Horse Camp Mystery Cache

Well camouflaged ammo box located in the Sandilands Provincial Forest.

Cache IS at the posted coordinates.The cache used to be a puzzle, but to help make sure anybody that travels all this way doesn't leave empty handed, it's now a traditional hide. The cache will be buried under snow in the winter and probably difficult to dig out if you find it – but it’ll take a shovel hit. If you like puzzles, you can still solve the coordinates from the secret message below:

N49 26.ABC W96 15.DEF

It took courage in the old days to go out on the open road knowing thieves and vagabonds would lie in wait for a returning salesman and his day’s takings.  But Ned was no fool.  Old fashioned and shabby in appearance, he had a ready wit, knew how to handle business, and had the sense to take precautions.  As soon as he could afford it he bought a donkey, knocked up a makeshift stable alongside the cottage and enjoyed the animal’s companionship and co-operation with the loads.  As a means of protection (especially on night journeys) he fastened a metal chain to the donkey’s hind leg, creating an unearthly sound to offput prowlers.  At likely danger points he slipped a peculiar horned head-dress over it’s pointed ears. 

Arrayed thus, at the slightest alarm, Ned could charge down the road to frighten off a threatened ambush.  The roads were hedged about with thick concealing bushes and undergrowth.  Many a time Ned was glad of his precautions, and he was to put them to good use on that wild and windy night in 1797.  On his way back from Woodridge market, Ned and donkey passed Smokey the Bear and headed north east at sign post 18. Donkey, with master in tow, followed this wide and sandy road for a ways, then turned right at a gravel track leading up to home.  Instead of stopping, the donkey passed its corral on the right and continued towards the beaver pond.  As the donkey neared the pond a few feet ahead of its master it stopped, listened, and turned to encounter a horse tethered nearby.  With Ned bemusedly following, the donkey wandered on.  Locating sounds from an open pit, it lumbered curiously over the intervening mounds, its chain rattling and clanging over stumps and hollows.  The diggers – down inside the open pit – paused in utter consternation. Just as the donkey reached them, one man ventured to stand and peep over the side.  The horned and hooded donkey stared down! The intruders were petrified.  With a yell of ‘My God, Jim, the Devil’, the first man scrabbled up the opposite side of the pit and sped away with his companion panting after him. 

Left behind were the brigand's horse and cart and a mysterious note next to a sextant.  Ned happily claimed horse and cart for his own and preserved the note as a curiosity for the telling of this tale to his many, many children. The two brigands were never heard from again and the mystery of why they were digging in that spot still remains unsolved to this day.  Perhaps you can decode the note and solve the mystery!