Baad Daata (of New Harmony, UT), creator of a sadly now-archived Challenge Cache, GC4Q1T5, bears significant co-responsibility for this. Back in 2014, her GC4Q1T5 challenge demanded I find 25 Mint caches, and at the time of my attack, all I had were a motley 13. Well, after setting this, I picked up a lonely one in Gallup (Mochaccino Mints - NEAT; I got it in deep snow!), then 2 all the way up near Littlefield, AZ (btw, the Kokopelli Geoart up by Beaver Dam's great), then another near the I-15/93 turnoff... and, then came Minty Cache GC4A5Z3, thankfully near Prescott. After all that turmoil, hope for Salvation turned toward an art expo in Palm Springs. There were five Mint caches down there! Fabulous, and I didn't DNF a single one, really!!!
THE GIST: Back when I set this, the list of cachers who'd satisfied the Baad Daata Mint Challenge was dominated by our cohorts from Idaho - as though if it weren't for potatoes, they'd be from the Mint State! So, my tentative conclusion: maybe, just maybe, Flagstaff needs a Mint Challenge, too!
There're loads of possibilities: Munds Mints; Fig Mints; Pig Mints; Baad Mint Ton; Minty Galore... MINTCACHES!! Be they in MINT CONDITON or not!! BTW, I achieved the final qualifiers thanks to the North Phoenix area. And I request respect for the numerous other, charitable cachers, who, having read this lament, came to my rescue and set well more than I actually needed to complete the challenge. My thanks goes out to all of them! WE COMPLETED IT!