CRD Municipality Blackout Challenge Mystery Cache

This cache has been archived.

The A-Team: It is with sadness that I've decided I need to archive this challenge cache.

Over the past few years, I've become more and more aware of what could be described as "questionable logging practices" that are being used with increasing frequency in the Greater Victoria area (and elsewhere, too). Some examples of this include throwdowns, "saving" finds for a rainy day, and outright bogus logging of caches that weren't actually found. At this point, I can no longer trust that cachers who claim to have completed this challenge have actually found all of the relevant caches, or they may have obscured the truth about the circumstances of their find.

In addition, I now realize that nobody had attempted to visit and sign the log for about 1.5 years before madill attempted recently. This indicates that there isn't much interest in this challenge from newer cachers, which is another factor in my decision to archive it.

If you had already signed the log and posted a note saying so, you're still free to log this cache as found once you've completed the necessary requirements. Anyone (even if you didn't sign the log) can also continue to work towards clearing out all of the municipalities to join Dog_Cachers, AnnieMaroo, islandfinders, and totemtabou as CRD Blackout Grand Champions. I will continue to maintain the GSAK macro and other files related to the challenge for those who are still working on it. If you hadn't yet signed the log, unfortunately you'll no longer have the chance to log a find for this cache due to the actions of some of your fellow cachers.

Thank you to all who have participated in this challenge in the past and awarded it favourite points. I hope it spurred you to visit areas you might not have ventured into before, or tackled puzzles you may not have thought you could ever solve.

More
Hidden : 6/24/2012
Difficulty:
5 out of 5
Terrain:
5 out of 5

Size: Size: small (small)

Join now to view geocache location details. It's free!

Watch

How Geocaching Works
Looking for a different adventure?

Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions in our disclaimer.

Geocache Description:

The cache is at the posted coordinates, but because this is a challenge cache, you'll have to satisfy the requirements listed below before you can log it as a find online.
The attributes are for the final hide, but the difficulty and terrain ratings reflect the amount of work that you'll have to do to get the smiley. The actual ratings for the hide are difficulty 1.5, terrain 2.

To log a find for this challenge cache, you'll first need to find all of the caches in any ONE of the following 12 CRD municipalities:
  • Central Saanich
  • Colwood
  • Esquimalt
  • Highlands
  • Langford
  • Metchosin
  • North Saanich
  • Oak Bay
  • Saanich
  • Sooke
  • Victoria
  • View Royal

Now, you might be thinking to yourself, "Wait, he forgot about Sidney!" No, I didn't. At the time this challenge was published, there were only 36 caches in the Town of Sidney, with none of them being overly difficult to find. If I included Sidney, this challenge would have turned into the "Sidney Blackout Challenge", because most cachers would likely choose to use Sidney.

This challenge may sound simple at first, and for the long-time/obsessed cachers it may be easier, but for everyone else it'll get more difficult the more you think about it. Each municipality contains caches that are difficult in their own ways, whether it's a difficult puzzle, a long multi, a cache on an island, or a significant hike.

I haven't set this as a Premium Member Only (PMO) cache, but in essence it really is because there are PMO caches in every municipality. There ARE ways for basic members to log PMO caches, however, so if you manage to do it as a basic member, or your premium membership lapses, I don't see why you shouldn't still log this cache. Not setting it as PMO also allows basic members to see where this cache is located for the purpose of hiding caches.

Now, I want and expect everyone to play nice. I don't want to see any "shenanigans", like disabling some hard caches to allow a friend to skip them, or hiding a load of new caches to block someone from finishing. Based on how well the 2 and 3 Mile Challenges have been going, I have faith that the cachers in this town wouldn't do anything like this, but I just thought I'd mention it.

I purposely waited to publish this challenge until I had completed it myself, just to prove that it is doable. I cleared out Esquimalt once already a couple of months ago, then a few new caches came out and I didn't have it cleared out again until just the other day. Even though I've completed the challenge, I won't be logging it as a find.

Q&A

Q1. "What if the final coordinates of a cache are in a different municipality than the posted coordinates?"
A. It's only the posted coordinates that matter. For example, if a puzzle cache is shown on the map in Esquimalt, but the final, solved location is in Saanich, the cache counts as being in Esquimalt.

Q2. "What about disabled caches, caches I own, events, or other challenge caches? Do I have to log those?"
A. Disabled caches, caches you own, any type of event (Event, CITO, Mega, or Giga), and other challenge caches are excluded. You don't need to log finds on any of these for this challenge.

