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Legends of Zelda (LoZ) series will be retired around 3/31/20

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lpaulriddle
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Location: Elkridge, MD

Legends of Zelda (LoZ) series will be retired around 3/31/20

Post by lpaulriddle »

I wanted to let anyone who is currently working on the Legends of Zelda (LoZ) series know that the series’ days are numbered. I will be retiring it in early 2020. Read on for details:

For those not familiar with the LoZ series, it is a progressive series consisting of 39 caches in central Maryland. The caches are spread out across several locations including Sugarloaf Mountain, Fairland Regional Park, Liberty Reservoir, Elkridge, Columbia, and Ellicott City. The caches range from traditional hides in the woods to difficult puzzles, culminating with a final series in Patapsco Valley State Park. It is one of Maryland’s most extensive and involved series of caches. The series was devised and hidden by nytepyre in 2011, and I adopted the majority of the caches in 2015. Here is a list of all of the caches in the series.

Why am I retiring the series? In a nutshell, many of the caches are not getting found any more. The final group of caches was last found in January 2016. The loneliest cache in the series, "Six Sages’ Poe Souls" (GC3499J), has not been found since December 2015. Other seldom-found caches in the series include “Faerie Fountain” (GC345C1), “Silver Arrows” (GC34EVB), and “Master Sword” (GC34BXV), each of which has been found 3 or fewer times since the end of 2014 - an average of less than 1 find per year. Most of these are mystery caches that require a large number of other finds in the series prior to seeking them, making them quite difficult to seek for someone not heavily invested in the series (e.g. an out-of-town cacher). Many of the caches are in located in scenic or historically significant areas, and it would be nice if we could give more cachers an opportunity to visit these locations.

Here’s the plan. I know that there are a few cachers working on the series, so I want to allow plenty of time for people to finish up. Therefore, I am going to keep the series active for another year. During this time, I’ll continue to maintain the caches. On or shortly after March 31, 2020, I’ll be retiring the series. I envision that most (though not all) of the caches will continue to exist in some fashion; they just will no longer be part of a larger, progressive series. Many of the caches in the series will remain active (but may be renamed), and several will be archived. Where possible, some of the archived caches will be re-listed as standalone hides (subject to park approval in a couple of cases).

Please let me know if you have any questions. While many (myself included) will be sad to see the series go, I’m hoping that making the caches and locations more widely available will be a net gain for the local caching community, even if a few must be archived. I’ve talked to Team Nytepyre (the original hiders), and they’ve given this plan their blessing. I’ll be posting notices on many of the individual cache pages as well. If you’re stuck on one of the puzzles, I’m happy to provide clues. But if you have designs on finishing the series, now is the time to make your plans!

(Disclaimer -- MGS is not involved with the LoZ series, nor did MGS have any part in hiding or maintaining the caches. I adopted them before my involvement with MGS, and this was solely my own decision with input from Team Nytepyre. If you have any questions, please send them directly to me. Thanks!!)
sharkb8007
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Re: Legends of Zelda (LoZ) series will be retired around 3/3

Post by sharkb8007 »

Thanks for the heads up - we (ENB608) did start this series last year. I liked how the group that we completed was constructed (tip of the hat to NytePyre) and appreciate that you're still maintaining them. I think we'll try to get these done this year, they really are a fun and well constructed series.
All caches signed as EnB608 :smt049
TheLoneBaker
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Re: Legends of Zelda (LoZ) series will be retired around 3/3

Post by TheLoneBaker »

If anyone is planning on doing some of these I would love to tag along. Apparently I found a couple of them back in 2013 and I hate to leave a series unfinished.
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lpaulriddle
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Joined: Mon Jul 08, 2013 8:29 am
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Location: Elkridge, MD

Re: Legends of Zelda (LoZ) series will be retired around 3/3

Post by lpaulriddle »

Just a quick follow-up on this. Almost all of the LoZ caches have either been found or maintained within the last 12 months. The most notable exception is the group of Hyrule caches (GC356JD, GC35BEX, GC35BGF, GC35BH0, and GC35BHZ) which are the prerequisites to the series "grand finale". These caches were last found in January, 2016. If you are planning on attempting this group any time soon, send me a message, and I will see if I can join you. Barring that, I will try to hike out to check on the caches sometime in the next few months.
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