This second in the series of Slavic Folklore geocaches, looks at the enigmatic figure of Baba Yaga, the old grandmother/witch of the forest, who lives in a hut perched on chicken legs, and who rides around in a mortar, rowing thru the air with her pestle. She is an ambiguous figure, and may either help or hinder those she encounters. One of the best known of Russian folk tales about Baba Yaga (called Jezibaba in Slovakia and the Czech Republic) is called "Baba Yaga and Vasilika the Brave" -- it's the story of a young girl (who has a wicked stepmother, much like our Western Cinderella tale!) who goes out to the forest to visit Baba Yaga and seek help from her. You can read that story here: Vasilika the Brave
Baba Yaga and other folk figures and deities we will explore in this geocache series are yet alive to many people, who seek to follow folk ways today, perhaps through the expression of Modern-day Slavic Paganism called "Rodnovery." In the Slavic lands of Eastern Europe, more so than in Western Europe, Pagan ways endured long after Christianization of the region, and the people simply incorporated the new Christian figures into their existing pagan orientation, resulting in a dual faith termed "Dvoeverie" or dual faith. Dvoeverie has persisted through to modern times. See here This can be viewed as a form of peasant/female resistance to the patriarchal, institutional religion of these countries. (I think Baba Yaga would approve!)
Photo of modern day Ukranian Rodnovery practitioners at statue of Perun, the Thunder God:
Baba Yaga flying in her mortar:
Baba Yaga's hut on chicken legs:
Baba Yaga in her hut studying her magic book:
To find where Baba Yaga lies in the woods, solve the puzzle. You won't need to read Russian to solve the puzzle, but you will need to do a little research online to look over the Cyrillic alphabet, which is the alphabet of the Russian language. As you work on the puzzle, consider variations in fonts. Some things wont' change with font style change.
Note for the finding of the final: The cache is on Meadows canyon trail, about 20 ft off trail. You are seeking an OAK type shrub, not a coyotebush. There are many coyotebushes in the area, but I didn't see any others of this oak type bush around. So hopefully that can lessen your work on the search for the final.
To check your answer, note that the last 3 digits of the north latitude add to 14, and the last 3 digits of the west longitude add up to 6.
Also to check your answer you can use www.certitudes.org, and go here:
You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.