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Washington Bigcall Challenge Mystery Cache

Hidden : 6/5/2014
Difficulty:
5 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size:   regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:

This is a Challenge Cache.  The actual cache location is provided as a visible additional waypoint, but in addition to signing the logbook, you must complete the challenge requirements before claiming an online find. You are looking for a clear plastic ammo can-like container with a black lid.


Challenge Requirements: Find at least one cache owned by (hidden or adopted by) 50 different active Geocaching.com Charter Members.  (I'll define "active" as being a Charter Member on the date you submit your proof of meeting the requirements.) Finds from any date and for any cache type will count - even locationless caches and event caches. Finds on caches that are now archived will count. This cache doesn't count, but you can find any of my other hidden caches.  And, if you are a Charter Member, your own caches don't count.  Finally, caches hidden by Groundspeak / Geocaching HQ do not count.

To verify that you've met the challenge requirement, please do one of the following:

  • Run this Project-GC Challenge Checker and paste the results into a log:

    PGC Checker

  • Post a link in your log to bookmark list like this example.  Each entry on the bookmark list must contain the name of the Charter Member who owns the cache, and the date of your find. See below for tools that will help in constructing your list.
  • Using GSAK, run this macro and post a link to, list from, or screenshot of your results. You can see mine here.
Here in Washington, the remaining active resident Charter Members are Jeremy, Moun10Bike, Bryan, Ddog-N-Ma, Hazard, Sagefox, MissJenn, Dan & Janet, vds, GeoBlank, lostdog19, hydnsek, and hydee. Like the Jasmer Challenge, this one will require some traveling!

Challenge Background:  This cache is patterned after Charter Member Cache Challenge - The Nifty Fifty by bigcall, a Charter Member in Virginia.  I've copied this challenge idea with bigcall's consent, and have named it in his honor.  Quoting from the original challenge:

"With over 6 million registered cachers there are less than 500 "Charter Members".  Charter Members are those cachers who were the first paid Premium Members back in the 2002 through early 2003 timeframe and who have maintained continuous paying membership since.   See the official definition here. A post from the forums by Moun10Bike on 23 January 2014 puts the number at 491, see: this post; and it may continue to dwindle.

Seeing this thread and post recently made me wonder how many caches I had found that were placed by these individuals.  I could not find an automated way to search, but my manual method came up with 50.  Not wanting to make a challenge that I had not completed, ~10% of the total seemed like a very tough, but fair challenge to put out there.

Part of the fun might be finding out who exactly are designated as a Charter Members and then, assuming you want to complete the challenge, going out and trying to find one of their caches."

After bigcall posted to the Groundspeak Forums about his interest in the remaining Charter Members, other veteran cachers got involved.  I mined the records at Geocaching HQ and came up with this list of remaining active Charter Members and their hidden caches.  Charter Member fizzymagic - the namesake of a famous and popular genre of challenge caches - contributed two GSAK macros that will help everyone determine whether they've qualified for a Bigcall Challenge, and identify eligible caches in their database that were hidden by active Charter Members.  Bigcall contributed a bookmark list containing one featured cache for each active Charter Member.  Meanwhile, The Leprechauns wisely suggested that any copy of the challenge idea should rightly be named a "Bigcall Challenge" to give proper credit to the originator.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

[Spoiler photo available] Pbaprnyrq ng gur onfr bs gur onpx fvqr (eryngvir gb gur genvy) ynetr ahefr fghzc ba gur fbhgu fvqr bs gur genvy. Gur fghzc unf n fvatyr gerr tebjvat hc bhg bs gur pragre yvxr Fvtany'f nagraan.

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)