6° of Separation: The Challenge Mystery Cache

The cache IS at the posted coordinates! You must meet the requirements listed below before logging an on-line find.

DO NOT approach the cache site from route 104! You can't get to it from there, anyway. There is a nice, safe biking/walking trail that will take you right to it.

A very special "Thank You" goes out to tenebrus who has graciously allowed me to bring this modified version of his The Well Spun-Around Cacher Challenge to the western NY area. If you like this one, want a tougher challenge and are planning on heading to the eastern part of the state, I highly recommend his cache.

The objective of this challenge is to find a cache in each 6-degree sector from your chosen base coordinates all around the compass.

That's 60 caches, one each in the following angular intervals (degrees):

• 0°–6°
• 6°–12°
• 12°–18°
• ..., etc, etc, etc, ...
• 348°–354°
• 354°–360° (which brings us back to 0°)

Requirements:

• Select a point to be the center of your circle. This does not need to be (nor should it be) your home coordinates. (It is both a violation of the terms of service for me to ask it and just an unwise idea to publish publicly your personal information.) A specific cache (or coordinates near a cache) or your caching centroid are possible center points to consider.
• Find a cache in each six-degree sector from your chosen coordinates all around the compass.
• The honor system mostly applies regarding the caches you find to fulfill the requirements. However, you MUST publish your list of 60 caches in your log, develop a bookmark list or come up with some other semblance of proof AND include your chosen center point coordinates.
• Log the find on-line after the physical container is found and the logbook inside is signed. (You may physically find the final and sign its log before completing the challenge on-line.)
• The easiest, but not the only, way to identify qualifying caches is by using a GSAK macro (available below or by requesting a copy from me by email). I have been given permission to use and slightly modify tenebrus' macro which will generate an HTML/SQL table that shows your progress. To use the macro, open GSAK, set whatever coordinates you want as your center coordinates for the database, then install and run the macro. If you want to try new chosen coordinates, simply select new center coordinates for the database and run the macro again. Note: while tenebrus has personally adapted (from the Well Travelled macro) and tested his GSAK macro and I have personally modified and tested the one below, you should always use any coding or download any file at your own risk. A big Thank You to ChileHead who has gone out of his way to develop a program that will produce results much like the GSAK macro! Please see his note posted on 11/15/2013 for more details, or click here to access his web based solution directly.
• It is preferred that you use true north for the purposes of this cache (as magnetic north offsets vary with location). However, I suppose that an argument could be made and a tool found which instead uses magnetic bearings. Should this be the case, please indicate the magnetic declination of the coordinates that you've chosen as your center AND explain in brief how you calculated your own verifications.

Clarifications:

• The posted coordinates are the actual coordinates for the cache.
• Caches you have already found DO count toward completing the requirements for this cache.
• Generally accepted rules, guidelines and conditions for logging a cache find apply. These must be bona fide caches listed on Geocaching.com that you have personally (physically) found and logged.
• All cache types, regardless of when found, count as finds except for locationless caches. Note: "attended" and "webcam photo taken" will be considered equivalent to cache "found". (A word of caution: if you have found a grandfathered-type moving cache, it might be moved out of the sector that you think it's in.)
• For the purposes of this challenge, the published coordinates for puzzle and multi caches will determine which sector interval that cache is located in, not the coordinates of the actual physical cache.
• The boundary of each six-degree sector in the challenge is determined by the angle from your chosen coordinates as determined by the GC.com website, or other Geocaching .gpx and SQL database manipulation tools.
• While you may have others with you when you find the final cache, only those who have fulfilled ALL criteria for this cache will be allowed to log it as a find on-line. Others may feel free to sign the log and post a note on-line before the challenge has been completed. Those posting a "Found It" log without completing the requirements will have their log deleted.
• The terrain rating on this cache page refers to the terrain of the final cache. The actual difficulty of the final is much closer to 2, but the difficulty of the task is a 4.5.
• Remember that this is a game and is supposed to be fun!

$3.60 (a penny for each degree) and a special FTF lammy awaits the cacher who actually fulfills the requirements and signs the physical log. There is a slightly different lammy for the next five finders. PLEASE allow the first cacher that actually meets the criteria of this challenge to claim the FTF prize.

BELOW is the code (USE AT YOUR OWN RISK), however, you will need to make modifications for it to work!!! SPECIFICALLY, you will have to replace the bold, black, all-capital words with appropriate symbols in your .gsk file. It is written this way here to prevent unwanted HTML parsing.

#*******************************************
# MacVersion = 1.0
# MacDescription = Six Degrees of Separation
# MacAuthor = spooko13 (an ever so slightly
#     modified version of tenebrus' macro
#     which was adapted from a macro by
#     Lignumaqua)
# MacFileName = SixDegrees.gsk
# MacUrl =
#*******************************************
# Outputs table for challenge cache GC4DCMN

$count = 0
$_sql = ""
$link = "LESS-THAN-SIGNa href=''http://coord.info/"

WHILE $count LESS-THAN-SIGN 360
        IF $count GREATER-THAN-SIGN 1
                $_sql = $_sql + " UNION ALL "
        ENDIF
        $lower = NumToStr($count)
        $upper = NumToStr($count + 6)
        IF $count = 1
                $lower = "0"
        ENDIF
        $_sql = $_sql + "SELECT '$lower - $upper' as 'Angle Band', COUNT(*) as 'Total Finds', '$link' || code || '''GREATER-THAN-SIGN' || code || 'LESS-THAN-SIGN/aGREATER-THAN-SIGN' as 'Example', name as 'Cache Name', cachetype as 'Cache Type', degrees as 'Degrees' FROM caches WHERE found AND degrees GREATER-THAN-SIGN= $lower AND degrees LESS-THAN-SIGN $upper"
        $count = $count + 6
ENDWHILE

$status = Sqlite("sql",$_sql,"headings=yes")

# display the data

$html = SqlToHtml($status,"6° of Separation","y")