Current at 11/6/2011 (Online waypoint URL) You have already found this cache! Master Index    Nearest Caches Elaan of Troyius by ruylopez (2.5/1.5) N49° 48.365  W97° 05.592 (WGS84) UTM  14U   E 637199  N 5518815 Use waypoint: GC2TMJ7 Size: Micro    Hidden on 4/21/2011 In Manitoba, Canada Difficulty:     Terrain:                           *** The cache is not at the posted coordinates *** "Captain's log,4Stardate94372.5. On a4top8secret diplomatic5mission,9the2Enterprise has entered the0Tellun9star7system. Maintaining communications0blackout,7we have taken aboard0Petri,3Ambassador1from Troyius, the outer planet, and are now approaching the inner planet, Elas."

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5/15/2011 by Kabuthunk
Ahhhh... at long last, I am able to tackle this cache. I was at my in-law's place for Easter when I solved this puzzle. I figured I'd check if there were any caches near their place, and it turns out there was several puzzle caches vaguely nearby! The family helped me solve the other one, and I ended up making a find on that a bit over a week ago.

This cache however, I ended up solving the puzzle almost instantaneously after having opened the cache page at their place, 100% due to a habit of mine when browsing webpages. I love these types of puzzles... they're the type that stump you for a while, but when you figure it out, you slap your head in disbelief at just how time you could have saved if only you'd known. This particular puzzle as I said took mere seconds due to the aforementioned habit, which I'll avoid actually saying to keep the challenge up for others... but I still find it fun to discover .

With the coordinates solved, I didn't end up getting it that day, or on the day that I found that other puzzle cache either. It ended up sitting all the way until today when my wife and I spent the day at St. Vital park, and then I insisted on going after this cache once we had left there. Having solved it a while ago and been unable to go after was eating away at me, and I needed to get this off my to-do list .

So a quick drive later, and I ended up over-shooting my mark. I had just been following the GPS's directions, and it took me down some gravel road hiding amongst the expensive neighbourhoods. The GPS seemed to want me to cut across a yard that had multiple very distinct 'no trespassing' signs on it. Perplexed as to how this cache could exist, I was chatting about it with my wife when she noticed a path that seemed a bit more public way on the other side of their property. Sure enough, my GPS indicated a public park was over there (strangely though, the park was called something different on the park sign than on the GPS). Not having any idea if the park was vehicle-accessible, I parked on the side of the gravel road and hoofed the rest of the distance going back to the main road and following it to the park (for the record, there is indeed parking in there).

Working my way to ground zero, I came to the conclusion that I'm ridiculously lucky to be able to actually REACH ground zero with dry feet. Given the last log, it looks like I could have been a lot more unfortunate. It didn't take me long to locate the cache once I arrived, but it ended up taking me a lot longer to actually replace that cache from whence it came. Y'see, when I removed the cache container, it appears that the method by which it was kept in place was removed with it. I didn't realize this until I went to put it back and found that I couldn't .

It took me another good 5 minutes to eventually figure out how it came off to begin with, and find a way to reverse the process until as far as I could tell, everything was once again the way it was before I came along. Thankfully, this park was completely devoid of people, so not a soul was around to see my fumbling with the cache container. Course, like myself before today, many others may be completely unaware that there's a park here... although it's a rather unusual looking park in my eyes as is. Perhaps it looks more park-like once the plantlife grows in a bit more and the water recedes a bit further.

One way or the other, the cache was found, replaced, and my to-do list was now officially one cache shorter . Thanks for the fun puzzle (although I solve this type very quickly as mentioned above, I still find it really fun), and introducing me to a place I've never been before. Methinks I'll have to try biking around in this park a bit in summer.

Took: Nothing
Left: Logbook entry, micromail ball, and some footprints in the barely-not-water-covered ground.