MaxB’s NAFTA Contiguous County Challenge. Mystery Cache

This cache is NOT at the listed Coordinates. Review the Final Waypoint.

In 1994 the North American Free Trade Agreement NAFTA became law, negotiated by President George Bush and signed by President Bill Clinton, it provided for free trade from Canada to Mexico.

The Challenge is to find at least one cache in a Contiguous (adjacent) set of US counties connecting Canada to Mexico.   The terminus counties may be anywhere along the respective borders.   

The Canadian Border includes all the northern tier counties along: Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota (to Cook County MN), also the Canadian border counties of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York (to Jefferson Co NY), Along the Great Lakes only the counties at the crossing points may be counted, which include ONLY: Chippewa Co MI, St Clair Co MI, Wayne Co MI, Erie Co NY and Niagara Co NY.

The Mexican Border includes all the southern tier counties along: California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas (to Cameron County TX), Also the following Port counties on the Gulf of Mexico may be used: Galveston Co TX, Harris Co TX, Jefferson Co TX, Plaquemines Co LA, Harrison Co MS, Mobile Co AL, Escambia Co FL, Bay Co FL, and Hillsborough Co FL.

The route may meander along any route, as long as the counties along the route are all connected (adjacent) .  You do not have to find the counties in any specific order (i.e. north to south, south to north, or even consecutively with each other.), but you must not have a gap between counties along the route.

All past cache finds count (except locationless).  You can document this by capturing your US County Map statistics using GSAK, posting a bookmark, or any other way we can confirm your accomplishment. 
 
Some clarification points:
-         Adjacent counties are those, which share a land border with the next county in your string.
-         Counties, which meet solely corner to corner, are NOT adjacent. (However if there is some stretch of common border they are adjacent even if there is not a road along that stretch.)
-         Counties separated by a river are considered adjacent, even though there is not a bridge across the river between the counties.  (i.e. Counties in Ohio are considered adjacent to the corresponding counties directly across the river in Kentucky)
-         Counties separated by a Great Lake, Ocean Inlets, Gulfs, major Bays, Sounds, etc. are NOT considered adjacent.  For example the counties of Wisconsin are not adjacent to the counties of lower Michigan (separated by Lake Michigan).  Similarly Connecticut counties are not adjacent to Long Island NY (separated by Long Island Sound). Another example would be Huron County on the thumb of Michigan, is not adjacent to Arenac county on the mitten (Separated by Saginaw Bay).
-         An exception to the above rule would be Emmet County MI in the lower peninsula IS considered adjacent to Mackinac County MI in the upper peninsula. (Connected across the straits of Mackinac by the Mackinaw Bridge.), Similarly San Francisco County IS considered adjacent to Alameda County and Marin Counties (Connected by the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges), as well as Northampton Co VA, and Virginia Beach Co VA (connected by Chesapeake Bay Bridge).
-         Hawaii counties are NOT adjacent to ANYTHING, even each other, so don’t even ask!
 

The difficulty terrain for this cache is based on the Challenge to accomplish it.  The final hide is a 1.5 / 1.5.  To claim this find: 1st complete the challenge, 2nd come sign log in final, 3rd log your find.  We don’t want to field questions about signing now in case we might complete requirements next summer. Logs indicating physical portion of challenge is not yet complete will be deleted (It is OK to post note documentation that you have completed the required Contiguous Counties, and are awaiting opportunity to come find final and sign log.)
 
Congratulations to Leprechaun49 for FTF

For those who wonder about such things, we have accomplished the requirements of this challenge.  Our posted US county map shows we have a contiguous set of counties which reach the Canadian Border in Minnesota. New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, as well as Great Lake crossings at Chippewa Co MI, St Clair Co MI, Wayne Co MI, Erie Co NY and Niagara Co NY.  Our contiguous set of counties reach the Mexican Border in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, as well as Port Counties of Plaquemines LA, Harrison Co MS, Mobile Co AL, Escambia Co FL and Hillsborough Co FL .
 
We don’t want anyone to strike out and DNF on the final after accomplishing the challenge.  If you contact us when you are coming to attempt final, we can verify cache is present and maybe even join you to celebrate completing this difficult challenge.

If you enjoy this challenge, you might also enjoy some of our other challenge caches: