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Castles of South Hero Multi-Cache

Hidden : 6/11/2005
Difficulty:
2.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:

The coords above are for parking to the rec path. Gather some numbers as you take the tour of the stone castles of South Hero. You can drive or ride a bike to each of the 4 castles listed. The final is just about 20 feet off the bike path.

Here is a story I heard about the creater of these little castles. Please let me know if I have any mistakes.
Harry Barber was born and raised in Switzerland. As he traveled his homeland and Bavaria he was attracted to the designs and shapes of the castles including Swan Mt Castle. In the late 1930s he was injured in a mining accident and received some sort of monetary settlement from the government. With this money he decided to travel to the Americas. His plan was to go to Chile, South America.
Along his way he spent a night in Marseilles, France, partying with the ladies. When he woke the next morning, he had been robbed of his money.
He now had to change his plans to cross the ocean and decided to work for his fare aboard a freighter. The only freighter he could find willing to take him was headed to North America. In fact it was Canada, a far cry from South America. The freighter went as far as Montreal, where he began his journey, on foot, south. When he reached Grand Isle, VT he happened upon a young woman selling fruit. She saw that he was hungry, and offered him an orange. He had never seen and orange before and she had to show him how to peel it. He was impressed by the hospitality of the young woman, and decided to stay for a while. He asked about finding some work to earn some food and he was directed to a farm that used the Providence Island just south of South Hero. He worked there tending cows and sheep. He continued to see the girl at the fruit stand and married her and they made residence in South Hero. As he returned from work each evening, he would pick up stones to bring home to use for masonry. Between 1940? and 1966? Harry worked several jobs, but his true love was for the castles he had seen back home, and he used these stones to built many miniature stone castle masterpieces. He was commissioned to build these by both locals and the wealthy, some of which were lighted garden fountains. He took great pride in his craftsmanship and decided to try to get one of his castles displayed at the nearby museum. He tried persistently to see the museum owner so he could convince her. After several days, the owner, being annoyed by his loitering, told him they were not interested in his work. He was heart broken and so proud of his work, feeling he had lost his dream; he went home and committed suicide. But his passion lives on. There are still some of these fountains and planters displayed on the lawns of several homes in South Hero. You can see examples of his passionate craftsmanship by touring the south end of South Hero. Although the castles reside on lawns of private residents, they can easily be seen from the road.

This tour must be done during daylight hours. DO NOT try to do this tour at night with flashlights. Please respest the landowners privacy. All of these stone castles can be seen from the road until the snow covers them.

Travel to Stone Castle 1, N44*38.162, W73*18.175. There is a number on the mailbox directly in front of the castle. Note the 2-digit number (AB).
Travel to Stone Castle 2, N44*37.380, W73*19.831. There are some stone "Tea Cup shaped" flowerpots on the lawn, to the left of the castle. Count the number (C) of "Tea Cup shaped" planters.
Travel to Stone Castle 3, N44*37.767, W73*20.180. There are some planters built into the perimeter of the moat around the castle. Count the number (D) of planters around the moat.
Travel to Stone Castle 4, N44*38.375, W73*19.397. There are some red, "cone shaped", roofs on the castle. Count the number (E) of "cone shaped" roofs.

The Cache is hidden along the "South Hero Recreation Path". Parking for the Rec path is about N44*38.651, W73*18.935.
To find the coords for the cache plug in these numbers:
N44*38.tuv
t=c+e, u=b-d, v=c+d
W73*18.xyz
x=a+c, y=d, z=e

Note: there may be itchy plants along the bike path. I have made 3 trips to the cache, with shorts and sandels, without any troubles, but the little ones should be supervised.

The theme is castles.
The cache container, a 2 gal rubbermaid box holds several dragon and wizard figurines, a hobbit and elf figurine. Also fairy stickers, sword, battle axe, gobblet, bat and lizard. The box was full at start. If you didnt bring theme items, please fell free to take one anyway.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

gur pnfgyrf pna or frra sebz gur ebnq gur svany vf ng gur onfr bs n snyyra gerr

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)