Current at 11/6/2011 (Online waypoint URL) You have already found this cache! Master Index    Nearest Caches Griffiths Hill Tower by Peter and Gloria (1.5/2) (Archived) N50° 01.200  W96° 54.035 (WGS84) UTM  14U   E 650391  N 5542966 Use waypoint: GCKBW7 Size: Regular    Hidden on 8/23/2004 In Manitoba, Canada Difficulty:     Terrain:                     The coordinates above are for the sign that has the first part of the information required to get the final coordinates for the cache. Have fun out there! The hike should be about 1.5 miles roundtrip. Fire hazard travel restriction in Bird's Hill Park have been lifted but be careful and always obey park regulations. This cache is located in Bird's Hill Provincial Park. Don't forget your park pass. During the winter Chickadee Trail is a Cross-country Ski ONLY trail. No Walking; No Dogs. Final Coordinates are N 50° 01.X and W 096° 53.Y X = 304 plus the elevation in meters shown for Griffiths Hill (as shown on the sign at the starting coordinates). OR If the sign that has the elevation of Griffiths Hill has been removed, there may be a brown Cross Country Ski Trails "warning" sign about hiking & dogs. Count the numbers of M's and W's on that sign. X = 300 times the number of W's minus 31 times the number of M's. X can be calculated using either method. At N 50° 01.645 & W 96° 53.835 are more signs. Y = 785 + distance in kilometres to the Stony Mountain Penitentiary + distance in kilometres to the Selkirk Water Tower (as shown on the signs at the second location). Original container was a large camouflaged pail. Original contents are shown in a jpg below as well as log book, pencils & pencil sharpener.July 12/06 Container is now a large ammo box FTF prize this time was a wooden scroll-sawed wheelbarrow and an FTF certificate (2nd jpg below). This is our third cache. We hope you enjoy the hunt. This cache has been placed by members of the: If you are not a member, please visit our website! MBGA Website Free to join! For paperless geocachers, here are the Attributes: not available for winter, poison plants!, scenic view, kid friendly, parking available, access/parking fees, dogs allowed

Additional Hints Hints

6/14/2009 by Kabuthunk
We meet at last, Griffith Hill. Way back on May 21st, 2007, I posted a note on this geocache stating that I had to cut myself off after stage one due to time constraints. I further stated that this cache, and my early-departure would not be forgotten.

And it wasn't. For months, I got notifications of people finding the cache, it being listed on my bookmark list of "Caches started but not finished". In actuality, this is (was) the ONLY cache remaining on said list . For two long years, I attempted to find time to head back out to Bird's Hill Park and complete that which had been started. As time methodically ticked by, any opportunities I had to tackle this ended up being overwritten by other sudden obligations.

But I digress. Today I had planned a day-trip to Bird's Hill Park, just like back in 2007. Thankfully, nothing preempted it, and come Sunday morning (or more accurately afternoon, since I only woke up at about 11:30 ), I was on my way. One camelback, geocaching kit, and suntan-lotioning later, I had my bike hurled into the car and was making my way towards the park. It was a beautiful day out... +21 when I started out, going to a high of +25, and sunny all day (really glad I wore sunscreen). Today, I decided to park at one of the mini parking lots along the North drive. Pointing my GPS to the closest cache, I was pleasantly surprised to be told it was none other than Griffith's Hill Tower . That's right... I'm not going to run out of time and energy to go after you THIS time!

Hopping on the bike, I quickly made my way to stage 1. Pulling out a notepad, I quickly found the first half of the final coordinates. Quickly changing the coordinates of this waypoint to the second part, I headed off down the trails. It may indeed be approximately a 1.5 mile roundtrip trek for this cache... but when you're on a bike, it whips by preeeeetty quickly . Before I knew it, I was kicking my bike down into low gear to churn my way up the hill. A couple on bikes as well happened to stop at the bench there moments before I arrived, but they didn't seem to pay me much attention. At first I was having difficulties locating the signs in question at this point, but after looking a little bit, I quickly realized my idiocy and found my way to them.

And good timing, too. Just as I was finished calculating the second half of the final coordinates and putting them in my GPS, a group of about 6 or so seniors had trekked over and were coming to where I was standing. Personally, I'm kinda edgy and uncomfortable around strangers, so unfortunately I didn't get a chance to take any pictures of the scenery from that point. I decided to just keep it in my head and head outwards. The final was quite near to this point, so it took me a scant few minutes to work my way over to it. Upon arriving at ground zero, I put my bike down and began the hunt. It actually put up a good fight, since it took me several minutes to locate the cache container. Quite a surprise really, given the cache container as indicated in the description is a large ammo box. However, after finding it (during which thankfully noone came by... even the main trail I went down to get near was completely silent the entire time), I lobbed in a chainmail ball that's been far overdue for being inside this geocache . A quick signing of the logbook later, and I replaced it as I had found. I actually tried to camouflage it a little bit extra with the natural camo abundant in the area... so hopefully I pulled that off.

Thanks for giving me a really good beginning to an awesome day at Bird's Hill Park. This was probably the most fitting cache I could have gone after for the first of the day .

Took: Nothing
Left: Logbook entry and chainmail ball

5/21/2007 by Kabuthunk
Just a quick note about myself and this cache. Got to the first waypoint, and obtained the information needed at it. However, due to time and energy constraints at the time, I decided to leave the remainder of it for another day. Hence... not a DNF, but more like a "started, but needs finishing" type of thing .

Fear not... I shall return for the rest of this one next time I'm at Birds Hill. Not sure when it'll be, but I have multiple things to come back for, so it won't be forgotten .

Hints (Back)
If bushwhacking; you may have the wrong coordinates.
Cache is in a semi circle of six small trees.