The Maltese Falcon

 This is the story of The Maltese Falcon, as it was told to me by my grandfather. It was a small statue made of gold and jewels by the 16th-century Knights of Malta as a gift to the King of Spain but was captured by pirates. After passing from owner to owner, at some time it was coated with black enamel to conceal its value. It now appears as a rather unremarkable, black statuette. However be warned, people have killed for this statue!

  My grandfather was a private detective in the 1940's. One day a young woman came to his office and asked him to follow a man who had ran off with her sister. My grandfather's partner took the first watch in following the man and was killed!  It was clear that this woman wasn't telling the truth, she confessed that she was searching for the falcon statue, but swore she didn't know what it was, only that it was quite valuable. Other people too came looking for the falcon, assuming that my grandfather or the woman who hired him had it. Those included a strange Eastern Mediterranean foreigner, along with another person known as the Fat Man and his young hired gun. Soon my grandfather became the central point in multiple murders and a growing conspiracy.

A few days later, a sea captain stumbled through his door, dying from a gunshot wound and carrying this heavy black statuette. It was clear that people were willing to kill for this figure, so my grandfather played both sides while hiding the bird and gathering evidence to clear himself of the murders that were piling up, including the death of his partner and the man that he was following, which the police were suspecting my grandfather of.

My grandfather set his plan in motion and like a well played poker hand, everything fell into place. My grandfather sold the bird to the fat man, but it turned out to be a fake. The Fat Man was shot and killed by his hired gun while trying to escape, The police arrested  the woman who had initially hired my grandfather after she confessed to killing my grandfather's partner. My grandfather turned over the money, the falcon, and all the evidence to the police, clearing him of any wrong doing.

  Most people believed that it was an exiled Russian General who switched the birds, before it was sent to America. While others believe the statue never actually existed in the first place.

Soon after the events surrounding the Maltese Falcon, my grandfather, along with many men, went to fight in WWII and people forgot about the bird or didn't come back from the war to pursue the case further. Last year my grandfather passed away and when I was cleaning out some boxes in the basement of his house, I found something interesting.

Now to find this cache

• Find two waypoints that will lead the way to ground zero, check the hints and you will find them.
• You may need boots, but most days the water in the creek will be shallow enough to rock hop across. (I never wore anything other than my hiking boots)
• The cache will be easy to spot, but more difficult to sign the log.
• There's no need to bring any special tools. Everything you need is there at the final location.
• Finally, you may only log this if you sign the log at the final.

For the first to find, there is a limited edition gold pathtag inside the cache. This is only available as a FTF prize.

Warning; do not attempt this from 590. The best way to get to this location is along the route that I have laid out.