SS10 Sam Walton Water Bearings Multi-cache
SS10 Sam Walton Water Bearings
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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This is a one container offset cache using the bearings from different reference points to triangulate a position. The coordinates given above are for the area where you will park on a residential side street. You will only have to park your vehicle once. Other coordinates given are for reference points. Please note that during cetain times of the day the traffic on Fort Jesse Rd can be quite busy. Please be safe when crossing the street onto the public land.
Bring Pen/Pencil.
GPS Bearings: This is a little exercise using the bearings feature of a GPS. You will NOT need a GPS with the electronic compass for this cache find. Remember that there are 360 degrees in a compass circle when considering bearing (angular degrees towards a destination/target from a known position). When you have the numerically GPS bearing display, the degrees will be correct relative to your current position no matter which way you are facing. The GPS compass arrow may not point you in the right direction though, if you have not walked in a straight line or turned in the same position. You will not need to use numeric display for heading (the angular direction of travel). So make sure you GPS is set up to show a numeric bearing.
The Basics on Directions: If you want to go in the opposite direction you need to add or subtract 180 degrees from a given bearing to obtain the opposite direction. Also note the degrees on that circle corresponding as follows: 0/360 = North; 90 = East; 180 = South; 270 = West
Reference Points: The reference points are named appropriately for the actual location that I took the reference waypoint. Remember you don't actually have to visit these reference points to find the geocache, but you may find it interesting to do so.
Bearing Triangulation: A paper map and magnetic compass can be use to triangulate you position based on landmarks you can see in the distance and match to the paper map. Usually two or three bearing is sufficient to triangulate your location within a few hundred feet and can typically navigate say a hike in the wilderness. You’ll need three to four bearings to get a much more exact position on the paper map. Using the GPS will not be much different. You’ll need three or 4 of the following bearing to triangulate the position of the cache down to 50 feet or less. The following bearings are FROM the reference points TO the position of the cache:
1) Sam Sign = 118 degrees
2) Walton Sign = 73 degrees
3) Fort Jesse Rd & Airport Rd = 273 degrees
4) Street Parking = 337 degree
Suggestions: You should be able to find this cache without the hints provided below. Share if you were able to accomplish without the hints/spoilers. Though it is not necessary, you may find it interesting to play around with the mapping software that may have come with your GPS unit. My MapSend software provides bearings and distance when I used one of the route planning features. You may find it best to just stand in areas until all the bearings from your standing location match the goto back to each reference point. It may take trying them all just a few times while adjusting your standing position.
Field Tested: I field tested this cache with the above bearings. While walking perpendicular to a specific reference point, the numerical bearing would change one degree only after I moved about 50 feet in a straight line for three of the bearings. One of the bearings provided quicker changes in degrees with much fewer steps. “Which one is it and why” is a question you can ask yourself? You can request the answer if you would like. Just send an email.
Other Interesting Facts: I was able to create with my GPS by connecting all the first three reference points listed above into a triangle the following information:
* 3.4904 mile perimeter
* 0.468856 square mile area
Initial Contents: 10 Peace Necklaces for Kids, A variety set of unused earrings.
Inspired by Ma n Pa: They set up a similar offset cache out at Comlara Park just outside of Hudson, IL on the North side of the Evergreen Lake. I’ll call them the “Lake Side Series” to summarize the names of all 4 of them. The difference with theirs is that they used 3 distances in feet from other caches to the final cache container. All were placed in the same general area. You should try that one out too for a very nice nature walk.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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.93 zvyrf sebz Jnygba Fvta
.52 zvyrf sebz Sbeg Wrffr Eq & Nvecbeg Eq
Srrg sebz Fgerrg Cnexvat vf 335