FTF #3. #1 of 10 for the day. #269 total. Found at 7:50am with Lobocs during a caching day in South County. Of my FTFs, I'm most proud of this one. I saw the posting of the cache and didn't think anything of it -- I hate Sudoku! Last night, Lobocs was working on the puzzle when I saw what would be the breakthrough. After verifying it with the checksum, we passed the puzzle to my wife, who was done with it after 30 minutes. She said it was one of the toughest she's completed, so the difficulty seems to be correct.
This morning, we double-checked that it hadn't been found yet. After verifying, we took off at 6:30 to be down in time to ensure FTF. A quick bite in the parking lot showed us that most people don't follow the 8am, so we started the trip at 7:30am. We looked for an easier way in, but couldn't find it, so we started the bushwhacking. The trip was a lot easier than expected and the cache was found quickly by Lobocs. The FTF prize was visible. After signing the log, we took a celebatory picture near the location. On the way out, I noticed some nice-sized mushrooms nearby and took some photos of them as well.
Thanks a lot for the challenging puzzle! It was well worth the effort!
T: Red Jeep TB and FTF Prize; L: Alien TB