Official Stuff
This cache is located in Sandy Creek Park. As of 5/1/21, there is current a $2/person fee to enter the park. Please obey posted park hours (They vary by season and are available online or posted at the gate). DO NOT HUNT OUTSIDE OF POSTED HOURS. Additionally, please make sure we follow all park rules, including:
- Please respect the property and Leave No Trace.
- Park only in designated areas. Do NOT park on the sides of roads or in non-designated parking.
- Please do not park on the dam.
- Please do not enter the water at the dam.
- Please don’t climb on the rocks at the bottom of the dam or enter dangerous areas.
- Please do not dig in the park as no caches are buried.
- Please respect the property and Leave No Trace (Yes-- we said this twice).
Thank you for being respectful of this beautiful park!
The Series
Do you love mystery caches? Do you love D/T (Difficulty/Terrain) ratings? if so, we have a GREAT series for you!!!
The Jackson County Agritourism Geo-Trail 81 series (JCAT-81) has been placed for YOU! We do have to fess up that the series isn’t actually in Jackson County, but it’s a stone’s throw away and an awesome set of caches. If you complete all 81, you will have completed an entire D/T grid. Total fizzy awesomeness!
The majority of the caches are hidden in Sandy Creek Park. There is an entrance fee of $2 per person to enter. Current park hours are Tuesday to Sunday, 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM, closed on Mondays. (Note: Hours can change-- please check with the park before making your trip plans)
The caches are hidden in a variety of containers and styles. The puzzles will help build your puzzle-solving skills. Be on the lookout for some JCAT-81 Puzzle-Solving events where we will help you solve some of the tougher ones.
This series is a collaborative effort of “The Puzzle Posse”! The Puzzle Posse consists of Bragger407, GeoMonkeyTiger!, LaFavorite Cacher, and poeanne.
This Cache
This cache is rated a 2.5/4.5. The puzzle might take a bit, but you will get it. You are looking for a regular-sized lock and lock. The physical find won't be too hard, but it will be a pretty good hike to get there. You will follow the white-blazed trail around the lake. Be sure to bring water, bug spray, and possibly a snack! Note that you may see some fences marking private property. Please respect the fence lines as the cache is on the park side of the fences...
Note: same coordinates, but hide was revised slightly on 6/16/23. Hint and Certitude photo updated...
This Puzzle
(This puzzle brought to you by GeoMonkeyTiger!)
The cache is NOT at the posted coordinates!
No!! Only once the chickens had been counted, did Ronald realize the gravity of the situation.
“This just can’t be right???”, he thought. “How can we be thirty chickens short??? The chances that just four chickens would be missing seemed astronomical, so why so many??
He thought carefully about the day. In the morning, he had visited his brother Ralph. They had discussed several new housing possibilities for the chickens. Yellow should be separate from white, small separate from large, egg-layers separate from poultry chickens. Feed should be timed for two deliveries per day. Only through careful planning can you make sure there is zero chance of escape. Unless something went really wrong, Ronald and his brother assumed that things would work out properly.
ZERO chance any of the chickens could escape? That now seems like wishful thinking. What the brothers didn’t count on was that there were two important factors they didn’t take into consideration.
One factor was how to properly light the housings. Seemingly simple, this was more complicated than it would appear. Instead of normal incandescent bulbs, special bulbs filled with inert gases (Xenon was the most popular choice) would be required to ensure no adverse effects on the poultry population.
Second was proper atmospheric control. In case there was a rupture in the Xenon-filled lighting tubes, two different systems would engage to ensure that proper air circulation was restored. Separate fans must be in place to ensure the inert gas was removed. Every minute that passes where the inert gas is not evacuated can cause problems for the chickens. Variables such as outside air temperature, wind speed, and humidity levels can affect the air flow. Egg-layers are particularly vulnerable to this but including Nitrogen in the air-flow can improve survivability. Winter temperatures demand a daily check—and this farm did one every day at 9:00 EST. Zippers were used to ensure closures to the pens would seal and not allow unwanted external weather conditions to impact the atmosphere inside the pens.
Except, while they were diligent in doing checks on the air-flow replacement system, they did not anticipate the biggest issue. Ronald and his brother had forgotten the most important thing – Oxygen concentration.
Everyone is aware, of course, that chickens need oxygen. It’s a basic of biology. Good management of the air-flow systems was easily in the top eight things (if not top three) that a farmer must ensure. How did it go wrong then?
The first thing to realize is that the xenon bulbs can leak even in the best of circumstances. They are prone to micro-cracks that can develop in three or more places. However, when temperatures drop, as many as twenty-three micro-cracks can develop. Ronald knew of this and solicited a local expert, Edward Egith to help examine the housing structure. Three others were in the running—William Onerton was a contender, but it wasn’t the right fit. Taking the advice of Human Resources, the brothers decided to go with Egith. Everyone was in agreement that he was indeed one of the top three experts in the world.
Further research of the housing revealed a lack of proper emergency air evacuation procedures. In the event of an emergency, several things should happen. Vents should open, and entire atmosphere of the housing should be replaced in a maximum of three hundred and forty-five seconds. Evacuation in this time period is absolutely critical. Only, there was one additional thing that they forgot about. No one had thought of it, until Egith reviewed the entire poultry housing.
Zippers. Everything came down to the zippers. Reinforced, and supposedly tear resistant, the zippers were supposed to hold in the case of a total air evacuation. Only, there was a defect in the materials causing them to open unexpectedly under the increased pressures of the air evacuation procedures. Egith realized that in the last air evacuation, the outside zippers were forced open by the evacuation of the air systems, and this created a gap that allowed some of the chickens to escape. No one realized this, but now that the issue had been identified, it could easily be remedied. Designs were modified and everyone felt confident this would not be an issue in the future!
Solution Checker
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