The Nathaniel Trail consists of 17 caches. Because all 17 are part of the geoart, please don't forget to do your homework before setting out to find these caches. For 14 of them, you'll need to enter a simple solution into Certitude in order to receive the actual coordinates for those hides. To find caches 15-17, you'll need to carefully collect information from each of the 14 caches. Some of the trails are used by equestrians, so be prepared to yield to riders. And please pay attention to hunting regulations and schedules. Wearing international orange is never a bad idea. I've never seen one in Carroll County, but a bear was sighted in this area in December 2018, and others have been reported in backyards in Carroll recently. So be careful as you hike these woods. I strongly urge you to solve all the little puzzles BEFORE you head for the trails. All 17 caches could be found in a couple or three hours and three or four miles of relatively easy walking. If you love birds, remember your binocular. And if you don't love ticks, remember your Deet or chemical of choice. As you cache, may you find joy and peace.
The only one you don't recognize by now is WVMary, aka Aunt Mary, who lives in Berkeley Springs.
On Thursdays we really didn’t have to find caches or hawks: trying to find them was bound to be enjoyable because we were always with each other and often running into others who were warm and caring. Although I failed to appreciate just how perceptive Nathaniel could be, I was not far off the mark in thinking of him—fondly—as my perpetual baby: his needs were simple; he was greatly dependent upon others for basic care; and his joys were, as they are with most children, engaged in without pretense or the desire to please others. He liked what he liked. Hawking and caching Thursday afternoons didn’t require either hawks or caches (though we were rarely skunked on both counts), but they had better include his preferred company, driving around, telling jokes (thank goodness for the Web and books of children’s humor)—and Coke, which was as necessary to his happiness as coffee was to JAF430’s and mine. When caching included some of Nathaniel’s other relatives and friends, our outings were even better.
And sometimes our hawking-caching excursions were lots of great things all rolled into one. Nathaniel’s digestive system wouldn’t tolerate chocolate, though he loved it, and on a particular day he decided to forego the Coke in favor of a vanilla shake. We headed into the farmlands of Carroll that day, keeping our eyes on bare tree limbs and utility wires and posts, and not very long into our excursion—but after Nathaniel had wolfed down his shake—we spied a bald eagle in the near distance. No need for binoculars to identify this magnificent bird, but I’m sure I raised mine anyway, for a better look from the back seat. And then JAF and I heard Nathaniel make a sound we knew well and dreaded: he was about to throw up! We scrambled for a bag, found none, and spent the next few minutes cleaning up poor Nathaniel and the geomobile (which, unfortunately, belonged to my father-in-law, Korbul). When we were done, the eagle was still perched nearby. JAF occasionally reminds me that my understated comment at that moment was, “Well, this was certainly the high and the low of our day.” We had a story to tell Nathaniel’s mom when we took him home—and one for Korbul, too.
To obtain the actual coordinates for this hide from Certitude, please solve this little math problem: Nathaniel cached for 6 years, about 40 weeks per year, and found, on average, about 3 caches per outing--and only one outing per week. About how many caches did he find?
You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.