GC7FQ78 Wily Coyote
Type: Multi | Size: Micro | Difficulty: | Terrain:
By: icezebra11 @ | Hide Date: 12/05/2017 | Status: Available
Country: United States | State: Colorado
Coordinates: N40° 28.806 W105° 07.032 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 0
                         

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CONGRATULATIONS to Denali41 on the FTF!!!

Welcome to the City of Fort Collins’ Coyote Ridge Natural Area, where the foothills meet the plains.  Visitors often see mule deer and coyotes, and sometimes mountain lions, bears and rattlesnakes.  This cache will take you along a trail to the top of the ridge.  It’s a hike that is about 4 miles round trip and gains a little over 600 feet of elevation. 

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To complete this cache you must visit the various interpretive signs and unique objects located in the natural area.  You will need to locate the necessary information and “fill in the blanks” below.  Once you have all the necessary information you will be able to determine the coordinates of the cache.  I have set the difficulty rating of this cache high due to both the difficulty in finding the required information and the challenge of coming up with the solution for the final coordinates.  So park in the designated parking lot and head on up the trail!   Here we go:

A = “________ Goldfinch” A = 2nd letter
A = _______

B = “A horned _______ often waits” B = 3rd and 4th letters
B = _______

C = “Rats, mice, and _________--Beware!” C = 3rd and 9th letters
C = _______

D = “______ for Spotted Towhees” D = 2nd, 1st and 3rd letters
D = _______

E = Xiphactinus grew to _____feet long
E = _______

F = Stand at the outhouse and find a nearby rust/orange object. On it you will find a large, horizontal, four letter word. F = 2nd letter
F = _______

G = At the end of the trail you will find a post with 3 signs on it. Look at the lowest of the three. G = the entire last line on the lowest sign
G = _______

H = “Wanted: _____ ___” H = 1st letter
H = _______

J = “Watch for Clues,” track #3 J = 2nd letter
J = _______

K = Insect #1 K = 7th letter
K = _______

L = “Voles make these __________ by clipping grass” L = 4th and 7th letters
L = _______

M = “Protecting Our Future” “_____ ______ owlet” M = 6th letter
M = _______

N = “buzzes, ______, and clear notes” N = 4th letter
N = _______

P = “_____ ____ if attacked” P = 7th letter
P = _______

R = “the hognose snake _________ digs up toads” R = 2nd and 7th letters
R = _______

S = “A wounded insect is a delicious ______” S = 3rd and 5th letters
S = _______

T = “The hogback ridges and _________ in this area attract a variety of wild animals" T = 3rd letter
T =_______

U = “It gains _____ feet in elevation”
U = _______

V = "Natural Areas Department (abc)def-ghij" V = e j d f
V = _______

W = “Birds Thrive on the _________ Plains” W = 5rd Letter
W = _______

Now that you’ve gathered all the information you need, here’s where you can locate the cache:

From the cache to HPNTFL is [U times (E minus 2)] plus 66.1 AD

From MJBWKC to the cache is G plus (V times 2) RS


Note: In compliance with City of Fort Collins regulations, there are no physical containers hidden in the Coyote Ridge Natural Area. All locations in the NA are virtual stops.

I hope you enjoyed your tour of Coyote Ridge Natural Area and that you learned some things about this interface of mountains and plains!!!


Additional Waypoints
P07FQ78 - Parking
N 40° 28.815 W 105° 06.980

06/23/2019 By NurseboyER
I started working on this cache in February of 2018 while visiting family in the area. I had read the log of the FTF and thought I had paid close enough attention so as not to require a second trip to gather additional information. However, when I got home that evening and started working on solving, I realized something was missing.

The next day I went out and hiked to the top of the ridge again and this time found something I had missed on the prior visit. After that, I got coords that seemed plausible but when I went to check them, I spent a good 30 min searching for the cache without success. Unfortunately, I had to leave town the next day so I put this one on hold.

This weekend, I was back visiting and this cache kept nagging at the back of my mind. I spent a while looking over the info I collected and the coords I had checked without success. After a bit of thinking and looking at what I collected, I had a lightbulb moment. Did my calculations again and this time the coords I got seemed much more likely than the prior set. This afternoon, I got the chance to check it out and found the cache in the first place I looked.

I really enjoyed both of my hikes on coyote ridge and the time spent figuring out how to find the final. Earns a favorite for the hike and the puzzle. TFTC!

05/28/2018 By Cache U
Well, I've been eyeing this one for awhile, and finally had two hours of free time before having to be somewhere in town. That was a mistake, as there is a lot of information to go through on the way up the hill, but thought I had it all by the time I finished. Went home to do the mapping, and came up with an area that was obviously incorrect. This required a note to the CO, who confirmed most of my work but pointed out an error. This required a second trip, and I finally found what I needed. It's a relatively easy hike and nice on a cool day, but I wouldn't recommend it in the heat of the summer. Anyway, this time the mapping led to a very likely location, which was a P&G. Due to the time commitment needed this is definitely a 5-star cache, and well-worth doing as it is cleverly constructed and I learned a few things along the way! Sadly, this will be a relatively lonely cache. Thanks for all the effort in putting this together!

12/20/2017 By Denali41
Well, there is more at work in this exquisite multi than a wily coyote. There’s also a wily icezebra in play. And with this cache he’s playing with us, the cache seekers.

Yesterday I expected to spend the entire day finishing up a farm project that’s been hounding me for a couple of weeks. That activity was suddenly moved to the back burner when I came to the house for lunch and a rest at noon. You see, I made the mistake of checking for new emails when I came in. And the announcement of a just-published cache was the email that arrested my attention. It was a new cache by icezebra11. His, of course, are always captivating caches, and they always pose fine challenges. I almost set the thing aside so it wouldn’t disrupt my outdoor work–heck, I’d look at it last evening and consider getting after it today. But then I noticed the D/T rating. It swept me away. You see, for years I’ve been working to complete a full Fizzy grid (the D/T matrix) with caches I have been FTF on. Before this wily coyote interfered with my afternoon I only had four matrix cells left, all sporting “interesting” D/Ts. They are rare ones, so I typically see an unfound cache with “needed” D/T stars about every 12 to 18 months. And THIS cache, with its juicy 5.0/3.0 rating was one of my needs!! So...redesign my afternoon I did, in quest of the {FTF}!

After a quick lunch and a careful reading of the multi’s description, I gathered my maps and other possibly needed materials and headed from Wellington through Fort Collins to Coyote Ridge. I was careful as I proceeded along the trail system so I wouldn’t miss any critical information. When I reached the top the afternoon was getting well along on this short winter day, not giving me sufficient time to make all the calculations and do the map work and take what I anticipated would be a tough hike involving some off-trail work. I determined, as I sat at the top, that I had missed one item, so I was careful on my descent to recheck everything very carefully.

Last night, at my desk, I worked through my mapping. After making one assumption I did my final calculation of the cache location and found that didn’t work. My assumption had been incorrect. A quick email communication with the CO confirmed I’d messed up on one critical point–I had indeed made an incorrect assumption about the missing piece. No further help than that, nor did I ask for more. So today I had the “pleasure” of redoing a couple of things and nailing this baby, finding/signing a blank log sheet and earning one of those last four FTF combinations on my challenging FTF Fizzy.

This is a marvelously conceived and orchestrated multi cache. You will enjoy it and will always recall the wily coyote and the wily icezebra that put you through the learning curve of being extremely careful with all of your info collection. Thanks for a fine adventure, Brad.

12/19/2017 By Alpine Reviewer
Published