Cache is not at the published coordinates. See info below.

Deep in the heart of the desolate Mojave Desert lie some
mysteries waiting to be uncovered. Two huge mysterious mega-sized
triangles--previously unknown to many--have projected their powers upon
a four county area, creating yet a third mega triangle as seen below.
~ 127 miles of glistening roads and untold caching adventures await you...

Click upon tacks or numbers to go to the individual locations from here...

Like every other great known triangle, this one also has a secret power of influence it wields at its core. At the dark heart of this triangle lies an amazing power to bring you later fortune and fame. Solving the mystery of this mega triangle will give you an edge for the later Mysteries of the Great SoCal Mojave Mega-Triangles event. Those who dare to complete this series will gain a competitive edge by already starting with a base of points that count towards winning the triangles event in June 2010.. But how to get at the heart of this new Mysterious Triangle? What feats of caching skills must be accomplished to get there? Something for everybody should be the motto of this series. There are a lot of different caching skills needed for safely finding the many different hide styles to be found here. Nothing repetitive, truly run of the mill, nor boring by any means exists in this series. That's also what makes this mystery, one worth solving!

Early training for the Triangles Event in June 2010:

There are two elements of this series that prepare you for the actual triangles event. You have not only caches, but like the event on June 12, 2010, there are "drive-bys" as well where you will need to go to a particular location to find the answer to a question that exists there. You don't even have to get out of your car to find the answer in most cases. You get points awarded for finding the caches and points for providing the correct answers for the drive-bys. A DNF or did not attempt will result in zero points for that location. An incorrect answer will cost you 5 points each, so if you don't know the answer, it's best not to guess it.

Drive-bys:

Gain 10 points per drive-by where each question has been answered correctly.
Lose 5 points for each incorrectly answered question.
Lose nothing, gain nothing if you don't attempt to answer any particular question.

Points are taken only for clearly wrong answers. Multi-question drive-bys will gain a proportionate fraction of the ten points if some questions are answered correctly and the rest are not attempted, rather than answered incorrectly. The best strategy is to answer only the ones you are certain of. We will apply generous leeway on answers that can be considered somewhat subjective in nature. Drive-by scoring is not allowed to become negative beyond its own point range assigned. For example, 4 wrong answers on the same drive-by does not equal minus 20 points, it only equals minus 10 points for that particular drive-by. Ideally, submit your answers for the drive-bys in email to Mr. Peep before morning, June 11, 2010. Submitted answers can not be changed and are final. We recommend submitting all of the answers at once but will accept partial submissions for those unsure of how many drive-bys they will complete before June 11.

The questions to answer:

7b. Cal Poly Pomona drive-by: (Go to 34° 3.540' N , 117° 49.160' W)
• Look north x north-westward for the answer.

• Q1a. What is the name of the structure topped with large open triangles? (hint: You can probably find the name online).
• Q1b. How many steps in one triangle are observed here?
• Q1c. How many slot windows are directly underneath these steps?

17b. Riverside drive-by 1: (Go to 33° 59.025' N , 117° 23.174' W)
• Observe what's there.

• Q2a. What prominent feature is found here at this location?
• Q2b. What form does it take?

17c. Riverside drive-by 2: (Go to 33° 59.323' N , 117° 22.983' W)
• Read the plaque found nearby on the fence wall.

• Q3a. What is the name of this building?
• Q3b. What exactly happened in 1918 and to whom?

22a. Irvine drive-by: (At location 33º 47.733 N , 117º 36.716 W)

• Q4. Why can't this area be accessed by the general public?

28b. Anaheim Discovery Science Center: (Go to ~33º 46.200' N , 117º 52.070' W)
• Observe things in both of the triangular parking lots.

• Q5a. What name is on a spacecraft nose cone found here?
• Q6a. What type of Delta Rocket is here? (north lot exit)
• Q6b. Approximately how many spacecraft have Delta Rockets launched?
• Q6c. What is the relationship cited between OC and the Delta engineers?

Perimeter Cache Locations:

Gain 5 points per cache found around the perimeter of the triangle. Stickers are OK only for regular size caches please. For smalls and micros, please keep those online by using only stamps or signatures so they don't get gummed up or filled up to quickly! There are 34 locations comprising the triangle perimeter with a total of 33 caches to be found.

