Puzzled and Lost in Stiggy Park

It was a zero day.  A zero day unlike any other.  Whoa…let me put the literary brakes on that…let’s not get too carried away just yet.  For most of the morning and afternoon, it poured out, just as it’s been prone to do every day this spring.  I was starting to think that the powers of nature were going to call my bluff (you know, the one where I flip the sky the bird and say I’m going caching come hell or high water.  Yeah, that bluff…)  Truth of the matter is, it’s mostly smoke and mirrors.  I would go hiking in the rain, but it probably wouldn’t be as much fun for me as it is for some psychotic bloggers I know.

So I sat there pouting, wondering if the clouds would miraculously disintegrate, while at the same time angels would fall from the heavens, choirs would sing, I would quarterback a team to the Super Bowl, I win a billion dollars, discover I was the Lindbergh baby, befriend the Cadbury Bunny and subsequently master Midas’ golden touch.

Believe it or not, I might be the Lindbergh baby, but in other news…the weather actually started to break!  According to Cayuga-Watch-4 reports from Amherst, he indicated that the sun did indeed still exist.  With a zero day cleaving a whole in my pocket, and the possibility of sunlight up north, I decided to head to West Seneca to try All is Not Lost by Hucklebuckle.  There was a smidgen of novelty attributable to this cache.  It has only 4 finders since being placed in January 2010, it’s considered a lonesome cache seeing as it has not been found in over a year, it’s a puzzle I actually solved (I’m as shocked as anyone), AND it’s placed by everyone’s favorite retired-twelve-times-over-but-still-caching cacher, H to the Bizzle!

This cache was a crazy wee puzzle, that required you to solve another puzzle, find that cache, and then get the coordinates for this puzzle.  Follow that?  The premise was based on the TV show Lost, which I know absolutely nothing about.  Normally I would treat you to a dweeby dissertation on important plot points, but I’ve decided that I can let Huck do that since he is now aware that this blog exists (and it’s about time he started pulling his damn weight anyway). 

All aspects of this cache were hidden in Stiglmeier Park (AKA: Losson and/or Stiggy Park).  THAT, is something I WILL ramble on about.  According to Hiking Trails in Western New York, Stiggy Park encompasses 308 acres of grounds, including nature trails and sports fields.  As geo-history goes, at one point in time this Park was a cache-finding oasis, to the extent that there were only a couple spots where you could put a cache that met Geocaching.com's distance compliance guidelines (which requires that all physical caches should be 528 feet (0.10) from one another).  Needless to say the park was pretty crammed with hides - but interestingly enough, almost all of them were decent and of the non-micro variety. 

Before caching, I didn't know this park existed - but since my first visit here (sometime in 2006), I've been here numerous times to hike and have wild and zany adventures.  Today was the first time I had set foot in the park in a couple years - so it was wonderful to return.  As I pulled into the parking lot, Huck sat there waiting for me.  Reunited (and feeling so good), we made our way to the first stop to retrieve the necessary coordinates for the All is Not Lost.

The great thing about Stiggy Park is that the trail system here is very well designed and even better maintained.  There are many wooden bridges, and the little swamps and other open hardwoods sections of the forest are exceptional.  Plus, the animals are really tame and often times deer will walk within 30 feet of you and not be bothered in the least bit. 

The trail in was pretty muddy - and since I was a dummy I was wearing crocs and not something more conducive to mud and water.  I sucked it up and soon we found the necessary information I needed to get to the final for All is Not Lost.

Huck striking a pose...I think.  Haha.

The view near our first stop!

After I had the coords, we returned back to the vehicles as we had to travel to a different section of the park.  This took us down a new set of trails, and some bushwhacking to get to the right spot to find the cache.  When caches aren't found for this long, I always wonder if they are still there - - but this section of the park was pretty remote, and upon our approach, I found the cache very quick!  The first finder in over a year...sweeeeet:

When I cracked the cache I was surprised to see some scribbles inside.  Then I realized it was something Chicky and I had wrote a few years back when Huck celebrated his "nearly" 1,000 cache find in 2007.  Apparently Huck loves the environment, so he recycled his golden ammo can.  :-]

Note the diverse amount of swag in this cache...
Yes folks, that's just about all of it.  Haha.

When it was all said and done, we returned back to the parking area and spent a hour and change chatting about the scene, politics, religion and all the other stuff you'd never expect to hear going down in Stiggy Park. It was good times, and a lot of fun.  This is how more zero days should be - fo' sho'!