I've often sat having lunch under the red and white awning on the
pavilion at Stew Leonard's looking across the Thruway at the vast
green expanse that is Sprain
Ridge Park and thought it curious that there were not more
caches in this great park (aside from H2"O"'s
Ridge View cache). Then, in the last month,
The Bunny Trail popped up and then H2"O" placed their well done
string of caches, each successively a little farther away from the
parking area. Almost like The BassoonPilot Theorem in reverse. The
what?!?
By way of background, BassoonPilot
was a prolific cacher during the early days of geocaching.
BassoonPilot was based in northern New Jersey but you'd find him in
the logbooks in Pennsylvania, south Jersey, the five boroughs, Long
Island, the Hudson valley (including Westchester), Connecticut and
other points on the compass (gas was cheaper back in those days
). Besides competing with StayFloopy for FTFs
and finding the trickiest hides, BP had some opinions on geocaching
which he shared on the Groundspeak forums. One notable discussion
involved cache density. BassoonPilot once noted that: "Usually, the
original cache in the area will also be the farthest down the
trail. The second placement, 2nd farthest, etc., etc.. At least
with the .1 mile rule the caches now have to be 528 feet apart ...
there for a while, a few people were dropping new caches 50 ft from
existing ones." I call BP's observation
The BassoonPilot Theorem. This cache placement is the inverse
of that Theorem. In keeping with the BassoonPilot theme, this cache
is also subject to
The BassoonPilot Corollary, namely expiration dates on cache
placements. Accordingly, this cache will be archived after a year
or two. [1/13/12 Edit: Procrastinating pays off.
With Ridge Hill now open and in view of BriGuy's 1/7/12 log, I'll
risk the wrath of BassoonPilot's ghost and keep this cache active
for the time being. Gotta give Ridge Hill shoppers some outlet for
a geocaching fix...].
And don't worry about the lingo - knowledge of geometry is not
required to find this cache. Feel free however to add additional
proofs to the Inverse of the BassoonPilot Theorem - there's still
plenty of park south of this placement for additional caches!
Please rehide the cache and related materials as you found them.
Here's a trail
map to help you in your wanderings. Park is open seven days a
week, 8 a.m. to dusk, year-round. There is no fee required for
hiking - entry fees only apply to those using the pool. There is
ample parking near the pool. Dogs must be leashed. And don't forget
to wave - I might be having lunch at Stew's.
Free counters provided by Andale.