Quiet Lynden is situated in the center of Whatcom County's coastal plain and serves as the hub of local agriculture. Lynden has been graced with a distinctive Dutch ethnic presence for over a hundred years; we see the effects of that presence on local dairy farms (most cattle are Holstein Frisian, a breed developed in Holland), in land features (lowlands protected by an extensive diking system, a re-routed Nooksack River), and in commercial architecture (including several windmills); not to mention the walking/biking paths along and across local watercourses (our functional equivalent of canals). Lynden is bisected by Fishtrap Creek, so named for a Native American salmon harvesting installation once located near the site of the present Lynden City Park, and it naturally garners no little local attention, as evidenced by some eight pedestrian bruggen found as it wends its way through town. This cache is the second in a series of six designed to acquaint you just a bit with Lynden and its bruggen -- followed by a seventh final cache found using the decimal coordinates of all six of the series, so keep track of them.

Don't just hop right into your cachemobile, the posted coordinates are NOT the cache location (they'll only take you to a downstream point where Front Street crosses Fishtrap Creek) and a bit of research is in order. To assist FEMA, tribes, and state and federal agencies), the USGS maintains a gage on Fishtrap Creek; each such gage carries a unique 8-digit identifier number. The cache coordinates are:
N48º 56.LATDEC W122º 27.LONGDEC
LATDEC = First 4 digits of the Fishtrap Creek gage ID number, less 447.
LONGDEC = Last 4 digits of the Fishtrap Creek gage ID number, less 1439

This brug (actually, its predecessor) is the oldest pedestrian one in Lynden, dating well back before my mere 50+ years, and was a favorite student shortcut to/from the former elementary school just up the hill.

No need to tear up the landscape, your feet need not leave the sidewalk/deck to retrieve the cache. Moderate muggle factor; lady up the hill will be watching you (but she knows what's up). Micro. Bring your own pen/pencil.

You can check your coordinates at Geochecker.com.

I (Teese) am a member of the Washington State Geocaching Association. If you are a geocacher in this state, please consider joining the WSGA . . . it's a great way to meet other cachers, access caching resources, and improve the sport. *** Click their icon for more information! ***