GC57E46 - May 21, 2004

GC57E46 - May 21, 2004

By: zuma!

1. Here is the puzzle.
.

• Russian President Vladimir Putin announces that his country will pursue ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. Ratification will make the protocol take effect and impose trade restrictions on non-participating countries, such as Australia and the United States.

• The Supreme Court of Canada, in a 5–4 decision, rules in a case between U.S. biotechnology firmMonsanto Company and farmer Percy Schmeiser that Monsanto holds a patent on the Roundup Ready geneinserted in its canola seed and can control the use of the plant. The court previously decided that a higher life form, the Harvard mouse, could not be patented.

• Mark Thompson, Chief Executive of Channel 4, is appointed as the new Director-General of the BBC.

• Active underwater volcano found off coast ofAntarctica. New find explains discolored water surrounding the site.

• Alex Rodriguez makes his first appearance atAmeriquest Field in Arlington after being traded by the Texas Rangers to the New York Yankees.

2.  The Title Says It All.

All of the items in the Geocache Description appear to be red herrings.  The answer to this puzzle is in the cache title:  May 21, 2004.  The right question to ask is, "Why is that date important to zuma!"  The most logical answers are, either it was the first date he hid a cache or the first date he found a cache.


3.  Search zuma's Profile.

To open zuma's profile, right click on the "zuma!" link, and open the page in a new tab.

Notice that zuma! became a member on May 21, 2004.

Since zuma! became a member on May 21, 2004, that is probably the date that he found his first geocache.  Therefore, you should start by looking at the caches he has found.



4.  Identify caches Found by zuma! on May 21, 2004.

To locate caches found by zuma!, click on the 'Geocaches' tab, then choose "(All Geocache Finds)".

This will take you to a list of every cache that has ever been Found by zuma!  To get to the oldest cache found by zuma!, click on the double right arrows (>>).

As you can see, zuma! found his first cache on May 21, 2004.

5.  Locate the Coordinates for zuma's first cache.


To locate the coordinates, open the cache page for zuma's first Find.

GCHFKG - 08 Martin Van Buren - M

6.  Verify the Solved Coordinates.

Since there is no GeoChecker for this cache, you need to verify that these coordinates represent a reasonable solution.  You can accomplish this with a very useful program called FizzyCalc.  Here is a link to the software download page.

FizzyCalc

Because the Final Location must be within 2 miles of the posted coordinates, the posted coordinates must be within 2 miles of the proposed solved coordinates.  

To check the distance between the two sets of coordinates, open FizzyCalk and click on the "Distance" tab.  Enter the two sets of coordinates in the "Point 1" and "Point 2" fields, and click "Go".

As you can see, the posted coordinates are .560178 miles from the solved coordinates, which is well within the 2 mile limit.

Before chasing off to look for the cache, there is one last method you should use to double check the proposed solved location.  Enter and compare both the posted coordinates and the solved coordinates on Google Maps.  Make sure the proposed solved coordinates are in a location that is reasonable.  Here is a link to Google Maps.

Google Maps

Here is the map for the Posted Coordinates:

Here is the map for the proposed Solved Coordinates.

7.  The Verified Solved Coordinates.

Here are the Solved Coordinates:

   N 44° 48.284 W 091° 31.635