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aibohphobia Mystery Cache

This cache has been archived.

rocky is a very good doggie: The cache is in violation of the Conservation District guidelines for cache placement.

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Hidden : 6/9/2007
Difficulty:
4 out of 5
Terrain:
2.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   small (small)

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Geocache Description:

NOTE: This cache is not at the posted coordinates. You have to solve a puzzle which involves finding a series of other caches in order to collect information needed to determine the coordinates for this cache.



This cache is based on the concept of a palindrome. A palindrome is a word, phrase, number, or other sequence that reads the same forward and backward. For example: RADAR, 121, RACECAR, 40522504, MOM, and DAD. These can get rather long too:

“Able was I, ere I saw Elba” is a longer one.



In order to find this cache, you will have to visit four other caches in McHenry County:

Oozy Rat in a Sanitary Zoo
No, Tie it On!
Was it a Cat I Saw?
Go, dog!


About the title

"Aibohphobia" is not a real word. If it were real, it would mean "fear of palindromes," but it is not. It is a made-up term created with tongue firmly in-cheek. Of course, it reads the same forward and backward so it is a palindrome. But is has no clinical meaning. People are diagnosed with, and subsequently treated for, various phobias. Aibohphobia is not one of them.

So you have nothing to be afraid of while seeking this cache!

All of these caches have coordinates that are palindromatic in some sense.

Finding all of the other caches gives you the key for solving this final cache. When you find one of the four caches, you get a blue number and a red number. All the blue numbers get multiplied together to form a large product. Likewise, all of the red numbers get multiplied together to form a second big number. These big numbers each need to be interpreted in a special way to form the coordinates for the final cache.

In order to see how to use the blue and red products, you will access the pdf linked on this page. This pdf is password-protected; in order to read the page, you will need to supply the blue product, followed by a space, and the red product.
For example, let us suppose that you go to each of the four caches to get the following numbers:

blue 63     red 7
blue 13     red 11
blue 47     red 143
blue 37     red 353

Then you would multiply them together in order to get the following products: blue 1424241 and red 3886883.
The password to unlock the pdf would be: 1424241 3886883
The numbers in this example do not unlock the pdf.

Once unlocked, the pdf document tells what to do with the products in order to create the coordinates for the final.

The puzzle for this cache is not hard. The difficulty rating for this cache is intended to reflect the combined difficulty of, and significant travel required to find, the four caches containing clues.

Password-protected PDF explaining how to use blue and red numbers to find the final



  • The geocache is on McHenry County Conservation
    District land with permission.

  • Do not place the following items in the cache: food,  
    inappropriate, offensive, or hazardous materials.

  • Absolutely no cutting of brush or other vegetation
    is allowed.

  • Visitors must remain on designated trails.

  • It is the visitor’s responsibility to orient
    themselves with the rules of the District site.

  • Sites are open sunrise to sunset, however some
    gates may not be open until 8am.

  • At certain times of the year, sites will close for
    a variety of reasons.

Additional Hints (No hints available.)