Blue Diamond Flats Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

Geocaching HQ Admin: The City of Portland has a new [url=https://www.portlandoregon.gov/parks/66338]geocaching policy[/url] for geocaches placed on Portland Parks & Recreation (PP&R) property. The policy is intended to support the growing recreational activity of geocaching while also ensuring it does not negatively impact parks, properties, assets, staff or the public.

PP&R welcomes geocaches in many of its parks and properties. However, the property where this geocache is located is one that does not allow geocaches according to the [url=https://www.portlandoregon.gov/parks/66338]new policy[/url]. (Note: Forest Park is divided into three management units - the northernmost unit between Germantown Road and Newberry does not allow geocaches.)

There are many reasons a park may not allow geocaches, based on the determination of the staff who manage each particular site. These reasons can include that the property’s primary focus is on habitat values, the potential conflicts with other park users, among other factors. Because this geocache is in a park that does not allow them, it been archived. As the geocache owner, you are expected to retrieve the geocache container and any associated physical stages within 2 weeks. After August 27th, your geocache may be removed by parks’ staff or other designated persons.

For questions about this policy, please contact Bryan Aptekar, Portland Parks & Recreation, [url=mailto:Bryan.Aptekar@portlandoregon.gov]bryan.aptekar@portlandoregon.gov[/url].

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Hidden : 1/19/2013
Difficulty:
3 out of 5
Terrain:
3 out of 5

Size: Size: small (small)

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Geocache Description:

This cache is 1/9th of a bigger Sudoku puzzle but can be done as a stand alone cache also. Links to the bigger puzzle will come soon.

In 1803, William Clark (of Lewis and Clark fame) paddled far enough up the Willamette River to see Forest Park's present location. He described this forest as having Douglas fir as its predominant tree, with trunks ranging from five to eight feet in diameter.

From almost the earliest time of subsequent European settlement along the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers, the vision of a great natural park along the eastern slope of Portland's northwest hills, which Native Americans called the Tualatin Mountains, was pursued over the years by various civic leaders. The first of these visionaries was the Reverend Thomas Lamb Eliot who arrived in Portland in 1867. His persistence led to the formation of the Municipal Park Commission of Portland in 1899. The Commission brought in the famous landscape architecture firm, Olmsted Brothers of Brookline, Massachusetts, to prepare a park planning study for the City in 1903. Their recommendations included the development of the 40-mile Loop and the acquisition of the wooded hills west of the Willamette River for a park with a wild, woodland character. In their report, they maintained that "...a visit to the woods would afford more pleasure and satisfaction than a visit to any other sort of park..." and "...no use to which this tract of land could be put would begin to be as sensible or as profitable to the city as that of making it a public park."

Frederick Van Voorhies Holman, a prominent lawyer in Portland during the 1890s and a president of the Oregon Historical Society, donated a 52-acre parcel to what would become Forest Park. Part of the Holman property had been flushed down to Guild's Lake by Lafe Pence's flume in 1909. After Pence was brought to task, Holman had a plaster of paris scale model made of the property to estimate how much it would cost to return the property to its original contours in order to develop it. Discouraged by the City from taking such a great risk, he offered the property as a park if the property between it and Macleay Park were acquired. The property was donated to the city by his siblings George F. and Mary Holman on August 16, 1939.

Various setbacks delayed the formation of the forested park, including rumors of oil existing in the hillside, until the City Club of Portland undertook a feasibility study which it published in 1945. From there the 'Committee of Fifty' civic leaders persevered until 4,200 acres were formally dedicated as Forest Park on September 23, 1948. Additional acres have been added over the years; Forest Park now includes over 5,100 wooded acres making it the largest, forested natural area within city limits in the United States.

Take a drive out of the busy life of the inner city. Start at the trail head off Newberry Road that is near GC1PENP. There are several caches on this trail in this section of Forest Park so be sure to load up your GPS before you head out.

For those of you that want to partake in the bigger Sudoku puzzle by Ornith then make sure you make note, copy down, take a picture, etc. of the inside of the lid.

Cache location is on flat terrain but you need to walk, fall, crawl down the hill first. There is a "trail" just past the blue diamond. If you see the troll on the end of the log you've gone too far for the access.

Good luck and have fun.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Sreaf, zbff, onex, qveg, naq n erphzonag gerr.

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)


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