I'm Pining Over You Traditional Cache
Khoda: Beacon is gone. Don't chose to move it to the nearby beacon since its future is questionable.
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(micro)
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This is not an EVIL hide and should be an easy
find for a cache hiden in a spruce tree.
NOTE: In Minnesota all evergreen trees are frequently referred to
as pines. This is most likely done to confuse those non-native
geocachers, especially those from the deep South who know what a
pine tree looks like. The pictures below should help clear up some
of the confusion.
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| SPRUCE
BRANCH |
PINE
BRANCH |
The spruce tree is a large evergreen coniferous tree growing to
35–55 m (115-180 ft) tall and with a trunk diameter of up to
1-1.5 m. The shoots are orange-brown and glabrous (hairless). The
leaves are needle-like, 12–24 mm long, quadrangular in
cross-section (not flattened), and dark green on all four sides
with inconspicuous stomatal lines. The cones are 9–17 cm long
(the longest of any spruce), and have bluntly to sharply
triangular-pointed scale tips. They are green or reddish, maturing
brown 5–7 months after pollination. The seeds are black,
4–5 mm long, with a pale brown 15 mm wing. The tallest
measured Norway Spruce, 63 m (207 ft) tall, is in Perucica Virgin
Forest, Sutjeska National Park, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Populations in
southeast Europe tend to have on average longer cones with more
pointed scales; these are sometimes distinguished as Picea abies
var. acuminata (Beck) Dallim. & A.B.Jacks., but there is
extensive overlap in variation with trees from other parts of the
range. Some botanists treat Siberian Spruce as a subspecies of
Norway Spruce, though in their typical forms, they are very
distinct, the Siberian Spruce having cones only 5–10 cm long,
with smoothly rounded scales, and pubescent (hairy) shoots.
Genetically Norway and Siberian Spruces have turned out to be
extremely similar and may be considered as two closely related
subspecies of P. abies. Another spruce with smoothly rounded cone
scales and hairy shoots occurs rarely in the central Alps in
eastern Switzerland. It is also distinct in having thicker,
blue-green leaves. Many texts treat this as a variant of Norway
Spruce, but it is as distinct as many other spruces, and appears to
be more closely related to Siberian Spruce, Schrenk's Spruce (P.
schrenkiana) from central Asia and Morinda Spruce (P. smithiana) in
the Himalaya. Treated as a distinct species, it takes the name
Alpine Spruce (Picea alpestris (Brügger) Stein). As with Siberian
Spruce, it hybridises extensively with Norway Spruce; pure
specimens are rare. Hybrids are commonly known as Norwegian Spruce,
which should not be confused with the pure species Norway Spruce.
Additional Hints
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