Geocaching Trivia Mystery Cache
This cache has been locked, but it is available for viewing.
A cache by [DELETED_USER]
Hidden
:
1/6/2011
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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The cache is a cammo'd l&l container with (initially) two TB's, some trinkets for kids, and space for other trackables. It's at 44 ab.cde and 76 fg.hij, NOT at the posted coordinates. You'll have do some research into Geocaching history and geography in order to find the missing values.
GPS, or Global Positioning System, was developed by the US Department of Defense. This satellite navigation system was intended for military use and therefore the signals were scrambled, limiting accuracy for civilian use to about 100 meters. On May 1, 2000, President Clinton announced that this scrambling, known as Selective Availability (SA), would be turned off. Civilians were then able to enjoy accuracy on the order of 10 meters.
On May “c”, 2000, Dave Ulmer proposed a way to celebrate the demise of SA. He hid a bucket of trinkets in the woods outside Portland, Oregon and announced its location, in a posting to a USENET newsgroup, as 45° 17.”b”60’ N by 122° 24.800’W.. This announcement is remarkable for laying out the essence of the hobby that is still in place today. It's all there. The container. The trinkets. The log book. The rule of take something, leave something, sign the logbook. Dave Ulmer invented geocaching in one fell swoop in that newsgroup posting.
The original cache, archived under GC code “GCF” is no longer there. But if you travel to those co-ordinates you will find two caches that you can add to your numbers. The “Un-Original Stash” GC92 is hidden in a large tree trunk (approximately 10 feet long and “g” feet in diameter). And the “Original Stash Tribute Plaque” GCGVOP was erected in September 2003 and has been visited by Kingston Area Geocachers Jaktar and Mebarb on April “d”, 2010.
The growth in the geocaching community in the next 10 years has been phenomenal. By the end of 2010 there were more than 5 million cachers worldwide and more than 1.2 million caches registered on geocaching.com.
The computers and people (aka “lackeys”) who make it work are located in Groundspeak headquarters somewhere on Fremont Ave. in Seattle, Washington, and it is rumored that Dave Ulmer’s original “j”-gallon black bucket is enshrined there (somewhat damaged by a road construction crew). There is also a small army of volunteer reviewers around the world who help us poor mortals in hiding and publishing caches.
The precise location of headquarters is supposed to be confidential, in order to minimize the number of unexpected cachers who would show up and disrupt the workplace. In fact, if you were to go to the published coords for the Groundspeak Headquarters cache you would find yourself in the middle of Union Lake. If you really want to schedule a visit you can ask for the correct address by e-mail, but to true geocachers that would be the ultimate spoiler, and they would prefer to go to the site of recent HQ events at N47 38.949 W122 2”a”.075 and search within a one-block radius from there.
For those Canadians who are into geocaching challenges, here’s a bucket list of 5 caches. Be the first on your block to do all of them (sorry, no FTF prize):
1. The Original Stash Tribute Plaque as described above
2. The Southernmost Stash in Canada (a Multi). It’s at latitude 41 degrees 4”f”.714 minutes which is farther south than the Oregon – California state line.
3. The northernmost cache in Canada. Or at least the most northern cache which is accessible by road, at latitude 68 degrees 25.29”i” minutes (hint – Dempster Highway)
4. The “most remote cache IN the world” GCB”e”57. Easter Island is over 1000 miles from the nearest inhabited island.
5. The most remote cache OUT of the world. It’s in (or on) locker 2”h”8 of the International Space Station.
Note: I've labelled it "not winter friendly" but anything less than a hard freeze or a foot of snow should not be a problem (and might leave a geo-trail to make it really easy). And keep in mind that the terrain level is only a 1.5 so don't make it more difficult for yourself or other cachers.
Congrats to Hypocorism on his FTF (now onward and upward to the 5-cache bucket list, hypo). Given the blizzard that arrived 15 minutes after his visit, it may be a long time before anyone claims the "Chopped Liver" award for 2TF.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Nf jvgu Qnir Hyzre'f bevtvany pnpur, gur pbbeqf ner npphengr gb bayl jvguva 10z be fb.