The cache isn’t hiding at the above-named coordinates, and when at the cache site, stealth is necessary.
The Fraser Valley’s first automotive shopping centre was built in the early 1990s at a time when automalls in BC were still fairly new. The new Automall in Matsqui (later Abbotsford) was strategically located beside a Highway 1 interchange; furthermore, its looped, one-way roadway design created a unique setting where people could shop and test drive their vehicles.
Your father was employed as a construction worker for one of the site-development contractors. He had a heart problem and one day the container in which he kept his heart medication fell through a hole in his pocket and became lost. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find the container and didn’t return home from work that afternoon. Your mother always hoped that one day she’d get the container back as it was a treasured family heirloom.
At the time of your father’s death, you were a very young child, but you often heard about your father and the precious heirloom. Now you want to see if you can find it and have only a few clues regarding what you’re looking for. Where do you begin; after all, the automall is a very large place?
Your friend hunts for metal objects in parks and other places, and she offers you the use of her metal detector. You consider that, but from what you know, it would be of little help. There’s too much other metal near the heirloom’s possible hiding place, so you thank your friend and consider other options. There must be another way!
Another friend geocaches with his magical GPS that not only has maps but also has Artificial Intelligence. He’s confident that the GPS can use its resources to pick house numbers right off the map of a street near the Automall. The house numbers, he confidently tells you, hold clues regarding the heirloom’s location. Now that sounds good!
You borrow his GPS and study its map; sure enough, the house numbers do hold clues, and using them, you work out the coordinates of the heirloom’s location. In confidence you go to the Automall and quickly find the heirloom. WOW! Maybe there’s still some heart medication in it after all those years. In anticipation, you open it and reveal the contents. Alas, the heart medication has been transformed; it’s no longer a bunch of pills. Instead, it’s now a strip of paper and people have even been writing on the paper. You read names and dates and realize that this is a log for some sort of game and you decide to also sign the log. You then leave the heirloom where you found it, for other people to enjoy. Now what will you tell your mother regarding the precious family heirloom?
To work out the where the heirloom is hiding, start at the coordinates above and progress along the nearby side-street, reading house numbers as you go. Each letter in the coordinates below represents a number.
-- N 49° AB.CDE W 122° FG.HIJ
A: First house on the left: the second number.
B: Second house on the right: Subtract 1 from the third number.
C: At Sparrow Drive, turn right. First house on the left: Add the first three numbers.
D: On Sparrow, first house on the right: the last number.
E: Return to Sandpiper. The house across from Sparrow that has a second floor balcony: Subtract the first number from the fifth.
F: Continue east. The house across from Sparrow with two garage doors: Subtract the fourth number from the third.
G: Last house on the right before you reach Goldfinch Street: Divide the fourth number by 2.
H: At Goldfinch, turn left. First house on the right: Add the first three numbers and subtract the fourth.
I: On Goldfinch, first house on the left: Multiply the third number by 2.
J: Return to Sandpiper and continue east. The first house on the left: Add the first and last numbers and subtract the third.
Congratulations, London_Girl, on your FTF on the day of publication.