In The Woods, In The Woods Multi-Cache

While the whole Indian Creek Trail is beautiful the cache area is extraordinary. On the morning I placed the cache, January 13, 2011, there was 6 inches of snow on the ground and it was 5 degrees fahrenheit out. The creek was steaming, there were white-tailed deer running all over the place, and ducks were swimming in the creek, it was a truly picturesque moment. I also had a small run-in with a big buck that was sleeping, luckily we settled our differences and moved on. I hope you enjoy this little glimpse of a natural riparian ecosystem as much as I did.

This geocache will require approximately 5 km (3 miles) of walking, approximately 0.5 km (1/3 mile) of which is off-trail. The rest is on or around the paved path known as the Indian Creek Trail in Overland Park which runs through Indian Valley Park.

The off-trail portion of this cache could result in wet feet depending on your approach, this should be no big deal in the Summer or Spring but in the Winter or Fall I recommend you find the dry route unless you have good waterproof boots.

To complete this cache you will need to set your gps unit to UTM coordinates mode. For many gps users this will be a new experience, but it is not that hard. If UTM confuses you skip the cache instructions to read below about UTM and come back to them. If you are unsure of how to set this up in your gps unit refer to the user's manual or google.

If you attempt this cache and fail or give up please report a DNF.

Go to stage 1 at UTM 15S E 352623 N 4309061.

Find Iksorb's numbers (A, B, and C from left to right):
A = <3 digit number>
B = <3 digit number>
C = <4 digit number>
D = A + B + C

If D is even:
DIRH = West, DIRV=South

If D is odd:
DIRH = East, DIRV=North

Head West on the trail, at the next two forks travel DIRH on the trail and leave Indian Valley Park. Enjoy your walk through the beautiful and scarce woods that remain of Overland Park and go to the first playground that you find along the trail, this is stage 2.

This is a playground along the Indian Creek Trail. There are many like it but this one is your stage 2 waypoint.

Return to and continue in the same direction on the Indian Creek Trail until the trail passes under a bridge, this is stage 3.

P = (2 * 100) + (L * 4) - 1
Q = (2 * L * 30) + P - 355

Stand where the trail exits from under the bridge. By modifying your current UTM coordinates go to stage 4 which is P meters DIRV and Q meters DIRH of your current location.

S = <translate 12 into a 5 digit number>
T = <translate 32 into a 4 digit number>
U = 332190 + D + S - 64
V = 4300000 + T + 1154 - 130

Go to UTM 15S E U N V. As always replace the cache exactly as you found it.

This cache will use UTM coordinates, which is a simple (x,y) coordinate system, like what is taught in high school geometry. The primary advantage of the UTM coordinate system is that one can quite easily modify any UTM coordinates, including their current location, in order to refer to a point any given distance to the North, South, East, or West by adding or subtracting the distance in meters to the desired location.

UTM 15S E 356300 N 4303250

• 15S refers to an area on the UTM grid which approximately contains eastern Kansas, Missouri, and Arkansas (see grid).
• E 356300 is what is called the Easting, and represents the x in the (x,y) coordinate pair, with a unit of measurement in meters. Therefore, by adding 1 to the Easting this would refer to a location 1 meter to the East, and by subtracting 1 this would refer to a location 1 meter to the West.
• N 4303250 is what is called the Northing, and represents the y in the (x,y) coordinate pair, with a unit of measurement again in meters. Therefore, by adding 1 to the Northing this would refer to a location 1 meter to the North, and by subtracting 1 this would refer to a location 1 meter to the South.

With the information above if one were at the location UTM 15S E 356300 N 4303250 and wanted to navigate to a point 250 meters (roughly 750 feet) to the East and 300 meters (roughly 900 feet) to the South you would add 250 to the Easting and subtract 300 from the Northing. The desired destination than is UTM 15S E 356550 N 4302950 (356300 + 250 == 356550 and 4303250 - 300 = 4302950).

To use UTM coordinates in your GPS unit system settings set the coordinate/unit type to UTM (or Universal Transverse Mercator), refer to the user's manual if you cannot find this setting. In Garmin devices this can be found in Main Menu->Setup->Units->Position Format->UTM UPS

More detailed information and further reading on the UTM coordinate system can be found at the links below:

• UTM article on Wikipedia
• A Practical Guide to GPS - UTM
• A Quick Guide to Using UTM Coordinates