Rosemère - Phoenix Connection Mystery Cache
Rosemère - Phoenix Connection
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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THE CACHE IS NOT AT THE POSTED COORDINATES
These coordinates are just above a pretty good place to park.
Solve the puzzle on this cache page to begin a collaborative adventure that may result in an International Friendship
A Tale of Two Geocachers
The history behind this geocache begins with a story about two geocachers, one from Quebec named Papougaetan and the other from Arizona known as Cschooner. Papougaetan and his wife, caching name Chouette, are also avid cyclists. For several years Papougaetan and Chouette have regularly come to the Phoenix Arizona region in April and November to stretch the cycling season which they find far too short in Quebec. As passionate cyclists these two love to ride the beautiful scenic cycling paths of this area. For them it is truly a paradise on earth to practice their cycling sport in Arizona.
Over the course of several years Papougaetan and Chouette discovered and traveled many hundreds of miles of bike paths in this part of the United States. In addition to the omnipresent sunshine and beautiful landscapes found here there was also the attraction of easily accessible geocaches often placed close to these bikeways. Papougaetan was particularly attracted to the caches created by Cschooner aka “The Duckmeister.” When they first began their semiannual visits Chouette did not have as much interest in geocaching as Papougaetan. She was much more interested in cycling. So it was that Papougaetan sometimes had to curb his fervor for that sport. However, much to Papougaetan’s delight, Chouette also soon became fascinated with the originality of the Cschooner caches. Chouette’s geocaching enthusiasm has grown, particularly when it comes to finding the “Duckmeister” caches.
As happens with all geocachers, some particularly difficult caches require several visits before a “smiley” is added to a cacher’s statistics. Many Cschooner caches are very well integrated into the environment and difficult to discover. Although Papougaetan was very skilled at finding geocaches, occasionally he too would have to register a DNF on a Cschooner cache. Knowing that he would likely ride by the site of the DNF again and again during his holiday Papougaetan began reaching out to this Cschooner CO fellow requesting small nudges for these pesky DNFs. Cschooner quickly responded by giving Papougaetan helpful clues so he could turn the DNFs to FOUND.
After a time the communication between these two became regular, familiar and as much about getting acquainted as about handling geocache questions. Finally joined by their spouses they got together for a beer at the Old Town Tavern located in old town Scottsdale. It was the beginning of a friendship that has continued to develop. Most recently this past November Papougaetan and his wife joined the Cschooner family at their home for Thanksgiving Day festivities. And now from Papougaetan and Chouette there is a standing invitation for Cschooner and his wife to meet them on their sail boat in Lake Champlain. What began as simple interaction between geocachers over some DNFs has become a friendship. One never knows where or how the seeds of friendship sprout.
Companion Caches
The Idea
Out of this friendship came the idea of creating two interlinked mystery caches. One would be placed in the Rosemère area of Quebec and the other in the Phoenix region of Arizona. There would be two options for solving these mystery caches. One option would be for each geocacher to be a “cache hermit” and use only his / her geocaching resources and skills to solve the mystery and find the geocache located in their particular geographic area. The other a more fun and interesting option also much preferred by the cache owners is for a geocacher in each geographic area is to team up and collaborate with a geocacher in the other geographic area. Why you say? Well at stage 1 of the Phoenix geocache will be information useful to a Rosemère area geocacher for determining the final stage coordinates of the Rosemère geocache. Likewise at stage 1 of the Rosemère geocache will be information needed by a Phoenix area geocacher to determine the final GZ of the cache he is seeking. In this caching partnership scenario each partner would find and visit stage 1 of their cache and record the information their caching partner needs. They would pass this information on to their respective partners allowing each to complete their quest for their geocache’s final GZ. The geocache you are now contemplating is one half of the result of that collaboration as to how Papougaetan and Cschooner devised this to work.
The Quest Begins
The two companion puzzle caches each have one virtual stage (false coordinates) and two physical stages. One puzzle cache is located in the Rosemère area of Quebec. It is owned by Papougaetan. The other is located in Phoenix area of Arizona and is owned by Cschooner. Each CO has created a puzzle for his particular cache. Once you begin you will find that the puzzle will easily solve to that caches first physical stage. After solving the puzzle and physically finding its first stage you will reach a temporary roadblock. At this stage of the Arizona geocache you will find what appears to be its final GZ coordinates. However, there will be a disclaimer stating that these coordinates are not correct and will need to be adjusted with information found in the Rosemère companion cache. At this stage you will also find code information for a Rosemère geocacher counterpart. To move forward to your smiley you will need to share this code with a collaborating partner seeking the cache in Rosemère. That geocacher needs the code you discovered to find the final GZ of the geocache he seeks. He will have found a similar code for you and instructions as to how to use it to so you will be able to correct the coordinates you found at your first physical stage. Therefore to press forward on this quest you must find a willing counterpart collaborating partner with which to exchange the discovered information so each of you can find your respective geocache’s final GZ and claim a smiley.
Good luck on your adventure. Make a friend.
Some Notes
- Cache owners will not help you as collaborators but are available for clarification.
- In the spirit of this international geocache pairing we would much prefer that you be collaborator on this mystery cache pairing just once. Each time these caches are found via collaboration we hope it is done with new partners.
- We think it would be great if you acknowledge your collaborating partner by caching name in your FOUND IT log. We are going to check to see if it is possible to claim a find on both caches as it is a team effort.
- We hope Phoenix area geocachers will take interesting pictures from near but of course not directly at the Phoenix stage GZs. We would like to see those posted in the Rosemère gallery. Alternately we would like the Rosemère area cachers to do the same.
- The final stage of this cache IS in Papago Park not all that far from the first stage you find.
- Finally --- There are other ways to solve this puzzle without the use of a friend in Quebec or information contained in that companion cache. Obviously the spirit of this puzzle is to solve it by the means we laid out for you. We hope that is what you choose to do. Don’t be a hermit geocacher. Make a French Canadian Friend.
The Puzzle
The partial coordinates for stage 1 of this geocache are: N 33.27.ABC W 111.56.866
- A= The sum of the last two digits of the year of Papago Park’s great escape.
- B= The last digit of the year Arizona’s Desert Botanical Gardens opened at its current site.
- C= The number of exhibit halls in Papago Park’s Hall of Flame Museum of Firefighting.
Physical Stage 1 Checker
You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ybbx sbe trbpnpuref jub serdhragyl svaq Cncbhtnrgna trbpnpurf be chmmyr pnpurf va gur Ebfrzrer nern. Frrx bhg bar bs gurz nf n cnegare. Ubj vf lbhe Serapu? Abg fb tbbq? Sbeghangryl gurve ner n ybg bs ovyvathny sbyxf va Dhrorp.
Fgntr 1 vf nobhg n 10"k 2" plyvaqre qrrc va gur urneg bs n ohfu. Vg vf jryy pnzbrq.