All geocachers enjoy working with binary numbers, right? You may
have seen that funny t-shirt—the one with this on the front: “There
are 10 kinds of people in the world—those who understand binary and
those who don’t.” Of course, the binary number system is key to
that piece of equipment that is so important to us all—our
computer. The binary system is used internally by all modern
computers. Fortunately, most of us don’t really have to deal with
our computers at that level, and we don’t spend a lot of time
messing with binary.
However, the other day we ran across a data string that really
intrigued us. At first glance it just appeared to be a random
string of 1s and 0s. But the puzzle nut in our midst said, “I don’t
think this is so random—I’ll bet there’s something important hidden
in here.” So she worked and worked, and by golly she found a set of
coordinates. Furthermore, the coordinates just happen to be for the
spot where a cache is located. What a coincidence! What about
you—can you make any sense out of the string of data below?
(By the way, we had to break the string up to display it on the
cache page. If you would prefer to work with the original
continuous string, you can access it
here.)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11O10111011001111010111111111110011O0111110101011101011111111111111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No link to a coordinate checker is provided, because you will
know if you have solved the puzzle. If you have to ask, you haven’t
solved it!
The cache container is small—please don’t overstuff it. As is
usual in heavy tree cover, getting a good reading on your GPSr may
be problematic, so we’re including some photos to help you zero in
on the right area. The cache is located about 75-100 feet off the
trail, but not to worry--no heavy brush to slog through.
[A grateful nod to Ichabod for the idea for this
puzzle—mahalo!]