This cache will take you to the Bong State Recreational Area in western Kenosha County. Since this is a state park, you will need to have a sticker for your vehicle to enter. The current fee schedule is here.
Remember that if you get an annual sticker, it will be good for all the state parks in Wisconsin. One of the stages is accessible by bike if you don't want to walk, but you'll need a trail pass for your bike.
This cache is going to take some work to find. Don't be suprised if it takes you a couple of trips. It's a beautiful park, and the views are well worth multiple trips!
This is a four stage multicache. The first three stages are micros - waterproof matchstick containers. (See the pictures to the right and below.) They contain a small note with the coordinates to the next stage, and the distance from where you are to the final stage, which is a standard cache.
Once you find all three micros and get the distances, you will have all the information that you will need to find the final cache.
This is actually similar to how your GPSr figures out where it is. Check out this link for the basic theory. You'll basically be going to Boise, Minneapolis, and Tuscon and then trying to figure out where Denver is hiding... :-)
There are several ways of figuring out where the final cache is. For example:
- There's a straight geometric solution that will get you the exact coordinates and put you right there.
- You can do it with a map of the park and a compass (the circle kind) drawing circles of the correct radius around each of the three stages and seeing where they intersect. This is not as accurate as the geometric solution, but will still put you in the general area.
- You could do it with three people and three GPSrs. Each person sets their GPSr to one of the three stages and you all move as a group until your distance to the stage matches up with what appeared on the card. The circle method above would be helpful in getting you initially close to where you need to be.
If you get really stumped, feel free to email me for help. If you think you've got the coordinates for the final cache and you want to verify that you're close before you go out wandering, I'll be happy to do that for you as well. If you're asking for help, though, you'll need to send me the distances from the first three stages so I know that you've at least made it as far as finding those.
Plan on doing some hiking! As the crow flies, it's over 15 km to hit all four stages! Obviously, if you plan on hiking the whole thing, you'll be walking even farther from that. You can drive from stage to stage, but you still will need to hike a bit from wherever you park. If you are bringing small children with you, you might want to keep this in mind. If you come soon after a hard rain, the trek to Stage 3 will probably
be muddy, so be prepared for that! Be sure you check for ticks afterwards as well.
By the way, the difficulty rating is for the effort it will take to get the coordinates for the final cache. If you have correct coordinates in hand, the difficulty is probably a 2.5. The terrain rating is mostly for the long hike and some nasty potential bushwhacking at one of the stages.
Good luck!