The FINAL Cache

*Gain 25 POINTS!* for planting your signature on the log of this cache! This is a fun but difficult find depending on time of day, weather, and your personal abilities! Do be stealthy when retrieving this cache. It is located in a park, but not the one where the posted coordinates take you! This cache will require a slightly difficult hill climb of about 15-20 meters (~ 10 yards). There may be insects in the weeds around the cache or trees, so dress appropriately. It may be wet there do to condensation on plants depending on time of day and season, so dress appropriately. The cache is full of booty for trade. People will make quite an effort to find this cache, so please help keep the cache well stocked by trading up or trading evenly.

Your signature on the log of this, the *FINAL* cache of the series, means you will likely have won a lot of points towards the Mysteries event on June 12, 2010.. Cachers will be advised during the check-in process of their relevant START event on the June 12 event of their eligible points total received from the Series applied towards the event, so they know where they stand from the START, so to speak.

THE TRIANGLE'S GOLDEN TRIO AWAIT THE FTF CACHER!

The lucky first to find and second to find cachers will have their choice of 1 of 2 of the golden objects found in the plastic clear and red colored gift container with the bow on top. The third is a special travel bug commissioned to kick off the Triangles Series and visit other caches that have triangles in them, around them, or otherwise have some kind of triangular angle about them (if even the shape of the plot where the cache is located as viewed by satellite). What pretty golden glittery objects of desire await the first and second to find? Be them to find out first hand!.

How to find the final cache?

STEP ONE (Duplicative spelling: Finding order during an elimination round.):
Collect the letters and numbers found in the caches along the series marked in the taxonomy "FINAL (letter)(number)". Once you get them all together, cancel out the duplicates, then assemble them into an intelligent order (in a word, word)..(may want to write the numbers under the word for the next part)

STEP TWO (Are you a mathlete? The I suggest you work-out the numbers..):

• The posted northern decimal minutes for the coordinates:  _5_ _5_ . _0_ _0_ _0_

• Make this an absolute value (no decimal point) of: 55,000

• Replace certain values in order:

  1000's place: First letter value + Last letter value:  ____  +  ____  =  ____
   100's place: First letter value:  ____
    10's place: M - A - P (these are subtractions):  ____  –  ____  –  ____  =  ____
     1's place: Second letter value + Seventh letter value:  ____
                    = ___ ___ , ___ ___ ___

• Take the last result and divide by 1,000 to 3 digit decimal precision = ___ ___ . ___ ___ ___

• The new actual northern coordinate for the final is:  33º ___ ___ . ___ ___ ___ '


• The posted western decimal minutes for the coordinates:  ___ ___ . ___ ___ ___

• Make this an absolute value (no decimal point) of:  ___ ___ , ___ ___ ___

• From ___ ___ , ___ ___ ___ take away (1000 * (M - A * P's)) = 

  1000 * (((___) - (___)) * (___)) = 
  1000 * ((___) * (___)) =
  1000 * (___) = ___ ___ ___ ___

  ___ ___ , ___ ___ ___ - ___ ___ , ___ ___ ___ = ___ ___ , ___ ___ ___

• Replace certain values in order:

  100's place: Third letter value = ___
   10's place: Seventh letter value = ___
    1's place: Seventh letter value = ___
                   = ___ ___ , ___ ___ ___

• Take the last result and divide by 1,000 to 3 digit decimal precision = ___ ___ . ___ ___ ___

• The new actual western coordinate for the final is: 117º ___ ___ . ___ ___ ___ '

Check your final coordinates results for this puzzle before you go looking!

Geochecker.com

ADDITIONAL RULES & DEADLINES:

For purposes of awarding SoCal Mega-Triangle Series points to cachers attending the June 12 Mega-Triangles event, we require all finds marked on physical cache logs and drive-by questions answered in email and find logs submitted online to the geocaching website to be submitted no later than 8:00AM on June 11, the morning before the event to give us 24 hours to verify everybody's submissions.

Acknowledgements and Credits

A number of HDGC members helped to get this series off the planning sheet and into the field with donations of containers, labor with cache pre-construction and camouflage, technical support, conceptual planning, and more:

• Alan victor & Lapidarylady
• BigDaddyGRC
• KG6EAR & 5150Joker
• King & 3 Queens
• nascarfamily5
• Scrabble Dogs (& his "better half") ;)
• Windy Matters
• and supportive muggles too numerous to mention here....