Note: this cache is not at the coordinates listed above.

This gem of a puzzle is inspired by CinderBankers, its inventor, all the way from the town of Emmaus in the great state of Pennsylvania. I enjoyed this fascinating and challenging puzzle so much that I just had to bring it to the local Maryland caching community.

Atlas the rat smells cheese!

Normally, he'd be all over that cheese in seconds flat. But this is no ordinary maze; it's half maze, half logic problem, and while Atlas can run rings around other rats, his tiny rat brain might not be up to this challenge. That's why he needs your help!

Notice that Atlas's maze is set up on a logic problem grid. But clues aren't given in sentence form; instead, they are governed by the maze. Atlas can travel over any square containing an 'X', but not over a dot. (he's afraid of dots.)

There's only one solution to the maze. When it's solved, there should be no contradictions in the logic problem, and Atlas's trail should not pass through any squares containing dots.

When you're finished, use the diagrams at the lower right of the maze to find the numbers that correspond to the direction in which Atlas traveled through (or didn't travel through) the lettered squares in the maze.

If you've never solved logic problems before, this page might help. Or try this page in PDF format.

The cache is located at:
N 39°11.ABC
W 076°54.DEF

Legal parking can be found within 200 feet of the cache.

If you complete the maze, please don’t give the answer to anyone else.
Let them experience the joy of working it out for themselves like you did.

You can check your answers for this puzzle on Geochecker.com.

As a reward for the late nights required to solve this puzzle, there are 4 coupons to a coffee shop for the FTF and the next 3 to find this cache. This puzzle is difficult, so I’m giving a dead giveaway hint to make sure you find the cache.

Congratulations to mmammel for the FTF. I’d also like to thank you for all the corrections to the write-up.