The Cache is NOT at the posted coordinates, however you will find
that this intersection is very much part of the puzzle.
This is my 50th placed cache... and for that milestone,
this cache is definitely not business-as-usual.
Good luck on the puzzle...and the hunt.
AS ALWAYS...Be Aware of your Surroundings!
Considering the Difficulty of this puzzle,
Any logs containing spoilers or hints
not-approved by the Cache Owner will
be removed without warning.
The name comes from the Mile Road System, a method used to delineate east/west roads through the Detroit area. Mile roads begin at the intersection of Woodward and Michigan Avenues in downtown Detroit; therefore 8 Mile Road is approximately 8 miles (13 km) north of that point. 8 Mile Road ends at Marshall Road in Green Oak township.
8 Mile Road generally follows a straight line east of Northville. Between Griswold Street and Taft Road, 8 Mile bends toward the north, avoiding the city center before returning to its base line. Further west, 8 Mile crosses Pontiac Trail (which connects South Lyon and Ann Arbor) before becoming a dirt road; it then ends about a mile east of Whitmore Lake. West of Whitmore Lake, 8 Mile Road picks up briefly and crosses US 23. The far western end of 8 Mile past US 23, at a junction with Hall Road, a local road near Hamburg.
While not very significant prior to the 1950s, 8 Mile Road is one of Michigan's more familiar roads. Starting out as dirt road, 8 Mile was designated as M-102 in 1928. It was around this time when 8 Mile was widened into a divided highway between Gratiot and Woodward, where M-102 originally ran. As more people started moving out to that area, 8 Mile Road was widened into a divided highway west of Woodward, all the way to Grand River in 1942, where M-102 was extended. In the early 1960s, 8 Mile Road was widened from a total of four lanes (two lanes on each side of the divided highway) to a total of eight lanes (four lanes on each side of the divided highway), much like it is, today. This was due to the growing population of Detroit suburbs such as Ferndale, Oak Park, Warren, Hazel Park, and Southfield.
The total length of the "M-3" designation of Gratiot (not the total length of Gratiot Ave/Rd itself, which is longer) is approximately 29 miles (46 km). The road passes through Detroit, Eastpointe, Roseville, Clinton Township, Mount Clemens, and Chesterfield Township. For much of the way it runs more or less parallel with M-97 to the north & west and with Interstate 94 to the south & east.
Gratiot Avenue, then also called "the Gratiot road," was established in 1835 as the road leading to Fort Gratiot near Port Huron, which was in turn named for Colonel Charles Gratiot, an engineer with Harrison's army in the War of 1812.
Originally bearing M-19 for its entire length from Detroit to Port Huron, Gratiot Avenue was redesignated as part of U.S. 25, while M-19 was relocated westward, connecting Yale with U.S. 25/Gratiot Avenue at the village of Muttonville (now part of Richmond), just north of 31 Mile Road. In 1963, the portion of U.S. 25 north of 23 Mile Road was turned over to local control as U.S. 25 was routed over the newly-constructed I-94 freeway, with the exception of the stretch between New Haven and Muttonville, which was again designated M-19 as an extension of that route.
It also holds a distinction of changing Gratiot from an East-West route within the City of Detroit, to a North-South route from here northeast to the Port Huron area as well as also changing from 3-lanes in each direction with a Left-Turn lane in the middle to "boulevard"-roadway from 8 mile north through Mount Clemens.
In order to solve this mystery,
the first thing you'll need to address is:
What is the Gap?
The Gap Is:
A span between two REAL and specific points.
If it does not really exist here, then it does NOT count.
The Gap Is:
In the area of the Puzzle GZ (8 Mile & Gratiot).
See above: "this intersection is very-much part of the puzzle".
The Gap Is:
Large enough to make people like myself
wonder why it is the way it is...
but the best thing to do is make it
your business to be diligent in your research.
Find the gap and make some calculations.
That should make your solving of this puzzle
an easier thing to digest.
Who knows... maybe you'll finally find out what The Gap is!
I don't, however, think we'll figure out the "why"... ;-)
The Gap Is NOT:
A Store, in this case.
If you do a little research on things...
... and read the description carefully,
you should be able to solve this riddle.
To claim credit this puzzling find,
you must physically find and sign the log.
This cache IS within the City of Detroit
and will qualify for any Challenge that
requires DETROIT-Held Caches.
A: The Gap
B: The product of A
C: The quotient of B by the number of cities at Puzzle GZ
D: The remainder (or difference) of Gratiot's Route from C
E: The Sum of A
F: The Sum of D and E
G: The Sum of F and West Coordinates
Z: The Sum of the first two of A with the Last Two of A
Y: The remainder (or difference) of The last two of A from the first two of A
X: The remainder (or difference) of Y removed from D
W: The Sum of Z and X
V: The Product of W and total number of Counties at Puzzle GZ
U: Remove V from North Coordinates
T: The Sum of F, Z, and U
N42 ____T____ W082 58.____G____
Cache is Available around-the-clock, but probably best found during DAYLIGHT hours.
Parking for the cache is available within 30' of the Container.
DO NOT park directly near GZ.
Container is large-enough for some trade-items
- and -
maybe a smaller TravelBug or two.
Here's something to verify your findings!
July 17 2011 Update:
Due to some feedback that i have received, i have clarified some of the puzzle.
When this was created, the wording from one source was and is correct.
Most of that feedback has also shown that the original wording
was taken and is taken as intended and originally written.
However, as clarification, i have now included BOTH
terms in the description to help with solving this puzzle.
September 27 2011 Update:
The puzzle has been re-enabled with ONE and only ONE correction.
Everything else remains the same and has now been verified.
MANY thanks to those who were kind enough to provide the
needed Feedback to show that the correction needed to be made.
Your feedback, all of it, will not be soon forgotten.
