Current at 11/6/2011 (Online waypoint URL) You have already found this cache! Master Index    Nearest Caches The Courthouse by ertyu (1.5/2) (Archived) N49° 49.585  W97° 10.222 (WGS84) UTM  14U   E 631592  N 5520937 Use waypoint: GC167VX Size: Regular    Hidden on 9/26/2007 In Manitoba, Canada Difficulty:     Terrain:         A white elephant is a supposedly valuable possession whose cost and upkeep exceeds its usefulness, and is thus a liability. The term derives from the sacred white elephants kept by Asian monarchs. A white elephant was regarded as a sign that the kingdom was blessed with peace and prosperity. Because the animals were considered sacred, laws protected them from labor, therefore receiving a "gift" of a white elephant from a monarch was both a blessing and a curse. The old seed-cleaning plant to the south-west of the cache was converted to a courthouse at a cost of approximately $3,670,000 for a single trial which never took place. It was guarded round the clock for several years after and has since been used for storage.

Additional Hints (There are no hints for this cache)

10/2/2007 by Kabuthunk
It's been way too long since I was last able to do any geocaching (work, wedding social, other various time-killers), but THIS cache that appeared to be startlingly close to my workplace caught my eye. Before work today, I decided to tackle it.

Biking up Chevrier with a backpack and shoulder-bag containing a laptop (I'm on-call this week), I lumbered my way over towards the cache. At this point, the infallible Kabuthunk logic kicked in. Stopping at the VERY last building on the right before reaching the the cache... I for some reason came to the conclusion that the cache wasn't accessible from the road. In my infinite wisdom, I decided that it would be best to turn around, bike along beside the train tracks all the way up to the cache. To say the least... hauling a ton of crap with me while biking over unstable, jagged terrain doesn't make for the most comfortable or easy of rides .

Upon nearing the cache vicinity, it was at THIS time that I discovered that hey, wait... there's a BIG, OPEN, FLAT FIELD immediately between the road and the cache. Had I decided to bike about 20 meters further up Chevrier... I could have saved me a lot of time, effort, and confusion as to why Ertyu would have made the cache so unusual to get to.

Ahh, yes. I've got to try to remember that when geocaching, I must completely ignore what passes for logic in my mind. I must say to myself "Ok... so what do I think would be a stupid thing to do to get the cache", and then go with that option instead .

But... biking alongside the railroad aside, I found the cache itself quite easily. I didn't take note of the cache size when I plugged the coordinates into my GPS, so I'm quite pleased that I was able to place my bookcrossing book (Alive) into the cache container. I also finally got to move along a TB that I've had for way too long (sorry 'bout that). All in all... many a trackable (albeit only one on geocaching.com) is moving again, I got some geocaching in to relax me during this week of hell wonderfully stimulating on-call work, and got to do a little off-road adventuring to boot .

But I wish I'd read the cache description more closely before heading out. Now I've got to keep my eye open for this seed-cleaning-plant-turned-courthouse when I pass by next.

Took: "The long route" to the cache
Left: Logbook entry, chainmail ball, Bookcrossing book "Alive", and Thierry Henry TB.


Oh, and added note... when someone retrieves that bookcrossing book, I didn't think to write down the BCID code before dropping it in there, so you may have to log it as dropped at this location before acquiring it again... sorry 'bout that .