Many Neopagans actively worship Gaia. Beliefs regarding Gaia
vary, ranging from the common Wiccan belief that Gaia is the Earth
(or in some cases the spiritual embodiment of the earth, or the
Goddess of the Earth), to the broader Neopagan belief that Gaia is
the goddess of all creation, a Mother Goddess from which all other
gods spring.
Gaia is sometimes thought to embody the planets and the Earth,
and sometimes thought to embody the entire universe. Worship of
Gaia is varied, ranging from prostration to druidic ritual. Unlike
Zeus, a roving nomad god of the open sky, Gaia is manifest in
enclosed spaces: the house, the courtyard, the womb, the cave. Her
sacred animals are the serpent, the lunar bull, the pig, and bees.
In her hand the narcotic poppy may be transmuted to a pomegranate.
Religious theorists postulate that Gaia was the founding icon
behind many feminine Deity figures, from Mother Nature to Diana.
Because the worship of Gaia includes the belief that She is,
literally, The Earth, those locations which delve into Her depths,
such as caves, springs and sinkholes are considered particularly
sacred.
The mythological name was revived in 1979 by chemist James
Lovelock, in his book "Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth".
Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis was coproduced by microbiologist Lynn
Margulis. The hypothesis proposes that living organisms and
inorganic material are part of a dynamic system that shapes the
Earth's biosphere, and maintains the Earth as a fit environment for
life. Many modern scientific disciplines, to include geophysiology,
Earth system science, biogeochemistry and systems ecology support
the Gaia Theory view that the Earth itself is an organism with
self-regulatory functions. The Gaia Hypothesis was widely embraced
and passed into common usage as part of the heightened awareness of
environmental concerns of the 1990s.
Enough about Gaia. On to the puzzle!
As with most puzzles, this one will not be found at the posted
coordinates. To locate the final, you'll need to locate eighteen
laminated clue slips, located in various caches in the Coexist
series. Solve the riddle(s) found on the clue slips and find the
final at:
N 29° LU.MBE
W 81° RJ.ACK
(Yes, that kind of Lumberjack)
As I wander the woods, I may swap the clue slips from cache to
cache, to keep the puzzle fresh. I won't be posting when I make
these swaps. Your best bet is to find all 59 caches in the series.
If you survive the quest, finding the ammo can final will be a
breeze. Depending on how you approach the final, you may see an
area where mortals playing silly GPS games are not welcome. Please
respect any such indications, and go around such areas. What you
seek will not be within an off limits area.
And now for
something completely different!
I've provided a bit of a spoiler for the Coexist Power Trail!
As mentioned previously, this is a Power Trail, defined by the
fact that the caches are all fairly close together, and there are a
whole bunch of them. However, there are some very distinct
differences between this Power Trail and some others I have
seen.
- For instance, this one incorporates only quality containers
throughout, to include ammo cans, Therapak jars, small Lock &
Locks and soda bottle preforms, in equal measure. If you find a
film can, it's because some mook dropped it. Please CITO that
stinker out of the woods.
- Also, unlike most Power Trails I am familiar with, this one has
unique titles and write ups. For those who appreciate something
more than "Bike Trail # 1, Bike Trail # 2, Etc", with a single
cache write up copy/pasted a few hundred times, this one might
appeal to you.
- Another thing that sets this Power Trail apart from its
brethren is the degree of difficulty involved in finding them all.
Most Power Trails I've seen require little more than driving 529'
and grabbing a film can, repeat, repeat, repeat. This one, if done
in order, will require 12.5 miles of bushwhacking in an incredibly
harsh ecosystem, followed by a 3.5 mile hike back to the starting
point. You will sweat, you will curse, you will bleed and you will
itch, by the time you are done. But the feeling of satisfaction you
will feel will never go away. For those who cringe at the thought
of that much bushwhacking, you could pay close attention to the
trails in the area, reducing your total bushwhacking to around 6
miles, though your non-bushwhack hiking would be over 15 miles, and
your tracklog would not show a way cool Yin Yang image.
- The greatest difference, however, is to be found in the
locations. Many Power Trails seem to be placed along roadways,
where your day is spent worrying about soccer moms in SUVs, talking
on their cell phones. This Power Trail is located deep in the
bowels of the beautiful Ocala National Forest, where all you have
to worry about is being killed by critters, getting probed by
aliens, getting hopelessly lost when your GPSr dies and/or
suffering from sun stroke/dehydration/starvation.
If you haven't noticed by now, the caches in this Power Trail
each have a different D/T rating, for a total of 60 unique
combinations. Some may see this as me manipulating the ratings, but
by the time you are done, I think you will agree that you have
earned each of these D/T ratings. The ClayJar D/T calculator really
wasn't designed to cope with a series like this. If you look at the
highest rated cache, individually, and plot a course to that cache,
using old trails to minumize your bushwhacking, you could turn a
5/5 into a 5/2. And if you look at the easiest rated cache in the
series, and approach it as the series is laid out, you would turn a
1/1 into a 1/5. Combine this with the normal subjectiveness
inherent in the ClayJar system, and you find that the Terrain
rating is mostly irrelevant. The Difficulty ratings, however, will
be as accurate as I can make them.
The ammo cans will all be tethered, to keep Gentle Ben from
wandering off with them. The 10"x4" Therapak canisters, and the
3"x4" Lock & Locks are likewise tethered, and will mostly be
suspended off the ground. The preforms are mounted on aluminum wire
hooks, allowing them to be hung from branches.
Notebooks are your friend. The clue slips are 2.5"x2.5"
laminated cards, randomly placed in the caches in the series. Each
will need to be solved/decrypted. Unless you are an uber-genius of
the CondomAx/Cache&Keri/BoJaB variety, you will likely find
them tough to solve in the field. By making notes of the clue
slips, or taking photos of them, you will be able to solve them at
your leisure. My one request is that you leave the clue slips in
the caches you find them in, so others will be able to find the
final.
