In honor of Brandt Teske, “87preludea20a3”, the TWELVE DAYS OF CACHEMAS ARE BACK!!!

Here’s how it works: For 12 days beginning December 14th (Day 1), a new cache will be published and every day afterwards until December 25th. If you are able to First to Find, FTF, one of these daily caches, an FTF Cachemas Ornament will be in the container for you to keep. As an added bonus, thanks to L Frank, the ornament can be converted to a cache container for a future hide. PLEASE, if you get an FTF on one of the 12 days, do not go for another one, let someone else have the fun.

Again, there will be a 13th Bonus Cache which can only be found by using the codes written on the inside of the container lid of each daily cache. Keep these codes and use them to solve the location of the 13th cache which will also publish on the 12th and final day, December 25th. In the process of locating the codes, you will solve the coordinates, believe me, it’s not difficult.

Have fun and remember to thank 87preludea20a3 in your log. He brought this great series to St. Louis.

FTF Cachemas Logs

Day 12 - moonchild1800 & diceman71. 5:25 am
Co-FTF with diceman71 this was the best cache of the series. I had Christmas presents, real working Christmas lights a and unique hide. I got all I wanted for Christmas in this cache. Thank you TeamState for a great Christmas. It's about time!!!.

Day 11 - Trekto 12:30ish
Squeaked in a First to Find and a beautiful ornament. (ornament by LFrank). Thanks brantole for the creative Puzzle and hide. Thanks Prelude for starting this fun madness. A Favorite.It's about time!!!.

Day 10 - LFrank 4:25 pm
get home, just before three, and notice the Day 10 Cachemas cache has yet to publish. I wanted to get the code, so I waited for it to publish. 3:06 pm the notification came up. I download it to my GPS, scan it real fast and notice it is a projection, so I grab Denmothers PDA and out the door I went. As I'm driving I look at the map and notice the first waypoint, to the multi, is at the entrance to the West County Mall. I must be effing insane to be going here after 3 in the afternoon. Why didn't they do this at 10am? So I arrive at the entrance, 3 million other cars, who also do not know where they are going, around me. I'm in the wrong lane...........U-Turn! I now find a parking spot, get out and head towards GZ. I'm looking for a peace symbol so it must be at the sign. I catch the walk sign and cross the traffic and talking to the mall police, who are directing traffic,to wishme luck. I get to the sign, no peace symbol and I have now passed up GZ. What the Eff is going on? I re-read the cache page. From the starting coordinates you must find the nearby

Symbol of Peace and go to that location. Well shoot me in the head, that's on the other side of the mall! My blood pressure has now reached it's maximum. I'm standing in no-mans land. Should I backtrack? NO WAY. I jump the 4 foot fence and land in three lanes of traffic. I calmly walk across the street with my arms straight out from my side, like a crucified man walking to his death. Cars are slamming on their brakes and honking their horns. Go ahead and hit me, I don't care! I make it across the street and to my truck. I drive over to the Symbol and gather the needed information. I do the calculations and enter the projection. Where do I project from? It doesn't say! (IT DOES NOW!) I project from the first waypoint and I'm off. I end up in a wooded area by the Des Peres Hospital. Why would you hide a cache here? I call Strider. My numbers are correct, but I should have projected from the Symbol. You did not say that! What are the coordinates of the symbol? (At this point, if he says I need to go back.....well picture Homer Simpson grabbing Bart by the throat) He gives me the coordinates, I enter in the new projection, and off I go again. I pull into the parking lot, and there, waiting, is Major134, SWAseeker, and BART SIMPSON! Apparently, they could tell I was a little disturbed. I went to GZ and moved a log, which immediately caught on fire! I put it out and calmed down when I saw the container. I opened it to find the FTF prize and a blank log book. I look up and Major134 and SWAseeker are laughing and taking my picture. Bart Simpson has now changed to Strider as my blood pressure returns to normal. There were a few choice words said, but I cannot remember them. All is forgiven. Thanks, Strider, for placing this cache. .

Day 9 - moosefinders sometime after 7am
All right got FTF this morning thanks for all the hard work Carolyn and Harry for placing the cache. also John "Lfrank" for making all of these dandy ornaments. Great series and a whole lot of fun. :-D

Day 8 - 87preludea20a3 10:xx am
FINALLY AN FTF on this awsome series. I almost got beat out TrekTo, as he stepped over the cache I made the grab... it feels good to get your hands on the cache first... thanks everyone for placing all these caches and bringing back this series we all look forward to each year.

