A lesson on some other ways numbers can be used to locate a cache followed by an exercise for the reader.
Introduction
This is the seventh in my series of caches meant to teach people some ways to solve puzzle caches. Please read the information above the line in Puzzlers Lesson 1: Alphabets.
Another way to use numbers to locate a cache is to use distance and direction from a location. For this one you will need to use a compass, so find that compass that you have been keeping around or install a compass application on your phone.
Magnetic North
The north magnetic pole is the location on the surface of the earth where the north end of a compass needle (if allowed to freely spin) would point straight down. However, what most people mean by "magnetic north" is the geomagnetic north pole which is an approximation of a bar magnet passing through the center of the earth most closely representing magnetic fields on the surface of the earth.
Compass directions are measured clockwise from geomagnetic north. The measurement goes from 0° (meaning magnetic north) to 360°. Midway between these two is 180°, geomagnetic south. East is 90° and west is 270°.
The earth's magnetic field is caused by convection currents in the molten core of the earth. Because of this the geomagnetic poles drift. Currently the geomagnetic north pole is located at approximately N 80.5° W 72.8°, on Ellesmere Island, in Canada's arctic.
The magnetic declination at the Ogden Airport is 11.34°E. This means that magnetic north is 11.34° east of geographic north. This means that if you have a compass you will need to turn 11.34° west of where the north needle points to find geographic north. Because of this difference with any direction reading that you have you will need to know if it is magnetic or true, meaning "geomagnetic compass reading" or corrected for true north.
Here is an article that illustrates this information well.
Paces
Once you have learned how to find what direction to go, you will need to know how to measure your distance. Start with a know distance and see how many steps it takes for you to walk that distance. Do it several times so that you learn to have a consistent step distance.
Your step distance may also vary depending on the terrain. Going up hill you will tend to take shorter steps. Going down hill will generally lengthen your stride. This cache will take you over uneven terrain, so you will have to learn to compensate, even factor in an error percentage.
For instance, each step I take is about 2 feet. However, I found that over a longer distance, like the course I have laid out for this geocache, that my step distance is 5% to 10% longer than 2 feet.
Learn your own pace. Try pacing over different terrain types and see how much your own pace varies. This will help you to be able to find this cache.
A final thing about walking a direction given by a compass. When you are given a compass direction, do not use the compass while you are walking. Doing so you will inevitably drift off of your course.
What you need to do is to find a landmark in the direction you want to travel and walk toward that landmark. The landmark can be as simple as a bush or a tree. You just need something distinct enough that you can keep your eye one it and walk toward it. If you reach that landmark before finishing the distance, then use your compass to sight another landmark and repeat.
Obstacles
As you have probably already found out through your experience of geocaching, following your GPS receiver straight to your destination is not always possible. I will tell you at this point that the cache is on the other side of Interstate 84 from where you will park. It is unlawful (illegal) to cross the freeway on foot, and certainly dangerous, so you will have to learn to navigate around this obstacle.
There is an official path under the freeway, next to the Weber River. However, it is not going to be in a straight line from your starting location to your ending location. You will need to learn how to navigate around this obstacle, to the other side.
In summary, it involves some 90° turns to go around the obstacle. But nothing beats a diagram in showing you how it is done.
Short Cuts
Using a compass (even on your phone) and pacing off the distance is the old fashioned way of doing this. Why would you want to do it this way? For the experience.
Really! I want you to learn how to use a compass and pace off the distance, even to navigate around an obstacle.
Even though I want you to do it for this cache, there are other ways of doing this without resorting to pacing it off.
For one, many GPS receivers have a function where you can give it a distance and direction and it will calculate the final coordinates for you. It is simply a matter of going to those coordinates as you would any others. Again, for this cache I urge you to do it the old fashioned way for the experience.
However, for other geocaches you can calculate the final location using tools at Geocaching Toolbox.
Always remember: The offset can be given as distance and direction, or direction and distance. Someone may even mix them up between their caches, or even stages of a multi-cache.
Puzzle
Now, on to the puzzle: Remember the caches in this series that you have done before and solve this puzzle. All directions given for this cache are geomagnetic directions.
For this puzzle, so that you couldn't use any of the web sites to pre-calculate the first point, you will need to use your compass to locate the starting point. The starting point is a short walk from where you parked. At the yellow landmark at the starting point you will see the Burger King sign at 34° and a lamp post with no solar panel at 335°.
From there proceed the direction and distance given in the following puzzle:
Eat flapjacks late in day
At that location you will find a green bison tube with another distance and direction. At that location you will find a silver bison tube with the latitude and longitude coordinates of the final cache.
If you would like to verify your solution, enter the numbers you got.
You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.
Congratulations to Del2u, Dix1 and runninbear1 for being first-to-find. Also thanks for the valuable feedback.