"There was a young and adventurous man who found among his great-grandfather's papers a piece of parchment that revealed the location of a hidden treasure. The instructions read:
‘Sail to ______ North latitude and _______ West longitude where thou wilt find a deserted island. There lieth a large meadow, not pent, on the north shore of the island where standeth a lonely oak and a lonely pine. There thou wilt see also an old gallows on which we once were wont to hang traitors. Start thou from the gallows and walk to the oak counting thy steps. At the oak thou must turn right by a right angle and take the same number of steps. Put here a spike in the ground. Now must thou return to the gallows and walk to the pine counting thy steps. At the pine thou must turn left by a right angle and see that thou takest the same number of steps, and put another spike in the ground. [Look] halfway between the spikes; the treasure is there.'
The instructions were quite clear and explicit, so our young man chartered a ship and sailed to the South Seas. He found the island, the field, the oak and the pine, but to his great sorrow the gallows was gone. Too long a time had passed since the document had been written; rain and sun and wind had disintegrated the wood and returned it to the soil, leaving no trace even of the place where it once had stood.
Our adventurous young man fell into despair, then in an angry frenzy began to [run] at random all over the field. But all his efforts were in vain; the island was too big! So he sailed back with empty hands. And the treasure is probably still there."
The above [edited] story is recounted in a popular science book by George Gamow.
By a remarkable coincidence there once was a gallows in a field in Blackburn Hamlet! I have reason to believe that there is still hidden treasure in the same field! The oak tree is now a spruce tree which is at the end of a line of spruce trees and it is at the above coordinates (N45 26.066 W075 34.595). The pine tree is now a deciduous tree, all alone at N45 26.159 W075 34.665 . It has had several large branches cut off.
I know this because I once used the gallows at Blackburn Hamlet to hide some treasure of my own in the same fashion. Alas, the gallows has disappeared and I've searched all over the field, finding nothing more interesting than dog poop. Perhaps you are more clever than me or the young man mentioned above; maybe you can find the treasure! If you do it's only fair that you email me in private (after logging your find) telling me which method you used. Then, we can split the treasure, hehehe.
The cache container is a stubby camouflaged 'cliffy' tube, 4 inches in diameter by 4 inches high. It was hidden with only its top visible. you will practically have to be right on top of it to see it. When hidden it contained REAL MONEY!, a 'Where's George' US 1 dollar bill, Geocoin #0104, a TTC token, and a ladybug. NO DIGGING OR POUNDING OF SPIKES IN THE GROUND IS REQUIRED.
PLEASE do not include spoilers in your logs. Logs with spoilers will be deleted immediately. If you believe there is any problem with the cache setup, please advise me privately by e-mail so that I may fix them if necessary.