4WD&SU's Most Recent GeoStash Winner
The November GeoStash winner is Scott Brown and his son Kyle from Orlando, Florida. Here is Scott's story:"I was very excited to find the coordinates put the marker east of the Mississippi and within 50 miles of my house! Unfortunately, I had National Guard duty that weekend and I figured that I would never have a chance to find the marker. When I got back home Sunday night, I checked the website and found no postings. Monday at work, I checked several times and again at home. My son Kyle and I went out that night with flashlights while my wife Kim gave directions from MapQuest via cell phone to get us close. We gave up after three hours of searching in the dark and went back home. I checked for updates all week and decided to give it another shot Saturday morning if no one else had posted the find. Sure enough, we set out at 5:30 in the morning and arrived at about 6:30 to within 300 feet of the coordinates along a narrow trail cut through the woods. We parked in a clearing and continued on foot, following the "go to" directions on my Magellan GPS. After about 1-1/2 hours of searching and trying to navigate from different directions, we came up dry. Kyle and I were about to give up when we decided to try one more time from yet another direction. As we were walking out, I noticed something at the base of a tree off in the distance. Kyle took off running to check it out and yelled back to me that we had found it! I ran over and picked up the marker. It was just leaning up against a tree, patiently waiting for someone to find it! Thank you, 4WD&SU, for a great adventure that we could all participate in.
Scott & Kyle Brown
Orlando, FL
For those readers who are new to the GeoStash contest, the north and west coordinates pinpoint a location somewhere in the continental U.S. A stainless steel plate ("marker") laser-cut with the magazine's title and our phone number can be found at this location. The marker is about the size of a vehicle's license plate. When it is found and redeemed, the lucky enthusiast wins a very cool prize. These prizes will range from products donated by our advertisers and manufacturers to 4WD&SU magazine apparel and subscriptions.
The north and west coordinates for GeoStash III are split up into two parts: The west (longitude) coordinate will be cut in half and hidden just about anywhere in the magazine. The north coordinate will be posted on our website's GeoStash forum. The two pieces of the west coordinate will be hidden separately in the text or ghost-imaged on a photograph. The coordinate parts will not be hidden in or on any advertising. The two-part format for the hidden west coordinate will be hidden as XX in one section of the magazine and XX.XXXW in another section of the magazine. For example, the June '07 west coordinate was 106 52.979W. 106 would now be separated from 52.979W, so you would find 106 in one section of the magazine and 52.979W in another section. The north (latitude) coordinate will be posted on 4WD&SU's website (www.4wdandsportutility.com) on December 15, 2007, under "GeoStash Latest Updates." You can access this section via the link on the website's main page.
Finding the marker on the trail will require use of four-wheel drive and involve some hiking. We'll keep it safe, so don't worry, you won't have to rappel off the sides of any cliffs. The stainless steel marker may be placed behind trees, between rocks, or under something, but it will not be completely buried or completely obscured from view.
The GeoStash marker will have our phone number listed on it. We must be called immediately when the marker is found. The marker must also be sent back to us for verification, but it will be returned to the person who found it. Each marker for any given month will have a unique identifying mark on it so it cannot be duplicated.