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Geocaching Challenge - Dakota County Parks Mystery Cache

Hidden : 1/28/2012
Difficulty:
3.5 out of 5
Terrain:
2.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   small (small)

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Geocache Description:


GEOCACHING CHALLENGE
DAKOTA COUNTY PARKS

THIS IS A CHALLENGE GEOCACHE. THE GEOCACHE IS HIDDEN AT THE POSTED COORDINATES. HOWEVER, YOU MUST COMPLETE THE CHALLENGE REQUIREMENT BEFORE LOGGING THIS CACHE.

The Dakota County Park System, the crown jewel of Dakota County, is comprised of six major parks, a regional bike trail system, and a dog park. Currently under construction are the missing segments required to make a new 27 mile long bike trail along the river. Across the park system, amenities run the gamut from hiking trails, horseback riding, camping, paddling, cross-country skiing, RC flying, there's even an archery range. The endless list of possible activities provides a portal to the outdoors allowing you to be forever wild.

Whitetail Woods Regional Park
- 456 acres
- (?) visits in 2006

Lebanon Hills Regional Park
- 1,900 acres
- 460,800 (61%) visits in 2006

Spring Lake Park Reserve
- 1,100 acres
- 109,000 (15%) visits in 2006

Lake Byllesby Regional Park
- 610 acres
- 90,100 (12%) visits in 2006

Thompson County Park
- 58 acres
- 80,000 (11%) visits in 2006

Miesville Ravine Park Reserve
- 1,667 acres
- 15,200 (2%) visits in 2006

Dakota Woods Dog Park
- 16 acres
- 13,500 visits in 2006

Big Rivers Regional Trail
- 4.5 miles
- 133,900 visits in 2006

What is the CHALLENGE?

This challenge is all about geocaching within Dakota County Park System. It's about venturing into each and every park Dakota County has to offer. You must find and log 50 individual geocaches within the Dakota County Park System.

To be eligible to find and log this geocaching challenge, follow these simple steps..

1. Using the requirements shown below, find and log 50 unique geocaches within the Dakota County Park System.

2. When you qualify for the challenge, you MUST list the geocaches you've found and the park you've found them in when posting your Found It log. You can type them out or you can upload a picture to your log. DON'T tell me to go check your profile. If you list them in a bookmark, your bookmark should be clear and to the point

Requirements:

1. Find and log 50 unique geocaches within the Dakota County Park System.

2. ALL caches count. That includes traditionals, multicaches, events, virtuals, earthcaches, etc. Mystery caches count too so long as the listed coordinates are within a park boundary or you can prove that the solved coordinates are within a park boundary.

3. All previous geocaching finds DO count, regardless of how long ago you found them.

4. Dog parks and bike trails can only be represented by ONE find EACH.

5. The remaining 48 finds must be evenly distributed among the six major parks, that's 8 geocache finds per major park.

6. Major parks are defined as anything other than the dog park and bike trails. They include Lebanon Hills, Spring Lake Park, Thompson, Lake Byllesby, Miesville Ravine, and Whitetail Woods.

7. In the event you're a newer cacher and a major park does not contain enough geocaches to support the requirement, you may use any other major park to fulfill the requirement, so long as you've found all of the currently active geocaches within the park that lacks 8 possibilities.

In other words, if for example Thompson County only has 4 geocaches available for you to find, you can use 4 finds in the other major parks as a substitute to get the other 4 of 8 finds required to qualify.

8. In the event you are required to substitute caches as defined in requirement #7, your cache finds must be unique. You cannot use a geocache more than once.

9. In the event you are required to substitute caches as defined in requirement #7, I request that you state in your Found It log that you're using an substitute geocache finds from an alternative park and why.

Questions and Answers:

1. Is there a time limit? - No, you can take as many days, weeks, months or years as you want to finish.

2. What if I've found a geocache that gets archived before I find the final? - Previous finds count, no problem.

3. What about Whitetail Woods? - Game on, park opened August 2014. Whitetail MUST be included within your requirement.

4. Are there any special restrictions along the bike trails? - Your cache find must be on park property. Within the property bounds, there are no distance limits.

The difficulty rating is based on fullfilling the challenge requirement. The terrain rating is for the actual hide of this challenge cache.

This geocache registered with Dakota County Parks.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

[Significant hike if approached from north. Reasonably short hike if approached from south at 120th St.]

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)