Pining for Evergreens Mystery Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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My birds, my birds, don't lie to me,
Tell me where did they hide the cache?
In the pines, in the pines
Where the sun don't ever shine
It would wait the whole night through
There is nothing hidden at the posted location, which is the original hiding spot of East meets West cache.
This is a multiple-choice multicache of sorts, and its theme is the pines, and all the conifers and evergreens by extension.
Aren't they all called just pines all too often?
Well, for this particular cache, you'd be in good shape if you know which of them are the real pines. If you solve it as intended, you are expected to travel to several locations and to identify a tree with a stamped washer clue as one of the following types of trees:
C - cedar
F - fir
J - juniper
L - larch
M - mountain mahogany
P - pine
S - spruce
Y - yew
There are 5 multiple-choice questions. The first one, about the tree at the posted location, is
CC-LD-MH
which means that if you answer 'C' for cedar, you go to waypoint 'C' (as listed below); if you answer 'L' for larch, you go to waypoint 'D'; and if you answer 'M' for mountain mahogany, go to 'H'. (If you think you already know the answer for this one, then you can skip the posted location and proceed directly to the waypoint of your choice.)
If you are lucky, you will soon find 4 remaining multiple-choice questions on stamped washers. Each 'choice washer' has three pairs of characters separated by dashes.
But if you make a wrong choice, and head to a dead-end waypoint, you will also find a washer on a tree. It will always be the same kind of a tree as the one you've just misidentified. Moreover, each 'dead-end washer' is stamped with a single letter which gives a correct answer to the question you missed. Now that you know the right answer, you can proceed to the next choice.
All washers ( multiple-choice and dead-end alike) are hanging on wire ties or wire loops 4 to 6 feet above ground. I used colored wire ties at some of the more remote locations to make your search easier. In any case, the terrain should never exceed two - two and half stars, and is bushwhack-free. As it is customary, I tried to place all of the washers, and the final part as well, at the locations with great views, accessible year-round, and OK for travel with dogs. I also tried to place them on trees which would make their species proud ... although sometimes it was a stretch to achieve all four goals at once. In any case, if you make a wrong choice, I hope that you will still enjoy the hike.
(Note: I ran out of dead-end 'S' washers and used aluminum wire bent in the shape of letter S on some of the spruces)
All the waypoints are listed below (even including the waypoint for the final pine). (Thanks to Brownbag, you can now download .loc, .gpx, and gpsvisualizer-compatible .csv files with these waypoints!)
To discourage seekers from just going after all the waypoints, and skipping the questions, the list contains lots of bogus waypoints. In fact, less than half of the listed waypoints got any washers (and only 4 waypoints have multiple-choice washers), so I would encourage you to solve the puzzle instead of sweeping this entire set of locations:
2 40° 36.809 -111° 33.539
3 40° 45.858 -111° 49.185
4 40° 41.937 -111° 44.682
5 40° 36.084 -111° 33.583
6 40° 41.923 -111° 43.701
7 40° 41.803 -111° 41.928
8 40° 36.607 -111° 32.832
9 40° 36.711 -111° 33.414
A 40° 36.878 -111° 34.013
B 40° 41.755 -111° 43.016
C 40° 45.775 -111° 49.100
D 40° 41.846 -111° 42.782
E 40° 42.172 -111° 42.883
F 40° 36.986 -111° 33.503
G 40° 42.652 -111° 41.417
H 40° 42.099 -111° 43.234
I 40° 41.003 -111° 42.560
J 40° 42.055 -111° 43.316
K 40° 43.176 -111° 50.639
L 40° 41.940 -111° 44.010
M 40° 43.507 -111° 51.071
N 40° 41.358 -111° 42.085
O 40° 41.471 -111° 44.684
P 40° 42.106 -111° 47.288
Q 40° 36.849 -111° 48.284
R 40° 36.724 -111° 33.864
S 40° 36.950 -111° 33.261
S 40° 42.152 -111° 42.317
T 40° 36.563 -111° 33.163
U 40° 42.949 -111° 41.908
V 40° 36.669 -111° 33.180
W 40° 42.322 -111° 41.449
X 40° 43.369 -111° 50.848
Y 40° 41.654 -111° 44.563
Z 40° 37.183 -111° 33.460
The original swag was the usual mix of trinkets in a gallon jar, wrapped in a colored plastic bag for a bit of camo. I just loved its picture-perfect location, and I couldn't resist leaving I think I'm in Luv TB there. Also priming the cache was Green Lantern the Cach-U-Nut.
We thank Cach-U-Nuts for generous technical assistance; UtahJean, Cach-U-Nuts again, and Ford Alpha for the botanical inspiration; and lastly, late Kurt Cobain for the rendition of the Pines which was stuck in my head during all those trips it took us to place and re-check this pine-themed puzzle.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)