Q3. "How can I tell if I've found all the caches in a municipality?"
A. There are a few ways to do it:
  1. The simplest way is to look at the Geocaching.com map. If you use the Leaflet version of the maps (accessible through the "Set Map Preferences" button in the left-hand sidebar), you can choose the OpenStreetMap Default layer at the top-right. The municipality boundaries are shown on this map layer with a purple dashed line. You can use the filters in the sidebar to hide your finds and owned caches so it will only show your unfound caches. There are a couple of places where it's hard to tell where the boundaries run, so I've provided some images that should help clarify those areas (see Q10 below).
  2. For users of GSAK, I've made a GSAK macro that will scan your database of unfound caches, display the number you have remaining in each municipality, and allow you to filter for a municipality. This is just a quick-and-dirty macro, so it's a bit slower than I'd like, but I don't want to hear any complaints about its performance! :) If you use the "corrected coordinates" feature in GSAK, you can either use the macro (which automatically uses the original coordinates), or just use the Geocaching.com map. Remember, it's the original posted coordinates that matter for this challenge, not the final corrected coordinates.
  3. I've provided the boundary polygons in several different file formats (CSV, GPX, KML) that you can use in any way you wish. The CSV files can be used with the GSAK polygon filter for quick-and-easy filtering (feel free to contact me for help with setting them up), and the KML file can be opened with Google Earth. If you use the Geocaching.com Google Earth Viewer, remember that it has an intentional error in the coordinates for each cache, so a cache close to a boundary may appear to be in one municipality when it's actually in another.
NOTE: For anyone using GSAK or any other offline cache database software, remember that the software can only tell you about caches that it currently has loaded. If you haven't downloaded all the caches for a municipality, there's no way for it to tell you about those missing caches.

If you think you're close to finishing, feel free to contact me and I can let you know where you stand. You can also contact me if you're not sure which municipality a cache falls within.

Q4. "What do I need to do when I log my find? Do I need to send you anything or make a bookmark list?"
A. All you need to do is state in your find log which municipality you're using to complete the challenge. There's no need to send me anything or create a bookmark list. If you want, you could add a screenshot of the map showing an empty municipality, but that's completely up to you (here's mine for Esquimalt :) ).

Q5. "I once found all the caches in [municipality], but there are a bunch of new ones now that I haven't found. Can I log this challenge?"
A. No. You have to have found all the caches in a municipality at the time you log this challenge as a find. You should be able to look at the map, hide your finds and hides, and see either nothing or just events, disabled caches, and other challenge caches (which are excluded from this challenge).

Q6. "Can I sign the physical log ahead of time?"
A. Sure! If you happen to be near the posted coordinates, you can stop in to sign the log, but you'll have to wait to log your find online until you've completed the requirements.

Q7. "Do I have to wait for you to validate my find before logging it online?"
A. No. The challenge cache guidelines actually prohibit this, but I wouldn't have asked you to do it anyway. If you feel confident you've completed the challenge, go ahead and log it. I'll still be checking to make sure you really have completed it, so I'll let you know if there are any problems.

Q8. "I completed the challenge and went out today to sign the log, but another cache just got published before I was able to log my find online. Can I still log the challenge?"
A. Yes. There's no way for me to know what time you signed the log, so I won't know if you signed it before or after that new cache was published. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you signed the log before the new cache was published. You don't have to worry about any new caches that are published on the day you log your find.

Q9. "Why are the boundaries where they are? I found a map that shows them in different places!"
A. The boundaries used both on OpenStreetMap and in my above data files came directly from publicly-available BC Provincial Government data. I consider this data to be official, so these are the boundaries used for this challenge and the ones I'll be using to verify finds.

Q10. "What's up with that rectangular area over Matheson Lake?" or "It's hard to tell from the map where the boundaries are near Durrance Lake."
A. I've made some images to help clarify these areas:
  • The area around Matheson Lake is a bit odd. That rectangular area actually isn't included in either Sooke or Metchosin, as this image shows. The rectangular area in the centre, as well as the unshaded area at the bottom-left, are not part of either municipality. These areas are part of the Juan de Fuca Electoral Area, a region of the CRD that isn't included in this challenge.
  • As you can see from this image, Durrance Lake, most of the Partridge Hills, and a northern portion of Mt. Work are not part of either the Highlands or Saanich. These areas are part of the Juan de Fuca Electoral Area, a region of the CRD that isn't included in this challenge.
If there are any other spots where you're unsure of the boundary location, remember you can download the KML file and open it with Google Earth to easily see the boundary's route.

The Blackout Hall of Fame
The following table will record the first cacher to claim a find for each municipality. If you manage to clear out ALL of the municipalities (at the same time), you'll get extra-special recognition as a CRD Blackout Grand Champion and a $25 gift certificate for Landsharkz.ca! The stars column is the total of all the difficulty and terrain rating stars in each municipality. This can be used as a rough guide of how difficult each municipality is to complete. I'll update the numbers periodically (last updated May 16, 2017).
Municipality Stars Caches First to find
Central Saanich 374.5 101 paconlacellars
Colwood 430 109 sole seeker
Esquimalt 182 54 Dog_Cachers
Highlands 827.5 184 Not yet claimed
Langford 824.5 192 islandfinders
Metchosin 719.5 175 K5.Cacher
North Saanich 433 120 cache crop
Oak Bay 358 97 pracademics
Saanich 1800.5 462 AnnieMaroo
Sooke 1089 272 ljg-47
Victoria 484 134 bomabound
View Royal 613.5 140 KC
TOTAL 8136 2040


CRD Blackout Grand Champions
Dog_Cachers - June 30, 2012
AnnieMaroo - January 28, 2014
islandfinders - May 10, 2014
totemtabou - May 16, 2017

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Haqre jbbq, 2z va sebag bs I-funcrq neohghf

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)


Advertising with Us

Inventory

There are no Trackables in this cache.

View past Trackables

What are Trackable Items?

Bookmark Lists

View all 6 bookmark lists...