MaxB’s Contiguous Counties Challenge - 35 states Mystery Cache

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

You must successfully complete the “Challenge” prior to finding and logging the final cache.  Finds on this cache, which do not have documentation of completing the Challenge will be deleted.

We were thinking about a Challenge cache we once found which required cache finds in adjacent states across the country, and wondered what if we took that concept to a more refined level. How far might a series of adjacent county finds expand to?

The challenge is to find caches in Contiguous adjacent counties, which extend to at least 35 different states.  All past cache finds count (except locationless).  You can document this by capturing your US County Map statistics using GSAK, posting a bookmark, or 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.
• Hawaii counties are NOT adjacent to ANYTHING, even each other, so don’t even ask!
• Washington DC is NOT a state and thus does not count towards your total.  However, if DC is only place which connects Virginia to Maryland on your county finds map, you may use DC to consider those states connected.

Note: The total number of Contiguous counties does not matter, only the number of States they extent to. 

The difficulty terrain for this cache is based on the Challenge to accomplish it.  The final hide is a 1.5 / 1.  To claim this find 1^st complete the challenge, 2^nd 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.

For those who wonder about such things, we have accomplished the requirements of this challenge.  At the time we place the cache, we have 47 states connected. (Missing only Washington State). On 8/10/15 we connected Washington to our set and now have all 48 states connected. Our county finds map is posted.

Honor Roll

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 like this Challenge, you might like some of our other challenges:
GC1A30D – ABCDERIAN Challenge:
GC1A30H – Ada to Zion Great Lakes Alphabet Cities Challenge :
GC2V3ZG – MaxB’s Caching Bingo Challenge:
GC2T5JW – Challenge of the Century - Travel Bug Hotels:
GC2QN4X – MaxB’s Multi-State County Challenge:
GC31HP5 – 50 State Challenge – “See the USA in Your…”:
GC31HNC – MaxB’s Continental Breakfast Challenge Cache:
GC3N7V4 - MaxB's 1000 Finds the Hard Way Challenge:
GC3N7TA - MaxB's 150 US Counties Challenge:
GC3N7WF - MaxB's Cache Icon Challenge:
GC3Q46R - Historical Caches of St Joseph County
GC3Q48Y - Historical Caches of Berrien County
GC43JRX – MaxB’s Contiguous County Challenge – 5 States
GC43JTD - MaxB’s Contiguous County Challenge – 10 States
GC43JTY – MaxB’s Contiguous County Challenge – 15 States
GC4DEQN – MaxB’s Contiguous County Challenge – 20 States
GC4DER7 – MaxB’s Contiguous County Challenge – 25 States
GC5D8QZ - MaxB's Contiguous County Challenge - 30 States
GC5D90M - MaxB's Contiguous County Challenge - 35 States
GC4DXYY – Caching the World – A Stay-cation Challenge
GC53G0K - MaxB's All the Presidents Men
GC59480 - MaxB's Golden Spike Contiguous County Challenge
GC5948T - MaxB's NAFTA Contiguous County Challenge
GC59498 - MaxB's 1000 Finds the REALLY HARD way
GC6KDEF - MaxB's MEGA Event States Challenge
GC6KDDA - MaxB's Event Road Warrior Challenge
GC6R421 - MaxB's A Favorite Challenge for Beginning Cachers
GC6R432 - MaxB's Favorite Caches State Challenge
GC6WAKA - MaxB's Mysterious Traveler Challenge
GC6WF9X - MaxB's 730 US County Challenge
GC7054Y - MaxB's Spanning the World Challenge
GC70AB6 - MaxB's Events in Adjacent Counties Challenge