Day 7 - TheLegoPharaoh, Broster26 & Madchef CoFTF 5:46am am
I set an alarm on my phone every hour on the hour to check to see if the cache was published. 12:01...Nope. 1:01... Nope. 2:01...Nope. 3:01... Nope. 4:01... "ANDREEEEEEWWW IT'S TIME!!!!!!!!!"
Preparing to leave: I knew Andrew (Broster26) might not have wanted to drive to the cache so I left out the detail that, according to google, it would take 55 minutes to get there from St. Charles. Oops! Andrew was low on gas so he took the gas from the lawn mower gas can and put it in the car. It wasn't enough so we made a quick stop at QT before leaving.
Showing up: Major134 was in the parking lot and he informed us that MadChef and SWAseeker were already there. We could see their head lamps and we took off after them. For the record, I did see the trail head additional way point, but I was in such an FTF frenzy that I bolted after MadChef and SWAseeker. I would've saved us a lot of hassle if if I took the marked trail head instead. We turned the cache into a 4.5 Terrain.
The trek: I was already feeling nauseated from having a migrane from lack of sleep on Cachemas day 6. The only thing I had since waking up was water since I was super thirsty and feeling queasy. I started running down the wrong trail... and then my body decided that the water I decided to drink had to go... so up it went... A few hundred feet later we hit the lake's edge. We had to go around by bushwhacking through some thick brush. Finally, we were on the tail of MadChef and SWAseeker. We hit another patch of intense brush and we were able to catch up. I was in MOGA-mode so I plowed through the growth without a care. Thorns? WHO CARES ABOUT THORNS? NEED THAT FTF! finally after jumping an itsy bitsy creek ravine (WHICH, IF YOU FOLLOW THE TRAIL FROM THE TRAIL HEAD, YOU WONT HAVE TO DO), Andrew and I made it to GZ, followed by MadChef and SWAseeker. For the life of me I could not see the cache but eventually MadChef was super quiet... suspicious. We went over and he had found WP1.
Let me just say.... it was funny watching MadChef play the instrument :D
This was one of the most adventurous mornings I've had in a long time. Thanks Eravau for the vomit-inducing cache! It was great! :) Deserves an FP for sure!

Day 6 - The"Grif" 12:xx pm
Well it just so happened that I was 2 miles away when this came out. We unut74 and I were heading to get Day 3s cache and she decided we needed to go get this cache. So we headed that way I thought this road looked familiar turned out it was a Grave Yard hop stop. I saw the Major134s truck along with the Mad chef at the parking we chatted and then I went to grab the cache which was a bugger to get out. Then the lights and the log singing gently to me. I don't go for many FTFs but this was a nice one to come up with. BMZ junior really wanted an ornament so I gave him mine, hopefully it makes his Christmas a little better. TFTC.

Day 5 - strider 8:55 am
What a beautiful morning for doing a multi. I saw this was published and grabbed my 60 and was out the door. I got to the light at Telegraph and Cliff Cave and was behind Moonchild1800. As we drove down the road she was giving me hand signals of some sort. We discussed it later, she said she was just waving to me. Looked like something else to me. She drove past the parking spot but Brandt pulled in while I was at Waypoint 1. We all got that, then headed to #2. LFrank joined us there. I spotted Waypoint 3 but the others didn't see me putting it in my GPS. I wandered off to the final for the FTF. Thanks Brandt for starting all of this, and thanks John for the cache and the cool ornament.

Day 4 - unut74 within an hour of publishing
I was on my way to collinsville when I decided to check my email while at a stoplight. I saw that this cache was posted and was only 4 miles away, so I turned around and decided to try for FTF and succeeded. Tftc..
I believe she was so happy to find it she logged it twice!!

Day 3 - Day 3 - paulgracie 6:52
Couldn't find day 2 because it was too dark. Love these large containers. Well anyway, First to find at 6:52 P.M.. Exciting and wonderful feeling. Thanks for the ornament and the geocache.

Day 2 - GeoConformity & Rainman-rwb 9:28 AM
Find #4131 Ocw Rainman for a co- FTF! Dropped a Great GC. Yea! SL TFTC!
FTF with GeoConformity today. Not going for a Cashemas FTF, but when the cache was not published until 9am, we figured we would give it a go. We only saw one car on the lot and I thought yet another 2nd to find, but it must have been Bill's truck. Thanks Bill for placing this cache. Rainman

Day 1 - SWAseeker found at 3:45 am
Wow what a morning. Figured there was a better chance the first Cachemas would be down this way I set up camp I Forrest Park. Then at 3:00 the siren when off as the cache was published and I was off. Being a little further way than I would have liked to have been, the race was on. Luck for me (I think the rain had a lot to do with it) no one else was in site as I went for the cache. I grabbed it at 3:45 as the owner stepped out to get a picture. Thanks Tom for the perfect Day 1 Cachemas ornament. And thank you Pete for keeping this going, and one more thanks to John for making the ornaments. FTF claimed