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The indicated coordinates are NOT those for the actual cache, which is a supplement bottle containing, in addition to geocache statement, log, and pencil, items for FTF, STF, and a few small trade items. Read the complete description for information on the cache and how to get the actual coordinates for it.
Park at the indicated coordinates, which are by a huge old oak tree in front of a church cemetery in which are buried my paternal grandfather, his father, and his father’s father, along with more than 260 of their relatives by blood and marriage. Please do not search during church functions. At other times you usually will have the place pretty much to yourself.
A short distance east of where you parked is the smallish but, from some points of view, symmetrical peak of Pilot Mountain. By best accounts it was so named by the Indians and after them by soldiers who used it as a guide, due more to its location outside the rest of the South Mountains than to its shape. You may obtain the coordinates for the actual cache by using the following steps:
Stand with your back to the tree and face perpendicularly across the cemetery to an oak tree straight ahead of you on the other side. If you picture yourself at six o’clock and the oak tree on the other side/end of the cemetery at twelve o‘clock, the church building should be at approximately three o’clock. At approximately the 10 o'clock position is located one of the taller and older gravestones in the cemetery, with its top in the general shape of Pilot Mountain. If you have spotted the correct gravestone, there is a Masonic emblem on its front near the top. This is the gravestone for the Confederate veteran who, in 1900, obtained a land grant from the State of North Carolina for some 115 acres at the top of and on the McDowell County side of Pilot Mountain. The day of his birth was October 25. Use his year of birth from the gravestone to determine the latitude for the actual cache, as follows:
From the year of birth, subtract 910 and enter the result into the following latitude coordinate:
N35 degrees, 35. __ __ __.
To obtain the longitude coordinate, stand at the foot of his grave and, facing toward the back or end of the church, find the gravestones of the man’s parents to the left front and four rows in front of you. At the top of the father’s tombstone is the Masonic shaking hands emblem, and at the top of the mother‘s tombstone is a harp. You may verify that you have the correct gravestones by the birth years of 1818 and 1815. To the day of the month that the MOTHER died, add 864 and enter the results into the following longitude coordinate:
W81 degrees. 51. __ __ __.
Use the set of coordinates that you have obtained to locate the cache. Your computed location should not be more than a few hundred feet away; however, if your point of search is not away from the church and the cemetery, you are looking in the wrong place! Do not dig holes, search bushes, climb trees, etc. You need only your hands to access the cache. Access it with caution so that you can easily replace it in the original manner.
*******CONGRATULATIONS AND MANY THANKS to Cachn'Zoom for the FTF*******
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Vs ng svefg lbh qba'g fhpprrq, xrrc lbhe puva hc.