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'Tis the Fall Season Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

Skookum Bear: As there has been no response from the cache owner, I am regretfully archiving the cache.

If the cache owner would like to replace a cache at this location, please submit a new geocache listing and it will be reviewed under the current Geocaching guidelines.

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Hidden : 10/29/2014
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   other (other)

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Geocache Description:


So not being anywhere near as predictable as some people seem to like to think, I've been finding hanging nanos increasingly uninteresting. Plus I've realized I seem to have pretty much marked all the seasons that appeal to me. Plus it's getting harder and harder to find available places to hide them in Stanley Park since so many other people have discovered it. Plus Lee Valley Tools is no longer selling these adorable little containers, and at currently available prices the upkeep on the ones I already have tends to mount up. (Losing the bottom of one of these containers being bound to happen occasionally with this kind of cache. Last year an unfortunate out-of-town cacher even had the misfortune to lose two of them on the same day, not something I'd wish on anyone!) So although there may be more caches, there will be no more Season caches, and no more 'typical' dragon flyer caches. Consider yourself forewarned!

English being a funny language, the word 'season' must be confusing to new English speakers. It is something we do to food to ostensibly make it taste better. It's something we do to wood to make it burn better, or make it suitable for building purposes by adjusting its moisture content to that of the environment in which it will be used. (Yeah, I didn't know that either...) It's something we do with things like wit and punch lines and exclamation points to make conversation and writing more lively and exciting!! It's one way of describing the process by which something or someone becomes matured, hardened, or the like.

'Season' can refer to the time of year when a particular fruit, vegetable, or other food is plentiful and in good condition, or to a fixed time in the year when a particular sport is played. Or to a certain block of television time. It can describe a period of the year characterized by a particular climatic feature or marked by a particular activity, event, or festivity, eg a rainy season or a holiday season, or a period regulated by law, like hunting or fishing season. It can mean an indefinite or unspecified period of time, or can just mean 'a while'. Long ago it even meant a proper or suitable time, as in 'to everything there is a season'.

If you have been caching in these here parts for a while you may know I've used 'season' in some of those meanings, but I have not until recently used it in the most impactful definition for those of us living in the temperate regions of the planet. That would be the most scientific one, which delineates the four common divisions of the year - spring, summer, autumn/fall, and winter - marked by particular weather patterns and daylight hours, resulting from changing amounts of sunlight due to the tilt of the earth's axis. I doubt many will be upset if I spare you a treatise on how exactly this happens…

Apparently the word 'season' arrived in the Middle English from the Latin root ‘to sow’ via the Latin ‘sowing,’ later ‘time of sowing,’ and the Old French 'seson'. That also may be too much information for many! Fifteen hundred years ago, the Anglo-Saxons by all accounts acknowledged the passage of time with just one season: winter. (And they hadn't even experienced Canadian ones...) So Fall is a latecomer as a season, and is the only one that has two commonly used names; the term 'Fall' initially appeared in the 16th century as 'fall of the leaf' (in conjunction with 'spring of the leaf', naturally...) It's apparently considered an Americanism in some circles, 'Autumn' still being more commonly used in Britain. Leaving us Canadians as usual stuck squarely in the middle...

Fall is the season that follows Summer in the Northern Hemisphere, beginning at the autumnal equinox. It is the winding down season, when the days get shorter and most  plants and animals complete their cycle of growth and reproduction and prepare for a period of rest in the upcoming colder months. Stanley Park being an evergreeney kind of place, I was hard put to find any really noteworthy displays of the autumn foliage colours prominent in some parts of the temperate world, and we mostly see our Fall leaves like this:

But if you arrange to come when there's sun at just the right time of year, you will be able to find areas that feel pretty Autumney, if not as spectacularly as some other places such as the East Coast:

This cache location is regrettably not one of them...

(Note: This area of the park is sometimes used by men for personal activities. If your proclivities are otherwise, you may wish to come during the day and not stray too far from the main trails.)

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Gra be fb zrgerf fbhgu/rnfg bs gur genvy, cnfg gur ovttrfg gerr naq bar snyyra ybt. Ab ohfujunpxvat erdhverq...

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)