If you have ever geocached in the Phoenix area, you've undoubtedly found a cache hidden by Al Schoon, who cached as cschooner aka the Duckmeister. With more than 400 hides in the Phoenix area, his caches were meticulous - from the nano painted the exact color of the electrical box on which it was placed to his gadget caches. He amassed more than 15,000 favorite points. He was, however, best known for his rubber duck caches, earning the name the Duckmeister. He made caches for the young and the young at heart. I had the good fortune to exchange a few messages with him. He prided himself on caches that were mechanically simple, but held a surprise at the end. In November of 2020, two friends I introduced to caching in Phoenix sent me a package - dozens of rubber ducks! Only a month later, Al Schoon passed away. I spent many weekends and evenings on business trips to Phoenix hunting cschooner caches and knew that these rubber ducks - and a few others - needed to find a home in a cache near us. I hope the original Duckmeister would think this cache is all it's quacked up to be! If you had the pleasure of doing some cschooner aka the Duckmeister caches, feel free to leave memories in your online log.
FIRST, THE LEGAL STUFF ...
[After a 2nd muggle strike on stage 1, it has been moved. Please pay attention to how containers open/unpack and replace as found. The owner maintenance log on 9/21/22 illustrates the locking system on 2 stages.] Kingstowne Park is on the approved list of parks for geocaching, where permission is granted for placement of caches. Thank you to them for supporting our hobby. As with caches in all FCPA parks, ABSOLUTELY NO NIGHT CACHING IS ALLOWED! Pay attention to the attributes - some of them matter. The ticks, poison plants, and thorns attributes are unavoidable in the Park, but the caches are placed to minimize these features. BYOP! Please repack and replace all stages as well or better than you found them. The shortest distance from the path may not be the driest option after a rain. For our hearing challenged cachers, the sound of the attached videos is just for fun, although watching the videos for Stage 3 may help.
THE CACHE
This is a kid-friendly, 5-stage cache. Knowing that kids can get bored and most cachers use a smart phone, I've included some duck-themed musical interludes.
For all stages, assume N38 4x.xxx W077 0x.xxx.
Interlude #1: The Duck Song #1 aka Earworm #1
Stage 1: Get your Ducks in a Row
Get three of the same duck in a line (in any direction) and you'll be on your way to the next stage. Lock combo: 647
Stage 2: Duck a l'Orange
In the right light, the answer will be found written in o_r_a_n_g_e. Lock combo: 647.
Interlude #2: The Duck Song #2 aka Earworm #2
Stage 3: The Secret Word is Duck
You might want to watch the the long clip starting at 2:00 minutes or the short clip.
Stage 4: Like Water off a Duck's Back
Round up your salt water cowboys. Use the provided TOTT or bring your own (large) pail or both, because we're doing it Chincoteague style.
Stage 5: A Box of Quackers
Find the quacker with the key to reveal the log. Lock combo: 647
Interlude #3: The Duck Song #3 aka Waddle Waddle
Congratulations to bjmiller75 on the FTF!
Cache of the Year, Best Multi-Stage Cache
Cache of the Year, Best Multi-Stage Cache, Best Kids Cache