Welcome to the Stephen King (SK) geo-art! The series, a tribute to Maine's "King of Horror", is made up of jigsaw puzzle caches and a bonus final. Each cache in the series depicts one of his novels. The puzzle cache is not located at the posted coordinates. To obtain the coordinates to the cache, piece together the online jigsaw puzzle below.
Puzzle:
Needful Things is a 1991 horror novel. The story focuses on a shop that sells collectibles and antiques, managed by Leland Gaunt, a new arrival to the town of Castle Rock, Maine. Gaunt often asks customers to perform a prank or mysterious deed in exchange for the item they are drawn to. As time goes by, the many deeds and pranks lead to increasing aggression among the townspeople, as well as chaos and death.
(Click the image below to access the jigsaw puzzle.)
Additional Information:
I recommend that you create a login for the jigsaw puzzle site. By doing that, your puzzle progress is auto-saved every time you place a piece. You can then come back to the site at any time and pick up where you left off.
The caches are located in the Smith Preserve and on another trail system in the area north of the Preserve. The area is ideal for hiking, mountain biking, cross country skiing, snowshoeing, and bird watching. If you choose to search for the caches by bike, note that many of the trails are a spider web of twisty, rocky, and rooty tracks which will challenge your mountain biking technical skills.
All caches, except the bonus final, are hidden in the same manner: a winter friendly, preform container in an evergreen tree. Most of the caches are located within a 50' bushwhack off a trail; a few will require a longer bushwhack. Depending on the time of year, expect and plan for varying conditions such as mud, sand, ditches, water hazards, ticks, and mosquitos. The attributes and the difficulty/terrain ratings will provide you with more details about the cache hide and terrain.
Each container has a code written on the inside of the lid. Make note of this information as the letters and numbers are needed in order to solve for the bonus puzzle. The bonus final page contains a link to a worksheet which can be printed out to assist you in the field with recording the codes and solving the bonus puzzle.
I request that cachers don’t replace missing or damaged containers. Normally, I appreciate cachers who help maintain my caches but this series is different because each container holds a hint for the puzzle cache final. If you believe a cache needs maintenance, either post a log to the cache page or contact me through my geocaching profile and I will take care of the maintenance.