have you bushwhack through a thousand feet of swamp I would but it's a nice tame rest area. So you have to walk about a quarter of a mile to get two simple stages. Maybe it will help you to stop shaking after the incivility of I-4.
Both the caches are high up. That's the reason for the higher than normal terrain for such an easy multi. No I didn't do that to be mean it's just that the trees are so well groomed that there are no low spots. I don't like palm tree hides and didn't want to hide them there. You'll be near some cabbage palms on the first stage but the cache isn't in them. First stage is a match container with coordinates to a tethered pill bottle from my favorite Florida grocery store that starts with a P. If you find it hanging please put it back in the crotch of the tree with some natural camouflage.
I put the snake attribute because there are signs saying there are venomous snakes in the area. I think this is silly. You just survived I-4 and you're worried about snakes?
****I-4 History (in case the road bores you to tears):
I-4 was one of the first Interstate Highways to be constructed in Florida, with the first section opening between Plant City and Lakeland in 1959. By early 1960, the Howard Frankland Bridge was opened to traffic, as well as the segment from the Hillsborough Avenue/ US 301 junction in Tampa to Plant City. The stretch from Lake Monroe to Lake Helen, including the original St. Johns River Bridge also opened during that period. The segment from Lakeland to Orlando was complete by 1962. By the mid 1960s, several segments were already complete, including Malfunction Junction in Tampa and parts of I-4 through Orlando.
The entire Interstate Highway was completed by the late 1960s, however, the western terminus was truncated to Malfunction Junction in 1971 when I-75 was extended over the Frankland Bridge. Eventually, that stretch was again re-designated to become part of I-275.
****Now the good part:
A section of I-4 between Daytona Beach and Orlando called the 'dead zone' is rumored to be haunted.
Here's the story:The history of this area goes back to 1887 when a yellow fever epidemic hit a small Roman Catholic colony killing four members of one of its families. With their priest dead, there was no one to administer last rites and they were buried without ceremony in four graves. In 1905, Albert Hawkins bought the land and cleared it for farming. He found the four graves and in respect for the dead, Hawkins farmed around the little cemetery which sat in the middle of the field like an island. The area became known as the Field of the Dead and was for many years a well-kept secret by the local community. When Hakins died in 1939 his widow continued to own the land until 1960 when it was purchased by the state for the building of Interstate-4. The little cemetery was identified to the State surveyors, but the graves were not removed and were soon covered up with fill dirt to elevate the new highway. At the exact time that the fill dirt was dumped on the site, Hurricane Donna crossed the state, the eye of this strange storm passed right over the graves. The fury and flooding caused by Hurricane Donna disrupted highway construction for several months. Not only was Donna the worst storm to hit the interior of Central Florida in a century, it followed a very strange path. It had already crossed South Florida from the Atlantic and appeared to be heading westward into the Gulf of Mexico - then it took a strange and eerie turn, and basically followed the right-of-way Interstate-four through Central Florida with the eye passing over the graves about midnight. The storm exited into the Atlantic near Ormand Beach. Many people believe that the strange maneuver of Hurricane Donna was caused by the highway construction tampering with the dead.
****Not so good:
2008 Pileup
On January 9, 2008, 70 vehicles were involved in a large pileup on I-4 near Polk City. The pileup was caused by an unexpected thick morning fog that was mixed with a scheduled prescribed burn by the Florida Wildlife Commission. The fog drifted across I-4, mixing with the smoke, reducing visibility to near-zero conditions. Four people were killed, and 38 were injured. The section of I-4 did not re-open until 6:30 pm the next day, January 10.
****Even worse:
I-4 is the third deadliest interstate highway in the country.
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