No Really, It's NOT About the Numbers

Sometimes it's really not about the numbers, but in completing a task. The Huron-Clinton Metroparks Geocaching Adventure 2009 published this week opening up thirteen new geocaches, one in each of their parks. Only eleven of the caches are used toward the challenge with the other two being "bonus" caches. The variety of hides placed by many different Cachers each provide two words or phases which are used to complete the crossword puzzle. Yesterday's mission was to hit as many of those eleven park caches as we could and hopefully complete the series in a single weekend. It's quite the task considering that many of the parks are about an hour drive from the next closest park. We did very well on our attempt having completed seven of the parks in roughly eleven hours with a few extra caches in some of the parks. Yesterday's efforts found;

• MGA9-Metro Beach-Birdwatching (GC1PGWT)
• MGA9 - Wolcott Mill - Stone Quarry (GC1P1ZC)
• MGA9 - Stony Creek - The Osprey Project (GC1PG9B)
• MGA9-Indian Springs–Farm Trail (GC1PGA7)
• MGA9-Kensington-The Ole Barn (GC1PP0B) FTF!
• MGA9-Huron Meadows-Missing Coordinates (GC1QBHB)
• MGA09-Hudson Mills-Leapfrog@TheMills (GC1QN52)
  

All were good caches and varied in hides (Tradional, Multi, Unknown, and a Letterbox). Three of the hides will stick with me for sometime though.

The MGA9-Indian Springs–Farm Trail cache itself was a simple hide. What made it memorable was the bonus cache hidden for this park. Upon finding the MGA9 cache you were given instructions on finding the bonus cache. That took us into the park's new Environmental Discovery Center, a building we'd never been able to visit during its hours of operation. Today, thanks to this hider, we journeyed into the EDC and under its pond in what they call the "Pond Dome" (see the photo above). Another jewel we'd not have found without Geocaching.

Our first to find on MGA9-Kensington-The Ole Barn was completely unexpected and made possible only through an error in the formula posted originally to the cache page. Even then the math was a little more complicated than usual and keeping the order of operations straight made a difference of about a hundred feet and finding the cache or not. Two of us ran the numbers and came up with the two different answers. The first we attempted didn't follow the correct order of operations and had us poking through grass and weeds. We ran into TreePlanter after our find on this one and they'd made the same error in the math so we gave them the clue. They found the cache according to their logs so we're happy to have helped and saved them the headaches we'd gone through when working from the wrong puzzle (Bill of TeamLegend4 ending up in the mud). Again, this one took us to a new part of the park we'd not had the chance to explore.

The last find of the day was memorable for its container. I can't say much about MGA09-Hudson Mills-Leapfrog@TheMills without giving it away. It was a very cute, very bright hide.

Now we only have four park caches to finish:

• MGA9-Lower Huron-Catsville (GC1PQZ6)
  
• MGA9 - Willow - Anderdon (GC1PKYP)
• MGA9-Oakwoods-The Treaty of St. Mary's (GC1P51R)
• MGA9-Lake Erie-Winter Harvest (GC1QAPG)

Three of those four parks connect so it won't be as crazy as yesterday's run. Once done we'll have the satisfaction of having completed the challenge and visited nearly all of the Huron-Clinton Metroparks. It's very gratifying. So, back on the road to wrap this mission up. Wish us luck!