Test your senses with "A Sense of Albuquerque" - Step two in
the SE "QUADRANTS" series. If you haven't conquered
"QUADRANTS - A place to start" yet, please do so before
starting this one - it will help you on your travels and
understanding!
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Explanation of Methods and Generalities for the "QUADRANTS"
series:
The City of Albuquerque has 4 Quadrants - The initial narration
gave a bit of history. With the "QUADRANTS" series we are trying to
expose the Geocacher to all 4 quadrants of our beautiful city. From
the Suburban to the Urban to the outer Wilderness each in it's own
quadrant, each a journey of discovery and goodwill. As far as we
know, there has never been a series of geocaches like this in
Albuquerque, so we decided to do it! Best of all, they will all
lead you to a place in New Mexico hereby deemed: The "Heart of New
Mexico"!
All of the distance/bearing and final cache location
calculations for the series "QUADRANTS" were done on National
Geographic's TOPO! New Mexico software, on the 7.5' map level. If
you don't have the software, you can run your calcs using it at REI
or you can easily work from a standard Albuquerque/New Mexico map
or even better, USGS Topo maps (to be found at "Holmans" on
Jefferson Street, NE), using a protractor or plotter, a ruler and
basic math! RELAX - It's really going to be pretty easy.
You will find many similarities in the "QUADRANTS" series and
you should keep that in mind with each subsequent "QUADRANT" trek -
To the point of even being able to solve pieces of multiple
quadrants on one visit if you prepare well (and don't wish to
partake in repeat visits, each seeing interesting things)! The
Cache containers are similar (at each step) between Quadrants and
in general idea.
We've tried to cover all bases with this series, Multi, Virtual
and Standard Caches are all included and, with the exception of the
"A place to start", they are ALL offset caches. There are also
varying cache sizes, Virtual, Medium, Micro, Standard and Large.
The containers are either well camo'd or "army green" containers
(some are Ammo Boxes).
We've tried to make this series worth your time, with some
quality cache contents! Please keep that in mind when you show up.
We've all seen too many caches with (ahem) "junk" in them, where
the search was more fun than the contents! In this case we wanted
to make both aspects of the hunt fun and hope you'll help us to
keep it that way!
In the spirit of challenge, we'd ask that you follow directions
and the natural order of these caches diligently. Sure, you can
always try to skip a step and end up at the culmination of the
series, but you'll have to live with yourself and that nagging
question: Do I really deserve this (grin)?!
Most of all, relax, take your time and enjoy this series - it
has taken over a month to set up and has caused minor headaches and
major car problems (not to worry). But it has been fun to prepare
and we hope it will be even more fun to conquer! Consider it a
"Thank you" for the caches that you've put out there for us!
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Each of these "Suburban" QUADRANT caches is located in an area
that will give you relative privacy for what you'll have to do to
solve them - so don't rush! They are also located in areas that
will be prone to flooding at some point in the future (like once
every 100 years - grin).
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QUADRANTS - "A Sense of Albuquerque" - SE Suburban -
HEARING
(A Short Narrative)
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The South-East Quadrant of Albuquerque is taken up in large part
by Federal land. World renowned Sandia Labs is out here, Kirtland
Air force base is out here, Albuquerque's major airport (The
Sunport) is out here. Realistically, there are few places to go
that are publicly accessible out here. However, the South-East of
Albuquerque is also home to the original "heights" neighborhood.
South of Central avenue, east and west of Carlisle Boulevard is
what used to be one of the most exclusive neighborhoods in
Albuquerque. The houses in this area reflect the architecture of
early "suburban" Albuquerque. More and more, these houses are being
sold and renovated into very nice "starters" or "empty-nesters".
The South-East Quadrant is vibrant with life, One of the neatest
places to go would be the corridor known as Nob-Hill along Central
Avenue. Additionally, there are areas of modern growth (near the
foothills of the Manzano Mountains) and some high-tech business
parks being planned just outside of Sandia Labs for "Technology
transfer". The people in the South-East Quadrant are of all ethnic
and racial backgrounds (including many University of New Mexico
Students). As a whole, one must understand that this community
THRIVES on it's diversity!
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"A sense of Albuquerque - SE Suburban" was inspired by our
Oldest Junior Geocacher - A precocious theatrical "ham" who can
whoop it up with Patsy Cline, the Dixie Chicks or Nancy Sinatra.
She loves to make noise.
To solve this cache you'll need:
1. A working GPSr unit (or for you "purists" out there, a
compass, plotter and a topo map).
2. A Car or motor bike to get to the parking area (shown below)
- you don't live nearby!
3. A LOG sheet to keep track of all the numbers you'll need for
each QUADRANT.
4. A Pen/Pencil and easy walking shoes that won't collect
sand.
5. A sense of adventure and hearing.
The best, but not closest parking location is at: N 35d
00.9898, W 106d 36.5992
First though, a disclaimer:
ALTHOUGH THIS IS A RELATIVELY "BENIGN" WALK, IT IS NEVER THE
LESS A WALK ACROSS A MESA, BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR SNAKES AND BRING
SOME WATER FOR YOUR RETURN TO THE PARKING AREA. ALSO BE SMART AND
AWARE OF EVERYTHING AROUND YOU!
At "A sense of Albuquerque - SE Suburban - HEARING", you will
find a whistle tied to the bottom of a lone, but large, sage brush.
Your job is to use your sense of hearing to find the actual
location of the cache. You will know which direction to go by
either using the whistle or yelling the word "Echo" towards the
semi-canyon like walls around you. Close your eyes, listen for an
echo on all compass points around the sage brush. The actual cache
is located in the wall that echoes the LEAST. One note: the above
method may not work when it is windy, so instead, THINK about echos
and where they might echo the LEAST (and is towards the Heart of
Albuquerque). You're away from anyone out here - enjoy the
experience of yelling at something! Oh, and follow the directions
attached to the whistle.
Please bring small items to trade as the container is about the
size of a large "Crayon" box, and is chock full of goodies. Browse
the contents and box carefully for there will be clues and if you'd
like some information for you to take/replace for the next step in
the SE Quadrant!
PLEASE, write down and save all of the information you've
acquired (on your new handy, dandy "QUADRANTS" LOG sheet) for
future use!
Upon completion of this cache, you may move on to:
"QUADRANTS - "A sense of Albuquerque" - SE Urban - SMELL!
Good luck and hope you enjoy this little Albuquerque
Canyon!