Current at 11/6/2011 (Online waypoint URL) You have already found this cache! Master Index    Nearest Caches The Close Park by Wagonmaker (1.5/1) (Archived) N49� 57.250  W97� 10.722 (WGS84) UTM  14U   E 630648  N 5535125 Use waypoint: GCTZE5 Size: Small    Hidden on 3/19/2006 In Manitoba, Canada Difficulty:     Terrain:                 Grandmother lives at the posted coordinates. THE POSTED COORDINATES WILL LEAD YOU TO PRIVATE PROPERTY. TO COMPLETE THIS CACHE, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO GO TO THE POSTED COORDINATES. If you feel you must go to the coordinates, please be careful not to trespass. Stay on the street. It was the summer holidays of 1990 and Little Wagonmaker was staying with his grandmother while his parents were away. Little Wagonmaker loved his Grandmother’s house because of all the little parks and playgrounds in their neighbourhood. There were two parks in particular that were favourite destinations for Little Wagonmaker to walk to with Grandmother. They were like hidden treasures cached away from unsuspecting passers-by just waiting to be unearthed by avid explorers. One of them, which they called The Close Park, was really just around the corner. Grandmother liked it because of the relatively short walk: indeed, speaking latitudinally, it was only 00.053 minutes away. Little Wagonmaker enjoyed it too, especially as they had recently built a new playground at The Close Park. However, if one REALLY wanted to have fun, The Far Park was the way to go, what with all the different things to do there. Sure, it was further to walk, latitudinally 00.222 minutes away, but Little Wagonmaker could always run if he wanted. Grandmother... well, that was another story. Both knew, of course, that longitudinally, it made little difference: the two parks were 00.122 and 00.141 minutes away. Every time they went to the parks, Little Wagonmaker loved to bring a variety of toys to play with whilst he was there. He stuffed his pockets, and carried some, and sometimes asked Grandmother to carry some. However, he was forever leaving toys behind, which always frustrated him. Upon returning, he could never find what he was looking for, even though he knew EXACTLY where they ought to have been left. Please help Little Wagonmaker find his missing trinkets. I'm sure YOU know exactly where he left them.

Additional Hints Hints

3/12/2007 by Kabuthunk
And lo, attempt #2 came out successfully . After the chaotic debacle that was attempt #1, I'm quite pleased that attempt #2 had significantly less difficulties.

And I think that this particular cache had a record number of "checking-for-keys" of all caches I've gone after thus far:

Park car - remove keys from ignition - make sure I have them in my hand.
Grab bag from passenger seat - make sure I didn't put down keys.
Open door - make sure keys are still in hand.
Step out - make sure keys did not drop from said hand.
Lock door - make sure keys are in hand.
Open trunk, close door - make sure keys are still in hand.
Put bag in trunk - make sure I didn't drop keys in trunk.
- double-check hand to make sure I have keys before closing trunk.
Close trunk - make sure keys are in hand.
Put keys in pocket.
Feel to make sure I didn't accidentally drop keys.

As hideously redundant as it was... I can honestly say that I did NOT forget my keys this time .

Anyhoo... after overchecking my keys, I stepped up to the area. Looking around, I see the most likely culprits for cache hiding spots. There appears to already be a bit of a trail walking through the park. Luck is with me. AND, the snow doesn't even look that deep otherwise .

See where others have stepped off said path. See that their footprints go down a foot and a half .

Of course, the aformentioned path is a good 15 or so feet from my first culprit. Lacking at the moment in instant winter boots (which were in the car, and like hell I was going to go through the trouble with my keys a SECOND time in five minutes ), I decided to kinda stomp myself a path. As in, squish my foot down for about a foot and a half squared in one area to make a "stepping stone", if you will. After about six "stones", I reached where I thought the cache would be. AND I WAS RIGHT . However, it was on the OTHER side of the culprit, hence I had to make 3 more "stones" to step on to reach it. After pulling it out (quite the interesting container, too. It's holding up very nicely. Dry as a bone, and no weathering or wear that can be seen), I lobbed in a chainmail ball and signed me some log. Thanks for the obsessive-compulsive-creating cache .

No, but seriously, when attempting The Far Park (emphasis on attempting), I was relatively back to normal .

Took: Nothing
Left: Logbook entry, chainmail ball, and about 5 straight minutes of my life checking to make sure my hand was still holding my keys .

3/9/2007 by Kabuthunk
Man oh man, but there's a story behind THIS dnf.

So it's the end of the work day. I even worked a 1/2 hour extra yesterday to get off a 1/2 hour early today. This would give me a little more time before I have to pick up my fiancee from HER work.

So I pull up to near the coordinates that I calculated. Grab my GPS, slap on the Club, pop the trunk, and lock the car. Toss my work-bag into the trunk, and away I go.

But away I do NOT go today. For you see, about 2.5 seconds after closing said trunk, I felt for my keys to turn on the car alarm. These keys I did not feel inside any pocket. Looking inside the car, the keys I see dangling from my ignition.

Unfortunately, this is my fiancee's car, so I do not have a spare key for them in my wallet. This will be rectified this weekend however.

Let me tell you this... had you been within earshot (I tried to stay quiet to avoid drawing undue attention though), you may have heard enough obcenities that would have made a pirate gasp in awe.

Feeling around in my pockets or bag for anything that I might use as a 'slim jim' to break into my own car, I find nothing. Momentarily contemplating a more drastic "well, that tiny back-corner window is small and easily replacable" method, I come to SOME senses, and do the only thing I can do without a cellphone.

I begin running.

I am in (if you can define it as such) luck that my fiancee works approximately 1.7km from where the car was. It's probably good that I'm in at least a little bit of shape. Going at a damn hard clip, I only had to slow down to a walk twice for about 10 seconds each. 1.7km in about 10 minutes = I'm damn proud of myself. However, the thought of someone needing only to break a window or break into it any which way to get a free car sped up my feet a bit.

Note: This was about the time that the school near my coordinates just let out. YAY! Tons of kids will be passing my car, too! I hope the ones going this way don't notice, or have been taught enough that stealing cars is bad.

So the aformentioned 10 minutes later, I arrive gasping at my fiancee's workplace. A quick "KEYS! NOW! MINE LOCKED IN CAR! MUST RUN FAST!" and I was on my way for another 1.7km run. This one was about 15 minutes and had 3 walking breaks.

When nearing the car's coordinates (which I smartly waypointed), I thought I saw the fence that I parked beside and saw nothing. My heart sank quite deeply there. Going around another bend however showed ANOTHER fence, and a familiar car .

Feeling glad that I could retrieve my keys and correctly arm the car, I locked up and went for the cache anyway. Hey... why let a bad experience ruin a caching? I wouldn't have anywhere close to enough time to attempt BOTH 'park' caches, but I could try this one.

And try I did. However, unless I'm seriously misunderstanding something, this cache is a "1 in 4 chances of winning" type cache. I seem to have pulled a "Please try again". Looking at the hint... I saw nothing but the fence of a baseball diamond's bullpen. Then again, I didn't really look too hard. Barely at all, really. My heart just wasn't into it at this particular moment.

*sigh* another day, another coordinate option. I WILL be back for this one. That, I can guarantee.

Hints (Back)
Grandmother enjoys watching the birds.