President Truman's Decision (Koloa Gulch) Traditional Cache
President Truman's Decision (Koloa Gulch)
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size:
 (regular)
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First 1/2 hour is up hill, from then on you decend on a trail to the stream. The rest of the hike is along the trail which follows the trail. Bring plenty of water, the ridge section is hot on a clear day. DO NOT DRINK STREAM WATER.
I like to THEME my caches as you can tell from others I hid. A few days before hiding the cache I did a “google” search on “July 25” and I came up with a list of events going back hundreds of years. I thought this one was interesting as it really changed our world for ever. I was linked to a page that gave a quote written by PRESIDENT HARRY S. TRUMAN on July 25th 1945. He made a decision to drop the first Atomic Bomb on Japan that day. This is what he wrote in his diary. Sorry it’s not “politically correct” in today’s world, but remember WHEN it was written.
"We have discovered the most terrible bomb in the history of the world. It may be the fire destruction prophesied in the Euphrates Valley Era, after Noah and his fabulous Ark. Anyway we "think" we have found the way to cause a disintegration of the atom. An experiment in the New Mexico desert was startling - to put it mildly. Thirteen pounds of the explosive caused the complete disintegration of a steel tower 60 feet high, created a crater 6 feet deep and 1,200 feet in diameter, knocked over a steel tower 1/2 mile away and knocked men down 10,000 yards away. The explosion was visible for more than 200 miles and audible for 40 miles and more. This weapon is to be used against Japan between now and August 10th. I have told the Sec. of War, Mr. Stimson, to use it so that military objectives and soldiers and sailors are the target and not women and children. Even if the Japs are savages, ruthless, merciless and fanatic, we as the leader of the world for the common welfare cannot drop that terrible bomb on the old capital or the new. He and I are in accord. The target will be a purely military one and we will issue a warning statement asking the Japs to surrender and save lives. I'm sure they will not do that, but we will have given them the chance. It is certainly a good thing for the world that Hitler's crowd or Stalin's did not discover this atomic bomb. It seems to be the most terrible thing ever discovered, but it can be made the most useful...
Back to finding the cache. The coordinates given above are approximate and taken from a map. I could not get a GPS reading as the valley walls are quite high and satellites could not be seen. To get into the valley park at Kokololio (Pounders) Beach Park at the Kahuku end of the park. Walk toward Kahuku along Kamehameha Highway about ¼ mile until you reach these coordinates. N 21 37.707 by W 157 55.492 Turn to the left and head up a short dirt road. In a few minutes you will come to a clearing and a memorial on the right to remember the loss of life of a young boy scout due to flash flood. Please read it and take it to heart. If it begins to rain hard PLEASE TURN BACK.
From there walk into the valley following the narrow trail thru the tall grass. It soon cuts to the right and comes near a lot of junk, like toilet bowls and old bathtubs. The trail then cuts left and climbs to a ridge line Follow the ridge for quite a while like maybe 1/2 hour till you come to a trail on the right going down into the valley on your right. Coordinates approx + N21 37.169 by W 157 55.975.
Go down into the valley on this trail. When you reach the stream bed go upstream. I began numbering the crossings at #5 writing on plastic ribbons on both sides of each crossing. At the 9th crossing there is a small very low dam just up stream. The last place I could get a reading was just past a dam at N21 36.675 by W157 56.360. You should be on the right side of the stream facing up by a big mango tree.
On the far side of the 26th crossing are two native palm (Lo`ulu hiwa in Hawaiian) trees. Behind the second is a large "bird nest fern. (Ekaha in Hawaiian.) You need to find this fern to find the cache.
In the cache you will find:
1-Log book and pencil
2-Deck of playing cards 4 kids.
3-Paperback novel “The Experiment”
4-A small container of Super Glue.
5-An emergency whistle.
6-Some maps to show you how to reach my “Pu`u `Pauao” cache.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Fbzr gvzrf obzof ner ersrerq gb nf "oveqf" naq jr xabj jurer oveqf envfr gurve lbhat.
ORJNER!!!!!!!!!! Vs vg fgnegf gb enva uneq lbh zvtug or va sbe n SYNFU SYBBQ. Trg BHG bs gur inyyrl vs vg ortvaf gb enva uneq. Yvfgra sbe gur fbhaq bs ehfuvat jngre. Vs lbh urne vg QB ABG GEL GB BHG EHA GUR JNGRE!!!! Pyvzo nf uvtu nf lbh pna ba rvgure fvqr naq jnvg gvyy jngre trgf qbja gb fnsr yriry.
Treasures
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