Quino's Relatives (Quino II)

English description
This cache is the second in the Quino series (dedicated to Quino, a horse).

General Information:

• This hiking multi-cache comprises six intermediary stages and the final stage. You have to find two micros and a small lock and lock container.
• Expect a walk of about 7 km and roughly 400 height meters if you start near the location of Stage 1 and go back to your starting point. When starting from P2, the walk gets a bit longer.
  The route to the final is not a round trip. If you bring along a map and/or did not come with a vehicle, you can also choose an alternative route for the way back to civilization.
• The terrain is easy and also suitable for children and you can stay on marked paths (except for the last meters to the hiding places). The terrain is suited also for mountain bikes and for horses.
• If you plan to do the original version of Stage 4 (an alternative exists meanwhile), a map is strongly recommended and a compass might be helpful too but is not strictly necessary if you bring along a device which allows to measure angles on the map.

How to reach the starting point

If you come by car, do not drive to Stage 1. It used to be easy to park in a legal way closely to Stage 1 (former inn Geierkogelwirt). The situation has changed, however, over the years. You can either park at the edge of the street (not recommended), or at a larger distance, either near N 47° 08.700', E 015° 23.340' (botanic garden Rannach), near N 47° 08.670 E 015° 24.010' or along the road which leads to the botanic garden at the edge of the road.

If you wish to come by public transportation, I recommend you to take the bus 53 (53E on Sundays) to Stattegg Huberwirt and walk up to Stage 1 from there (be prepared for an additional 30-45 minutes of walking - one way). If you come by public transportation, you are free to choose your return route from the cache and to extend your walk in another direction (various alternatives exist, e.g. Fuss der Leber, Gratkorn).

Another alternative would be to come by bicycle (but take into account the height meters along your way).

Stage 1: N 47° 08.878', E 015° 24.085'

Solve the following tasks by looking around in the vicinity of Stage 1.

Task 1: Watch out for a small stone close to the road side which commemorates an anniversary of a community.

• First year on the stone (4 digits): X
  
• Second year on the stone (4 digits): Y
  

Task 2: Look for a rather big sign-board (main colour yellow) which can be seen from the stone.

• Number of rules listed on the yellow sign-board: R
  

Task 3: (new in November 2023 as new hiking signs got placed)
Watch out for a collection of yellow hiking signs next to the junction of Geierkogelweg and Sonnenweg.

• Largest hiking trail number mentioned on the signs (occurs twice): T

Calculate

• F = Y - 2*T - 103
• H = 6*(Y-X-T) + 13

Stage 2: N 47° (R-1).F', E 015° 24.H' [New location, January 2007]

The area around the original hideout has become quite overgrown as a side-effect of massive tree cutting activities that took place in end of 2004.
As a consequence thereof, I moved Stage 2 to a new place in January 2007.

Search for a micro. I have hidden two micros, one as backup; for both a hint a spoiler photo are available. For the second micro apply the correction N +0.009' and E +0.011'.

Inside each of the micros (pet preforms since October 2015) there is a sheet telling you the five numbers A, B, C, D and E.


Stage 3: N 47° A.B', E 015° C.D'

Near these coordinates (watch the left side of the trail) you will find a memorial place for a man who died in an accident.

• Day and month when the accident happened in the format ddmm: The result is J
  
• U = J - B - 58
  
• W = J - 911

Stage 4: N 47° A.U', E 015° C.W'

You will find yourself close to a what has been a clearing in 2003. Meanwhile the area became quite overgrown. In case you want to accomplish the original task proceed as follows.

Original task for Stage 4:
Look for a raised hide and place yourself below it.

You can now see a small chapel if the weather is not too bad (it is within a distance of 2 km and can be seen without any devices such as binoculars).

• Determine the direction (in degrees) in which the chapel can be seen from the raised hide and round to the nearest multiple of 10: The result is P.
  (As check-up consult the hint.)
  
• Number of letters of the place where the chapel is located (use your map): N
  
• Q = E - P + N - 1
  

Alternative task for Stage 4 (added in May 2014, backup added in March 2019):
In case you do not want to bother to visit the raised hide or have issues with bad weather (no view) or have forgotten your map or just want to check your results for P and N, proceed as follows:

Continue your hike and watch out for a yellow hiking sign. To safeguard against potential troubles two versions to obtain the required numbers are offered.

Version 1: Watch out for a sticker with a telephone number attached to the hiking sign. If the number is not readable any longer, you can proceed with Version 2 and skip this task. Otherwise, write down the last four digits of this number (ignore the extension).

• N: The third last digit of the telephone number.
• P₁: The two digit number obtained by taking together the second last and the last digit of the number (in this order).
• P₂: The two digit number obtained by taking together the fourth last and the third last digit of the number (in this order).
• P = P₁ + P₂
• Q = E - P + N - 1
  

Version 2: Have a closer look at the lowermost of the three yellow signs mounted to the first signpost you come across after Stage 4.

• N: The number of capitals in the first line on this sign.
• P₃: The letter code of the first capital in this line (A=1, B=2, etc).
• P₄: The letter code of the second capital in this line.
• P = (P₃ + P₄) * N
• Q = E - P + N - 1
  

Stage 5: See description below (Modified text May 2009)

If you visited the raised hide go back to the trail and follow it until you meet a crossing where several hiking trails meet (Stage 5 is not far from Stage 4). On your way you will pass by a place from where you have a nice view down on some parts of the city of Graz.

At the crossing you will encounter several yellow signposts referring to hiking trails.

• The largest trail number: L
  
• The smallest trail number: S
  
• K = 2*L + S - N
  

Stage 6: N 47° L.(E+14)', E 015° K.Q' [New location in January 2007, new backup May 2014]

Search for a micro (pet preform since October 2015). Again two were hidden to provide a backup (for the second apply the offset N +0.006' E -0.008'). For both micros a hint and a spoiler photo are available. Note however that the spoiler photo for Micro 2 is outdated - what used to be a tree is now only a tree stump.

Write down the coordinates provided in the container.


Final: (New hideout May 2014)

In May 2014 I moved the final by roughly 10m to allow for a better GPS reception and also for other reasons. To obtain the coordinates of the final apply the following offset to the minutes of coordinates you got at Stage 6:

N +0.007'
E -0.006'


Return way:

There are alternatives to the obvious way back even if you need to go back to your starting point. For example you can follow the path which leads to the cache further and then round the hill either to the left or to the right (longer and harder to find the route in the second part if you wish to minimize the involved height meters).

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