This cache is not at the posted co-ordinates! To find the cache you'll need to take directions from a certain tree in Dunlop Park...but which one? 🌳🌲🌳
It's not a tree that is technically outside of the park yet connected to it, like the mulberry hanging over a fence (you can eat its berries in early summer) or the horse chestnut facing the south entrance (you can collect its conkers in early fall). The target tree is clearly within the park. It's even directly visible from the starting co-ordinates, under the right conditions.
It's also not the only tree of its kind in the park, unlike the single beech, catalpa, crabapple, dawn redwood, gingko, lilac, or ornamental pear trees. (I wonder if the redwood is special, for I have seen examples of the other trees elsewhere in the neighborhood.) Most of those singleton trees are also in view of the starting co-ordinates, but if you can recognize them then you can count them out.
And it's not any of the basswood, cedar, elm, hackberry, honey locust, maple, oak, pine, spruce or tulip trees that fill up the rest of the park. (They are also common in the neighborhood, thanks both to home-owners and the City's latest tree-planting blitz.)
Are you having trouble identifying and ruling out the above trees, even with the help of Google or a free plant-identifying app? It can certainly be tricky in winter, without visible leaves and seed pods. Don't worry, this tree's distinctive bark makes it easy to identify in any season. If you're not using the hint then you might just want to pick a cardinal direction to start moving and scan for tree bark that is radically different from the rest. Or use the hint (itself a completely different mini-puzzle) and get both a direction and the tree name!
There are 3 of this kind of tree in the park, but only 1 will be encountered by taking a cardinal direction from the starting co-ordinates. Once you have found a tree that seems to fit, stand against it and look back to the starting point. Turn slightly to the right and you can see the yellow sprinkler pole in the very centre of the splashpad. To find ground zero, walk directly towards that centre pole and then keep going past it until you reach a park boundary. No final co-ordinates; just trust your eyes and your sense of direction!
Pencil included. Stealth may be required depending on time of day. Sometimes this park is lousy with people, sometimes there are (generally well-behaved) dogs off leash, and sometimes there are folks walking in circles to exercise or talk on their phones...everyone is doing their own thing. 😊
Congrats to Barnie's Band of Gold 😊 FTF 21 Sept 2025 @ 11am, cleverly solving both from home and on site.