The Trail
FREE PARKING AT THE LISTED COORDINATES FOR THIS CACHE
Not being allowed to travel from home to go caching during lockdown has meant walking the same walks over and over again so what am I supposed to do with my time but set a new caching series along some of those trails. I like caches which are not just "plain old trads" so this series is all about the multi - seventeen of them to be precise and not a trad in sight. Each cache is a simple offset multi where the info can be gathered at the listed coordinates with distances ranging from <50m to >500m between listing and cache but all are on or beside the trail route.
The trail follows public footpaths and lanes starting and finishing at the public car park (free) in Pontyclun village (listed coordinates for this cache) and is approximately 6 miles in length. Where there is potential for ambiguity on the route, a basic description is included in the cache listing for the directions to take from the listed coordinates to the cache itself.
Pontyclun is easily accessed by a good bus and train service as well. You are advised to wear decent footware as some of the paths can get quite muddy particularly after wet weather. I have tried to use a good variety of container sizes most of which will be big enough for travel bugs but please ensure you bring you own writing implements as I have not included any pens in the caches. The log strips are all rock paper so are perfectly OK in the wet but biro/ball pen works best on them rather than pencil or felt tip pen.
Some caches may ask for a letter value. You may assume A = 1, B = 2 ... Z = 26 etc.
Some caches may ask for a letter count in a word. That is the count of the number of letters in that word e.g. WORD = 4
I would also suggest you bring a notebook to record the details for each cache - who knows you may (or may not) need the info for a later cache in the series.
After completing the series please log fair and put a little time and effort into writing your logs and tell the story of your walk and hopefully the finds. Please don't be a lazy logger and just write "found it" or "TFTC" or worse just put a sutpid emoji. Also please log any DNFs otherwise I won't know there could be an issue with a cache.
And finally, if you haven't done it already you may wish to combine this series with my "Star" puzzle series which intersects in a couple of places. This will give a combined distance of approximately 9 miles for both loops and 28 caches in total (there are also a couple of other caches on or close to the loops).
I hope you enjoy your day.
The Cache
The listed coordinates are for a free public car park in Pontyclun which is also the start of the trail. There is no real time limit on parking here - well unless you take over 7 days to complete the trail and then your car may be towed - you have been warned.
At the entrance to the car park there is an information board.
Look for the telephone number at the bottom
ABCDE FGHJKL
Cache at
N 51 31.BGE W 003 23.CFH
To get to the final location exit the car park and return back to the main road.
Turn right and then left down Heol-y-Felin passing the library.
Turn into Ffordd Talygarn and follow to the given waypoint for the footpath access.
Take care at the final location and beware of the river close by.