This is my contribution to the excellent ‘Messing With Maps’ and ‘Line Of Sight’ series. Many thanks to
Team Hippo, and mykey987 for letting me add to their series.
Line of sight related web page
It's a D5 cache so is going to take a bit of work to solve it. The process is very linear, and I’ve tried to avoid any tricky traps by wording things accordingly. It’s all about basic maths, map reading, navigation and plenty of relatively easy subjects to research to obtain answers. Hopefully this will take you to some interesting and sometimes strange places!
This epic voyage (notice I didn’t use the ‘J’ word!) starts off using OS Landranger sheet 165, and while quite a bit is within the boundaries of OS 165, a lot is not! So access to online OS and general mapping, eg Bing Maps, Google Earth, and Google Street view etc are required.
All is solvable with readily available free software, and ownership of OS 165 isn’t absolutely required, as any OS 165 specific details can be found out online (although it makes things easier at times!)
Where numerical values of letters are required, they follow the format of A=1 and Z=6, by dropping the leading digit.
All bearings are with respect to True North.
1. The starting point is a familiar back garden in the centre of OS 165 - SP 8000 1500. From here head on a bearing of 187 degrees for 37,729 feet. At this location is a junction of a route. One element of this route is disused, and the first part of it has had a change of use. Follow it and its ghostly remains until you come to a point where the route still has its original use. Just West of this point are some large buildings. What is the NAME of the product manufactured within these buildings? Taking either the second or the fourth letter and converting it into a numerical value will give you A.
2. Return to the junction, and carry on for a short distance until you arrive at a red dot. Head on a bearing of 2.36 radians minus 486,785 seconds. (If necessary, rounded up or down to the nearest integer). Carry on this heading for 202,000 perches. At the destination is a cache. For value B, what is the numerical value of the first letter of the second word of the current cache owner’s name?
3. From this cache, and on a bearing of 249.37 degrees, is an extremely lonely and isolated Earth Cache. For value C, what is the last digit of the year of the third finder? (Include the backdated find)
4. Having suffered several days of isolation and sea sickness, return to the homeliness of the red dot. Head on a bearing of 5.6898 radians for 226.4 chains, then follow what you discover at this location. Keep going until you come to a junction of this feature where there are 3 possibilities to change direction. From here, select a direction to follow that terminates at another junction within the boundaries of OS 165. From here, there are 6 possibilities to change direction. Select a direction to follow that eventually crosses another similar feature also within OS 165 boundaries, and forming an odd geometric (rhombus) shape . For value D, what is the middle number of the A*** road below the geometric shape.
5. A thunderstorm is brewing, and you don’t want to be in this location when it hits, so pack your Stetson, chaps and 6-shooter, and go to the Hoover Dam. Locate the nearest Freeway, and then follow its route number in the Westerly direction. Keep going until you pass a lake followed by a National Wildlife Refuge. (Understanding how the US roads are numbered, and particularly this route number will help you get there) From the layby resting point just North of the lake, head due West for 39.5 miles. Find out what the first important and famous item was tested and developed in this location. Let X be the numerical value for the first part of its name, and Y be for the second. Head on a bearing of (X+5)(Y+4).53 degrees for 1,969.5 miles. Here you will find something familiar, which has quite a few Earth Caches in the obvious surrounding area. Find the oldest, and find out what was the date it was hidden. For the value of E, add together the 2 digits of the day of the month.
6. Whoops, your visa has just run out! To avoid an Executive Order being signed, and immediate incarceration, (and maybe another random fence being built!) return to the centre of the geometric shape. If a triangle has interior angles of 111 degrees and 6 degrees, what is the missing third angle? Double it and head off on that bearing until you intersect an O.R.P.A. Then add 60 degrees to that angle and carry on passing near or through 3 very short O.R.P.A.'s until you intersect a significant O.R.P.A. Follow the O.R.P.A. until it intersects with a B.O.A.T. Close by are some steps that lead down to the trunk road. A few Metres South East along the road is a round feature. For the value of F, how many spokes has it got? (You do NOT need to physically go here!!)
7. Approximately 5.7KM East of the feature you have just found, is a vertical OS grid line, and the next 2 vertical lines continuing East. Dropping the leading zeros, and using the remaining digits of these grid lines, go to GC***PG. For value G, what is the last digit of the year the cache’s host was inaugurated for the FIRST time? The two inaugurations were seperated by many thousands of miles. (A 'tour and taxi' may very well help you find the answer)
8. That was close, frost bite was setting in, and you nearly lost the tips of your fingers! Return to the round feature, and from here continue South East along the road until you come to the next horizontal OS grid line. Follow this line West until you reach the boundary of OS 165. Seek and locate the nearest post box within OS 165. How many courses of horizontal bricks is the structure high? For the value of H, add these 2 digits together.
9. The weather’s turned again, so pack your cork hat, travel barbie, and a few tinnies of XXXX and go to GC74WCT. Draw a line to GC5V0NB. Find the Earth cache on Thursday Island and draw a line to GCE140. A few miles from where these 2 lines intersect, is something you may recognise. For the value of J, what is the numerical value of the feature’s second letter of its original name.
10. From the centre of the feature you have just found, plot a line at a bearing of 5671.2 minutes. Find out the fastest recorded top speed of a thoroughbred horse over 2 furlongs. (As recorded by Guiness at the date this cache was published) If this horse had the ability to carry on this speed indefinitely, it would take 31 hours 34 minutes and 30 seconds to reach the destination. Locate the relevant Earth Cache. For the value of K, how many different colours of sand are there? Use the first digit of the number.
Watch out! Your visa’s running out again, and if you don’t come home soon, the FTF will be gone!
Now you should have single digit values for letters A – K. Use the following formula to calculate some coordinates. Futher instuctions are in the checker.
N51 47.(A-C) ((GxJ)-K) (K-B) W000 51.(F/J) (H-G+D) (E-C)
As the host of the QR code is still missing / damaged, the waypoint is scrapped, and the trail head coordinates are now revealed in the checker.
The cache find involves some special equipment at the first waypoint to find the trailhead coordinates, and a line of sight to Stokenchurch Microwave Tower, and a line of sight to Coombe Hill Monument, so good visibility of at least 10 miles is required. However, in case of bad visibility, there are corrections to the trailhead coordinates within the hint. Apply these to these to reveal the 2 LOS waypoints.
The original cache has gone missing and the hide compromised, so it's now a micro at chest height in the same host.
Once the FTF, STF and TTF are gone, feel free to ask for any help you need to solve this. I don’t want the cache to sit forever with only a hand full of finders, I would like it to be attempted, solved and found!
Good luck!!