\My first in the Schoolhouse Rock series. I love Schoolhouse Rock, it got me through Elementary School and set me up with the basics of life. The Schoolhouse Rock song to teach multiples of 9 up to ten is called Naughty Number 9. It's about a pool hustling cat who pushes around a poor mouse. This is a multi cache allong the new Innovation Trail. This bike path goes straight to the Innovation Metro Station. It allows people in adjacent communities to bike straight to their ride, that is, when/if the metro is ever completed.
Update 2/23/23: The metro has finaally been completed as of November of last year!
Story of the Placing: I placed this on a 22 degree day with 8 degree windchill and my fingers are still thawing out 2 hours later. I have no clue what I was thinking. When we started the day, it was bearable, but now the sun was setting aand it was getting cold. The 22 degrees were now 20, and the windchill was closer to 5. Placing a cache is usually longer than finding the cache because of the coords one needs to obtain, and with multi's you need to get more coords and write them at the first stage. While doing all that you can't wear gloves since you need to operate your phone or write something down.
We find a good spot for the final (Pro Tip: When placing multi's, start backwards and place the final first). The second I take off my gloves I get to work finding the coords. I find the coords, and my fingers are already becoming stiff. I check those coords and figure out they are a bit off. My fingers have lost feeling. I get new coords. My fingers can barely type. I don't bother checking those because my fingers will fall off if I do that routine again. Now the wind begins to pick up and I only have a sweatshirt on (again, my mind was not rational that day). I still have to write the coords in S1 but my fingers felt like they had spent a lifetime inside the milk section at Costco. Each number takes about a minute to write since I was trying to control the shaking but I got them down eventually. If they look a bit scribbly to you, now you know why. My fingers weren't fingers anymore, but 10 miniature popsicles. My dog, however, is having a blast. She loves the snow, and the woods, and she's in the snowy woods (kinda on the wood account). She's not cold at all since she's just running around. We find a good spot for S1 and thankfully I don't have to write the coords anywhere, just find them, and that was done quickly. Then it's a brisk walk back to the car where my fingers died from the exposure to the sudden heat. That was fun.
As for the cache itslef: You have to find the coords in S1 to get to the Final. S1 is a field puzzle, and not an easy one (hopefully) at that. But, at the same time, it is not unpleasant. I have tested it with multiple family members and they all loved it, even the ones that weren't cachers. They took from 10-45 minutes to solve it. The time didn't necessarily correlate with their caaching experience, so even if you have not cached a lot, you can still find this since you don't have to know any inside caching secrets to solve it. I was inspired for this cache by pwesleynd93's most favorited MAGC cache, MAGC-6 (GC8G76J). S2 is a short walk away and a rewarding regular sized container with no tricks. The difficulty is at S1.
*IMPORTANT*
Stage 1 Rules:
- No cutting
- No tearing
- No smashing
- No marking of any kind (writing, drawing, etc.)
- No causing harm that you cannot undo. This cache needs to hold up for future cachers.
- If action does not violate the rules mentioned above, it is allowed.
- Once you've obtained coords, put everything back together exactly as you found them.
- DO NOT take any of the items with you. All 9 items are to be left in the box once you have obtained coords.
- Message me if you have any questions on the rules.
Final:
- Everything S1 isn't. It's not confusing. It's not tricky. It's your reward.
- Has plenty of space for trackables and SWAG.
- Has a coloring book for kids and adults alike.
General Awknowledgements:
- Bring Bugspray when needed
- Bring long pants
- Night caching is allowed
- Final is within walking distance of S1
- Bring extra people (family, friends, caching partners, etc.) to help with the solve!
Now you know everything you need to know to find this cache.
Good Luck!
Congratulations to Saberspark77 on the FTF!