THE ACTUAL CACHE IS NOT LOCATED AT THE POSTED COORDINATES. YOU MUST DECODE THE MESSAGE TO FIND THE TRUE LOCATION AND THE TREASURE.
Gasping for air, Captain Markose struggled up the ridge and took cover behind the thicket of trees, in hope of alluding capture of the insidious creatures lurking below; however, he realized his strength was failing him, having trudged on for days without sleep in the hot desert. His lips were parched from the lack of water, and his badly twisted ankle only slowed his progress. As he rested on the ledge with a clear view of Cassiopeia in the distance, he knew he would perish here, but the sacred treasure had to be preserved somehow. He took out a piece of paper and wrote down the final coordinates, encoded in the cryptic language of those technologically-advanced beings. Then, he stood for one last time and secured the message in a time capsule for future generations to find. Taking out his communicator, he sent the encoded message back to his home world with his story and the initial coordinates to where future explorers could recover his body.
Here is his first encoded message.
Decode it, find the first container, and then decipher the second message inside that will give you further hints to the final hiding place of the cache. Be careful: this journey isn’t for everyone. Careful footing and good preparation are needed to succeed. Plan on at least two hours to complete your quest . . . if you make it back at all! The creatures could still be lurking there.
Once you find the final container, take any one item of your choosing, no trade required, while the trasure remains. If you’ve made it this far, you deserve a reward. The FTF reward is the rolled-up bundle in the cache. In your postings, please do not indicate what you took to keep the booty a secret for others. Please note that this cache is rated as somewhat difficult because of the terrain. Approaching the cache requires sure footing and care in crossing rocky terrain with loose rock, so don't take children on this one. There is no need to move any rocks to find either parts of the cache. Just tread lightly, reach, grab it, and then cover your tracks as you leave.
Finally, please do not include hints on solving the code or your hike to the cache so it can remain a fun challenge for all. Good luck.