Ilkley NW Trail #1A Redux: OPR Mini-Multi
See Ilkley North-West Trail #1: Intro & Start for information & map on this 15-cache 4.3km trail which takes you around some of the lovely countryside between Middleton and Austby immediately to the northwest of Ilkley above the north bank of the Wharfe. Allowing for an easy pace, stopping for caches | to admire the view/take photos | spot birds the trail should take you about 3 hours or so.
This cache and #1B were added to the original series to fill a large cache gap and thereby 'nourish' hungry geocachers as they head ('slog' or 'toil' for some) up Owler Park Road (OPR) to #2 in the woods. This road has some of the finest houses in Ilkley with great views to the south across the Wharfe valley.
To reach the cache: from #1 head NW along the riverside trail to the road, cross over and a little up Langbar Road before taking the first left onto Owler Park Road (OPR = private road | public footpath) and up to the Step 1 location.
Note: If not starting with #1, it is possible to park closer to the cache @ or near N 53 55.921 W 1 50.097 on Common Holme Lane nearer the start of OPR. As OPR is a private road, parking is not permitted there.
To Find the Cache
Step 1: at the published coordinates, you will be standing on/near a large metal inspection cover on which you will note that it is a Class B1A5, where A is the digit required.
Step 2: now head across the road to N 53 55.968 W 1 50.141 - the location of a 'tall wooden sticky-uppy thing' - a telegraph pole* - or more correctly a power distribution pole - on which you will see several metal plates with various pieces of info on them.
The uppermost of these has three rows of figures which - by means of a stamped hole - record the date of the last pole inspection. The top row is the month and the middle row is the year. In this case the pole was inspected in month B of year 20C0, where B and C are the numbers required.
*There is a UK society for those with an interest in such poles and their 'hieroglyphics' - the Telegraph Pole Appreciation Society - whose members 'promise to uphold the values of the society - namely to be nice to telegraph poles and always speak highly of them as the opportunity arises'. There is also a guidebook - Telegraph Pole Appreciation for Beginners.
Step 3: Move back across to N 53 55.972 W 1 50.139 where you will find another type of pole, this time a metallic one bearing three signs. The alphanumeric value (A=1 B=2 C=3 etc) of the letter on the uppermost sign = D.
On this same sign, there are 3 numbers, the middle and smallest of which = E.
The lower sign shows a distance of F00 yards (with no footway), where F is the figure required.
The cache is hidden at:
N 53 55.(B-1)(E+1)C W 1 50.(D-7)(A+1)(F+3)
