Cougar Mountain Blackout Mystery Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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Cougar Mountain Blackout
Welcome to the Cougar Mountain Blackout Challenge cache!
This cache is another of the now familiar blackout caches located around the Seattle area for which, in order to complete the challenge and find the cache, you must first find all the other active caches within a given area.
About Cougar Mountain
Cougar Mountain is one in a group of six foothill mountains within the Issaquah Alps. It is located the furthest west and also is the most well known and heavily used due to its proximity to the population centers as well as its excellent trail system and interesting history.
Cougar Mountain Regional Park Map
Blackout Area
The area for this particular blackout is Cougar Mountain. You may have noticed that the word ‘park’ was not included, that’s because I’ve defined the area by the greater geology and geopolitical boundaries not just those of the very popular but smaller park located at the upper sections of the mountain.
Boundary Map
In order to complete this challenge you must, for at a least one single point in time, have found or owned all the active caches in the given area as determined by the posted coordinates. At the time of posting there were 205 caches including this one.
The Specific Boundaries
The blackout area is the geological boundary of Cougar Mountain which includes the politically defined Cougar Mountain Park. To make it easier, the boundary is then modified to coincide with natural or manmade features, specifically waterways and roads.
The boundaries are:
North: The center of I90
East: The center of State Route 900
South: The center of State Route 900, SE May Valley Road and May Creek
West: The Lake Washington shoreline
These boundaries are also shown in the map above which is clickable to take you to an interactive Google terrain map. The map will help clarify the boundary but unfortunately will not identify any caches since it is not possible to have the boundary and current geocaches shown on the same Google map at the same time. The good news is that you can fairly easily determine the included caches using Groundspeak’s map tool. GSAK users can poly filter using these coordinates.
Questions will naturally come up for caches near the boundary or for other reasons so I’ve listed some of them below. Email me with questions you have about any others.
Included:
Active caches of the type: traditional, multi, mystery, letterbox, virtual
GC3AWGW Favorite Stumps #10
Not Included:
Disabled caches
Caches of the type: event, CITO, webcam, Whereigo, Adventure Lab
GC13MV8 May Creek
GC2NA3M L.M.D.C.
GC383Q6 May Creek Too Tough
GC60NZE Wade A Minute Here
GC43NHP New Years Eve Creek Mouth*
GC1M0D0 Bellevue Blackout*
*these caches are within the poly filter coordinates
Note regarding difficult hides and puzzles:
There are a number of very difficult caches and it’s not reasonable to expect everyone to be able to find and solve them all completely independently. Asking for help and hints or nudges is absolutely fine and even expected but do try to stick to the general intent of the game. For example, make a few attempts at the cache before asking for a location hint and spend a couple hours on the puzzle before asking for help. When you do ask for help try a hint or nudge rather than the full solution or location. There aren't any hint police, but let's all give it our best shot.
Logging Requirements
Once you have found all the required caches then you are free to go find the final; no need to check with me first. However, you need to show that you completed it by using one of the four methods below. Anyone failing to do so will be subject to having their found log deleted without notice. Be sure to note in your found log the day and time that you blacked out the area since that is a key point.
Bookmark List Method
- Create a bookmark list called "[your name]’s Cougar Mountain Blackout"
- Make the bookmark list public and include this cache on it so that it shows up in the bookmark lists shown on this cache page
- Add to the list all the caches you have found within the boundaries
My Finds Pocket Query Method
- Forward by email your complete My Finds Pocket Query as downloaded from the geocaching website. My email address is shaddow.geo at gmail.com
GSAK GPX Method
- Forward by email a gpx file created by GSAK with a poly filter using these coordinates. My email address is shaddow.geo at gmail.com
Log List Method
- Post a log to the cache page listing the date you found each cache, the cache code and the cache name. Post one cache per line and start each line with a line number. Use a single space between each item. You can order the list in any way that you want but maintain the given structure as it is very important to make it much easier to import into a spreadsheet. Please post the list only once after completing the challenges. Do not post as you go as each log would generate an email that will spam and irritate myself and the watchers. The list should look very similar to this:
001 5/4/11 GCXXX1 The First Cache In My List
002 6/1/11 GCXXX5 The Second Cache In My List
003 7/2/11 GCXXXB Another Cache Found By Me
…
203 8/17/12 GCXXXY The Second To Last Cache In My List
204 8/22/12 GCXXXZ The Last Cache In My List
The Cache
The cache is a painted .50 cal ammo can at ground level and covered with natural camouflaged. It’s located about 5’ off the trail behind one of the big trees at trail’s edge. I’ve started it off with lots of swag and please feel free to take without worrying about trading, I will refill as needed.
Finishers
Finishers of the Cougar Mountain Blackout
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
[Given in the description]