The cache is not located at the posted
coordinates.
From the poem Twas the Night Before Christmas, we all
learn about Old St. Nick and his miniature sleigh along with the
eight tiny reindeer. Now, this cache page contains an additional
passage that never made it as part of the poem.
As Santa called each of the reindeer by name, they organized
themselves in a circle one after another in clockwise
order (which they totally hate!). What we also don't know from the
poem is how naughty those tiny reindeer were. As soon as Santa
shouted, "Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!", the
reindeer rearranged themselves based on the outcome of a counting
game. You see, these reindeer knew how to count from 1 to
80 ... and they loved showing off their counting skills to
Santa, driving him nuts!
The counting game went like this:
- Dancer started counting by shouting: "One!". The
next reindeer (in clockwise order) in the circle shouted:
"Two!" ... and this went on until one reindeer shouted:
"Eighty!".
- This 80th reindeer left the circle forming a new
line.
- The game continued with the reindeer who remained in the circle
and the next reindeer started again with: "One!", and the
80th reindeer left the circle and stood on the right side of the
last reindeer in the new lineup.
- The game continued in the same fashion until there was no
reindeer left in the circle.
By the time the game ended, Santa had no choice but to go along
with this new lineup (formed in the order of each reindeer leaving
the circle).
The cache location (N 38 ??.??? W 121 ??.???) can be
obtained by observing the new reindeer lineup. The lineup will lead
you to a 10-digit number. Plug the first five digits to the
North coordinates, and the rest to the West coordinates.
Apparently, the cache is a tiny container underneath a little
Christmas tree (or something that looks like it).
Merry Christmas to All!
You can check your answers for this puzzle on
Geochecker.com.
Congrats billrow on the
FTF!