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MaxB’s Golden Spike Contiguous County Challenge. Mystery Cache

Hidden : 7/18/2014
Difficulty:
3 out of 5
Terrain:
4.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:


This cache is NOT at the listed Coordinates. Review the Final Waypoint.

In 1847 Dr Hartwell Carver submitted a report to congress proposing that a railroad line be completed connecting the East Coast to the Pacific coast.  On May 10, 1869, a Golden Spike was driven into the final tie at Promontory Summit Utah completing the Transcontinental Railroad.

The Challenge is to find at least one cache in a Contiguous (adjacent) set of US counties connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.   The terminus counties may be anywhere along the respective ocean.  (Not up rivers that empty into the ocean).   The route may meander along any route, as long as the counties along the route are all connected (adjacent) .  You do not have to find the counties in any specific order (i.e. east to west, west to east, or even consecutively with each other.), but you must not have a gap between counties along the route.

All past cache finds count (except locationless).  You can document this by capturing your US County Map statistics using GSAK, posting a bookmark, or any other way we can confirm your accomplishment. 
 
Some clarification points:
-         Adjacent counties are those, which share a land border with the next county in your string.
-         Counties, which meet solely corner to corner, are NOT adjacent. (However if there is some stretch of common border they are adjacent even if there is not a road along that stretch.)
-         Counties separated by a river are considered adjacent, even though there is not a bridge across the river between the counties.  (i.e. Counties in Ohio are considered adjacent to the corresponding counties directly across the river in Kentucky)
-         Counties separated by a Great Lake, Ocean Inlets, Gulfs, major Bays, Sounds, etc. are NOT considered adjacent.  For example the counties of Wisconsin are not adjacent to the counties of lower Michigan (separated by Lake Michigan).  Similarly Connecticut counties are not adjacent to Long Island NY (separated by Long Island Sound). Another example would be Huron County on the thumb of Michigan, is not adjacent to Arenac county on the mitten (Separated by Saginaw Bay).
-         An exception to the above rule would be Emmet County MI in the lower peninsula IS considered adjacent to Mackinac County MI in the upper peninsula. (Connected across the straits of Mackinac by the Mackinaw Bridge.), Similarly San Francisco County IS considered adjacent to Alameda County and Marin Counties (Connected by the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges).
-         Hawaii counties are NOT adjacent to ANYTHING, even each other, so don’t even ask!

The difficulty terrain for this cache is based on the Challenge to accomplish it.  The final hide is a 1.5 / 1.5.  To claim this find: 1st complete the challenge, 2nd come sign log in final, 3rd log your find.  We don’t want to field questions about signing now in case we might complete requirements next summer. Logs indicating physical portion of challenge is not yet complete will be deleted (It is OK to post note documentation that you have completed the required Contiguous Counties, and are awaiting opportunity to come find final and sign log.)

Congratulations to Bretina, gcLiam and gcBrady for FTF
For those who wonder about such things, we have accomplished the requirements of this challenge.  Our posted US county map shows we have a contiguous set of counties which reach the Atlantic Ocean in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.  Our contiguous set of counties reach the Pacific Coast in California and Oregon.
PGC Checker  
We don’t want anyone to strike out and DNF on the final after accomplishing the challenge.  If you contact us when you are coming to attempt final, we can verify cache is present and maybe even join you to celebrate completing this difficult challenge.

If you enjoy this challenge, you might also enjoy some of our other challenge caches:

GC1A30D – ABCDERIAN Challenge:
GC1A30H – Ada to Zion Great Lakes Alphabet Cities Challenge :
GC2V3ZG – MaxB’s Caching Bingo Challenge:
GC2T5JW – Challenge of the Century - Travel Bug Hotels:
GC2QN4X – MaxB’s Multi-State County Challenge:
GC31HP5 – 50 State Challenge – “See the USA in Your…”:
GC31HNC – MaxB’s Continental Breakfast Challenge Cache:
GC31HNC – MaxB’s Continental Breakfast Challenge Cache:
GC3N7V4 - MaxB's 1000 Finds the Hard Way Challenge:
GC3N7TA - MaxB's 150 US Counties Challenge:
GC3N7WF - MaxB's Cache Icon Challenge:
GC3Q46R - Historical Caches of St Joseph County
GC3Q48Y - Historical Caches of Berrien County
GC43JRX – MaxB’s Contiguous County Challenge – 5 States
GC43JTD - MaxB’s Contiguous County Challenge – 10 States
GC43JTY – MaxB’s Contiguous County Challenge – 15 States
GC4DEQN – MaxB’s Contiguous County Challenge – 20 States
GC4DER7 – MaxB’s Contiguous County Challenge – 25 States
GC5D8QZ - MaxB's Contiguous County Challenge - 30 States
GC5D90M - MaxB's Contiguous County Challenge - 35 States
GC4DXYY – Caching the World – A Stay-cation Challenge
GC53G0K - MaxB's All the Presidents Men
GC59480 - MaxB's Golden Spike Contiguous County Challenge
GC5948T - MaxB's NAFTA Contiguous County Challenge
GC59498 - MaxB's 1000 Finds the REALLY HARD way
GC6KDEF - MaxB's MEGA Event States Challenge
GC6KDDA - MaxB's Event Road Warrior Challenge
GC6R421 - MaxB's A Favorite Challenge for Beginning Cachers
GC6R432 - MaxB's Favorite Caches State Challenge
GC6WAKA - MaxB's Mysterious Traveler Challenge
GC6WF9X - MaxB's 730 US County Challenge
GC7054Y - MaxB's Spanning the World Challenge
GC70AB6 - MaxB's Events in Adjacent Counties Challenge

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Fgbc orsber lbh ybbx sbe gur pnpur.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)