About a month ago I am looking at my profile page down there where it shows the last few caches you've looked at, and I'm looking there to click on a puzzle cache I was working on, but it wasn't in the list. In fact, the last few caches that are listed aren't ones I even remember looking at, so I pull up the whole list. The last dozen caches or so--it might have even been thirteen--are foreign to me, before I get to my puzzle cache in the list.
I didn't think anything about it at the time, writing it off to a senior moment. But I kind of watched it and my list has done this twice more in the last month, popping up about twelve caches that I know for certain I did not open. One thing I noticed is that most of them were in Kansas, so I made a list for the next time I came for a hair cut.
Then I'm in Kansas with my list in hand and I go to check them out. At a few of them I find the last finder is some person named WINVEX, and as luck would have it, I actually met this man at one of the caches on my list. A quiet, unassuming guy, he apologized when I asked him about the caches and if he was hijacking my profile page. He reported that he thrived on his anonymity and then applauded me for finding him out. As he signed the log on the cache we were at, he pulled forth a ratty five-subject notebook and jotted some things in it, and then turned to leave.
I wasn't ready to let this go, so I threw a barrage of questions at him. I find he logs his finds in the notebook, rather than online, as he loves to cache, but doesn't like the public nature of it. Here's the best part--by the way, he has about 32,000 (yes, three zeroes) finds in his notebook--he doesn't use a GPS receiver. He looks the caches up from the library, jots down the coordinates, finds the nearest bench mark, and then projects a point from there to go looking for the cache. He loves to measure things in furlongs and states while his list of finds is expansive, he has many that he has not found.
That's what I know about WINVEX. You won't see his name online, but you might see his name on your cache log if you ever check. This cache was hidden for him. Thank you, Sir, for the lesson in humility.
THE CACHE IS NOT AT THE POSTED COORDINATES!
Instead, you will have to figure out this puzzle. The starting point is the listed coordinates and they are close to the road, but really, the cache is nowhere nearby.
From the starting point I have taken three straight steps, measured in furlongs, to the final location. My first step was in one of the four cardinal directions with each of the steps being of a different length and the last two at a right angle to the one prior. The lengths and direction of the three steps are on this cache page and it is up to you to figure out where I stopped and use some math to find the new coordinates. An example of my steps is below:
Starting at the black dot, say I take my first step north (the blue line) to "A". From there I went east or west (one of the red lines) for my second step to "B", where I take my final step north or south (one of the green lines) to the finish (one of the purple dots). The cache is hidden at the "purple dot" and once you figure out my step's direction and lengths, you will know where the purple dot is located.
This cache is hidden on private property and is only accessible during daylight hours. I did not know of this place's existence, but I found it by accident, and the owner has graciously given permission to hide a cache. His name is Tom and he has a friendly dog that will likely come to say "hi" while you hunt. This is not a busy place and there is room to park along the road while looking.
There used to be a town here of some size. It had several buildings, some stockyards, and a train depot. Southeast of the final location you can see a solitary tree with the roof of a building beyond and that is where the town was located. There are only foundations there now, but the depot has actually been moved to Ellsworth. I have included a waypoint for reference if you want to go check it out.
Please be a good example of the geocaching community and treat this place with respect, CITO if needed, use stealth if warranted, rehide as you find it for the next cacher, and please post no hints or spoilers. Thank you and good luck.
Congratulations "molar one" : First to Find - September 13, 2013
