Fads and Fashions #1: The Rubik's Cube Mystery Cache
Fads and Fashions #1: The Rubik's Cube
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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The cache is not at the above listed coordinates.
Last year, I was thinking about designing some sort of puzzle to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Rubik’s cube, but a quick web search showed that there were already a bunch (including one in Vancouver), so I put the idea aside, to the consternation of my wife.
Then, my better-half got me a devilish device that combines a Rubik’s cube with a Sudoku puzzle (numbers 1-9 on each face when properly solved) – and no colors. Okay, I guess technically it has one color. Some Sudoku cubes have a ‘5’ in the center of every face. Not this one, though.
So, I put some coordinates on some of the squares with stickers that I found in another cache, and set the thing aside for a bit to figure out the best way to construct a puzzle. Then one of my son’s 6-yr-old friends, while I was out cleaning the garage, put random stickers on all the other squares and scrambled it. Here is the result, unfolded into 2-dimensions. The shading means nothing - it is only to serve as an aid to distinguish between the faces.
If you want to find the cache, you are going to have to reconstruct the cube into its original form. You are not expected to ‘solve’ it. As most of us discovered in the 1980s, it is much easier to pop out all the pieces and put them back in the correct places.
One last important item – once properly solved, the cube can be oriented such that all of the numbers are oriented in the same direction when unfolded as below.
The first many finders can each have their own Sudoku cubes, Rubik’s cubes or other Cube variants, including the one used to design this puzzle. Cache also starts with the First-Finder's Spoon of Happiness and the Undercover Mudder geocoin.
You can check your answers for this puzzle on Geochecker.com.
This cache has been selected as part of the "Masters of Mystery Challenge" GC213AF. To find the final coordinates of this most remarkable cache, you’ll need to solve the 20 mysteries from all over the world.
Master of Mystery Challenge.
Note from wife: This story is only mostly true - He doesn't clean the garage...
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Hcqngrq 05/27/24: TCF erprcgvba urer vf irel cbbe. Qevir qbja gur ebnq cnfg gur 'qbttvr' fgngvba. Nf lbh nccebnpu tebhaq-mreb, ybbx sbe guerr oybpxf bs pbapergr naq n fncyvat 'jrnevat' n checyr znfx (gur gerr unf orra sryyrq jvgu gur erprag phyyvat bs gerrf). Qverpgyl hcuvyy, lbh jvyy svaq gur pnpur haqre gur gjb ynetr snyyra gerrf. Vg vf ng gur fnzr ybpngvba nf gur fcbvyre cubgb yrsg ol Benatr Penfu.