The posted coordinates bring you to an information sign and the accompanying Bear Meeting Place. This area is the first of four meeting places to be built along the Red Hill Valley Trail. The second (Turtle) is at the northern end of the trail, and two others (Nest and Eel) are yet to be built at time of cache placement. These meeting places are a project of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and the City of Hamilton through the Joint Stewardship Board. They are a good place to reflect on the environmental and cultural history of the area.
The focal feature of the Bear Meeting Place is a collection of rocks arranged in the shape of a bear paw. To get a sense of what this looks like from above, there’s a picture on another sign nearby (see the listed reference point).
To log a find at this multicache, you will need to locate the final by first finding some information at the posted coordinates and in the bear paw itself:
- A: second digit in the # of millimetres wide the existing trail is (according to the sign – no need to get out your tape measure!)
- B: # of letters in the Mohawk name of the bear
- C: # of claws on the bear paw
- D: # of stones used to make the middle toe (you do need to count the actual stones, not what the sign says it is!), divided by 2
- E: C, plus # of stars that represent hunters in the Seneca story
- F: # of times the word “Seneca” appears on the information board
The final is less than 1 km away, at North 43° 12.ABC West 079° 48.DEF. Container is a camoed PB jar.
You can check your answers for this puzzle on GeoChecker.com.