Walk the Villages: Akron Mystery Cache
GO Geiger: We went to do our periodic check on this one and found nothing. The area has changed a bit since we initially hid it and it had a good run, so it is without too much regret that we're letting this one go.
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(small)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
A few years ago, there was a local tourism/wellness program called 'Walk the Villages.' It involved walking through the outlying suburbs of Buffalo answering questions and collecting stamps from merchants. It eventually expanded to include about 15 towns and villages, before the program was terminated.
It worked similarly to the Seaway Trail Geotrail - you got a booklet which you took to participating merchants in the villages to receive a stamp. When you had enough stamps, you were eligible for prizes from that village. At the end of the program there were randomly drawn prizes from each of the villages and hot dogs.
Akron, NY was a part of the program from the beginning, so here is our homage to Walk the Villages. (Don't expect any prizes. You'll need to supply your own hot dogs.)
The coordinates above are bogus, but a good place to park, as they are central to the Village of Akron's Main Street business district. One word of caution: Thursday's evenings from May to September are classic car cruise nights and parking is prohibited between Church St. in the east and Route 93 in the west. If coming to Akron on a cruise night, park near the Octagon House at Main and Parkview.
To find the location of the final cache as well as parking for the final, you'll need to answer a series of questions:
Start on the North side of Main Street facing the gazebo in Russell Park.
A. How many light poles are there along Main Street at the South edge of Russell Park?
B. There is a prominent statue in the center of the block at the south side of Russell Park with a word inscribed across the bottom of the pedestal. Write down this word.
C. If you look around behind you, you'll see a dark green building which houses 2 local newspapers with a name displayed above the second floor. You need the date that is below the name. (This building used to be red.)
D. On the next block to the west, you'll see a tan building where you'd go to get your prescriptions filled. There is a name and date above the second floor here, as well. Jot down this date.
E. Cross the street to the south side of Main St. and walk to the west. You'll come to the Pathway to Knowledge outside the Akron Public Library. You're looking for Mylo's brick. Write down how he was born and how he died.
F. Go slightly further to the west and you'll come to the Akron House. This building used to be a hotel but has since been transformed into a restaurant. Go past the front of the Akron House and sit on the bench. Look behind you and count the number of windows on the west side of the Akron House. You should get 2 numbers, one for the first floor and one for the second floor.
G. Start heading back up Main Street. Between the Akron House and Village Hall is a sign erected by the Rotary Club of Akron-Newstead. This sign displays some of the major attractions and businesses in the Akron/Newstead area. Write down the numbers for Akron Falls Park and Newstead Town Hall.
NOTE: At the moment, this sign is blank, so you won't find the information here that you need. Instead, proceed to the north east corner of Russell Park, to the sign that talks about the history of the park. You will need to record the two years from the text - the first one concerns when the plaque itself was dedicated. The second is when the land was granted to the village as a park.
H. Return to Russell Park. On the flag pole is a small plaque dedicated to Edward M Sherwood, honoring his years of service to the flag. In what month of 1942 was the plaque presented?
I. How many years of service was Edward M. Sherwood being honored for?
J. Up at the other end of Main Street is the Rich-Twinn Octagon house, built in the 1840's. How many sides are there to an octagon?
K. Once more back to Russell Park (there's a reason we advised you to park here). Go over to the gazebo and relax on the benches. During the summer you can often catch a band performance here. How many sides are there on the gazebo?
Now for the fun part: using the information from above to find the coords for the final (and a convenient parking spot).
Cache is at:
N43 01.ABB
W78 28.CDE
where:
A = answer to question A above (light poles).
BB = sum of the letter values of all the letters in the answer to question B - (date on building D - date on building C) + 2
C = number of letters in how Mylo died - number of letters in how Mylo was born
D = 1st floor windows from question F
E = 2nd floor windows from question F
Closest legal parking is at:
N43 01.WWW
W78 28.XYZ
where:
WWW = the number for Akron Falls Park + the number for Newstead Town Hall - 5
alternate WWW (until the map returns) = (plaque dedication year - year the land was granted to the village) * 5 - 60
X = the number of the month from question H
Y = the sum of the digits in the years of service for question I
Z = answer J - answer K (or answer K - answer J, we're not too picky)
Once you have the answer for the final, it should be easy enough to figure out if your answer for the parking coords is correct.
Checksum for cache is 33.
Checksum for parking is 25.
Please only attempt this cache during daylight hours.
Congrats to CSki on FTF (even if it did take 2 tries :-)
Edit (7/30/2012): For question A, include the 2 light poles near the street in front of the statue. They do have lights on top of them.
Edit (1/6/2016): For location C, the color of the building has changed from red to green.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
FZNYY frperg: ZBFF uneg'f cynlf ernyyL EBPX!
Treasures
You'll collect a digital Treasure from one of these collections when you find and log this geocache:
Loading Treasures