Run, Doe, Run! Multi-cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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Located at Doe Run Park in Martinsville/Henry County.
Doe Run Park, so named because it borders Doe Run Creek, was donated to Henry County Parks & Rec Department by
DuPont when DuPont closed its local manufacturing center a few years ago. What was formerly known as the DuPont
Wildlife Area was converted into two hiking trails that intertwine each other from one end of the park to the
other.
The park is located on DuPont Road off of 220 Business in Martinsville. A designated parking area is located
at N36 40.218 W079 53.196 (on your right). Looking at a map or sattelite photo,
you may note that there appear to be quicker routes to the first leg of this two-stage cache. Though DuPont
Road does, in fact, take one nearer to the cache, those alternate routes provide no parking and would involve trespassing.
Don't yield to temptation, since there is a security guard at the complex at the end of the road.
I've uploaded a photo of the map at the trailhead showing the two trails, Doe Run trail (red blazes) and Laurel Loop
trail (blue blazes). Either will take you to the first set of coordinates. Both are moderate trails, the only
difficulty being a few sets of stairs and some portions being overgrown by rhododendron. During winter, the coverage
is relatively sparse, but in summer, it is likely to be pretty dense. From the parking area to the first stage is about 0.24 miles
as the crow flies, followed by another 0.12 miles to the cache, as the crow figures out the clue and continues
onward.
Reception was a big issue for me, even though there was relatively little canopy. I rarely went over 25 feet of
accuracy on top of the hill, but it seemed to bounce around a lot. At the actual cache hiding place, accuracy varied from 14 feet to 60 feet, and seemed a bit wishy-washy. Three separate approaches to the cache from 0.5+ miles over the course
of three hours confirmed that it was fairly accurate, but I would not be surprised if results varied.
First stage is easy to find. Coords are for the middle of an area where the two trails converge. Look around and
you'll see a yellow sign warning of an underground gas line. Look on the back of the sign. Imprinted there is the
name of the manufacturer of the sign, Carsonite, Inc. Mfg. Following that are four digits. Add the four digits
together and you'll come up with a two digit sum, which serves as the last two digits in the latitude. Plug 'em in
to N 36 40.3XX W 079 53.557 and you'll have the coords to the cache. Simple...uh, except for one thing...if you
happen to get a three digit sum, you did it wrong. That last comment is just to clarify what may be a head-scratcher
in the field and not any sort of deception. There are no secrets here!
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Cache is a typical tupperware container with log book, pens, cache camera and the usual stuff people put
in caches, beer cozie, couple of CD-ROM games I got sick of a while back, some foreign coins with holes in them and
weird alphabets with smiling dictators on the "heads" sides. Take a pic with the camera doing your little "I
Found It Victory Dance" and take some stuff, if you want. Put some stuff in, if you
want. Sign the log. Put the cache back together carefully so it doesn't spring a leak and rehide it so that
the muggles won't find it, see that it says "Do Not Remove!" on the cover, and take it home anyway.
Per approver's well-made suggestion, I will add that there are a few "No Trespassing" signs at the border of the park. These were placed there by DuPont, who didn't bother to remove them when they donated the land to the County. Pay no heed to the signs. It's public now.
Also, at the far end of the park, there are railroad tracks. They were abandoned by Norfolk Southern when DuPont closed. I'm pretty sure that they're now public land and I think I heard somewhere that there's a rails-to-trails project in mind for it. I don't believe that going onto the tracks would make one a trespasser, but just in case, I'll mention here that you don't need to go on the tracks to find the cache.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Uvag? Ab uvagf! Nyy gur PYHRF lbh arrq gb svaq guvf pnpur ner evtug urer ba gur pnpur cntr!