THIS IS A FUN CACHE. SIMPLY A GOOD OLDE FASHION HIKE IN THE WOODS SOME QUESTIONS, PUZZLES , QUIZZES, RESEARCH AND WELL A WEE WITH A BIT OF EVERYTHING. IT IS NOT A DIFFICULT GEEK PUZZLE. THE DIFFICULTY AND TERRAIN RATINGS ARE BASED ON THE TIME, TRAVEL AND PATIENCE REQUIRED PLUS THE TOTAL ACCUMULATED ELEVATION GAIN AND LOSS.
IMPORTANT: Before you can even look at or play with the GRID below you need to find the first stage. Those co-ordinates for this stage can be found on this cache page, by reading the cache page VERY CAREFULLY.
It cannot be finished in a day. If you do then it will be a 24 straight. That is not a challenge. It is an indication as to the type of cache this is. Take your time and enjoy it. I repeat it is not extremely difficult but there are certain things you will have to do that will take time and challenge you. If you get frustrated easily, then this is not for you. It is an adventure meant to take time, but reward you for that time. Suitable for any children who can walk a 2 mile round trip, hike some very short steep terrains in places, accompanied by an agile adult. If you get stuck, the Monkey E Mailbox is always open for help.
VERY IMPORTANT: Make sure the DNA code you find in each stage of this cache is copied and verified before you leave the cache, EXACTLY AS YOU FIND IT.
OK TIME TO START YOUR QUEST. BE WARNED ONCE YOU START YOU MAY FIND IT HARD TO STOP.
This is a good place to start looking, but sorry, no primate monkeys here!
Those Puzzling Primates have really screwed up this time. Never having been accused of being caught at work my problem began when these primates decided to play with my scissors after their guns and knives were taken away. Bobo and Bilbo are two puzzling primate cachers who love to act like gorillas because they think they are real swingers. To make matters far worse they convinced their twin siblings to join them in their rumble. Lucky for those modern day cachers who want to help me, these twin chumps can be identified clearly because the siblings are pointing in different directions.
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| This is Bobo. |
This is Bilbo. |
This is Bobo. |
This is Bilbo. |
Together these four primates did a lot of monkeying around. They ran amuck all over the place with scissors and have managed to slice and dice themselves pretty good. Bobo and Bilbo (and Bilbo and Bobo) need you to help them find themselves so they can be made whole again. To do this you will find the caches that they visited as they contain the reverse engineering genetic code which will allow you help them to be able to put themselves back together again. If you assemble them and they look like humpty dumpty you are wrong. In other words they need to be reassembled such that they only have one head and one butt each and their arms on the correct sides. If you are not sure how that looks, stand in front of the mirror to get the idea.
The object of the primate puzzle is to take the nine squares and arrange them into a 3 by 3 grid (three rows and three columns). If you see circles or triangles or any other shapes you think you should arrange stop right now as you do not have the nature mom instinct and you can forget doing this puzzle.
Of course there is a slight hitch. Each square has half a primate (whether it be Bilbo and Bobo or maybe Bobo and Bilbo) along each edge. As you rebuild the puzzle, you have to make sure that not only do the North - South primates align, but also the East - West primates align. Play God here anyway you want , but to solve the problems you don't want to make a primate with two heads or two tails or arms on the wrong side of their bodies. While it may be fun, it's just not right.
When you have completed the primate puzzle you will notice in the top left hand corner of each piece there is a number. These numbers will be used to provide the latitude and longitude for the caches, so it's vitally important that your primate puzzle is oriented correctly.
Bilbo and Bobo have 387,420,489 possible configurations, (trust me on that one, but who cares anyhow) but only 24 correct genetic configurations. As mentioned, orientation is vital to solving the primate puzzle so in order to solve the primate puzzle you will need to start by finding the co ordinates to the first stage. The solution to this stage is here on this page and the answer should be very clear. When you have worked out the answer you'll be on your way to solving the first step in the primate puzzle cache.
Co-ordinates are used in the form of[RxCy].
eg. 41 [R1C1][R3C3].[R2C2][R3C1][R1C3]
The first value would be the number in the top left hand corner of the box which is in position Row 1, Column 1.
The next value would be the number in the top left corner of the box which is in position Row 3, Column 3.
I think you get the idea.
To look up the co-ordinates you can use the standard row / column methodology or you can use the supplied grid to the right.
You should keep your monkey puzzle close to you at all times. Take them to work, take them in your car, take them on the train or keep them in your cache bag. You never know when you will have the time / desire / need to work on the primate puzzle and you won't want to waste any time trying to solve this primate puzzle.
One thing you can't do is use a computer program to solve the monkey puzzle. That wouldn't be honorable, but "theWilkens" like. Cacher's Honor Code applies. ( Would someone show me where that is!)
As stated, the difficulty in this cache is solving all the primate puzzles and thus finding the genetic markers that will lead you to the monkey den. The cache stages themselves will provide their own challanges but if you want to be able to log the cache the geo rules say you have to find the actual final cache. When you do solve each stage location, take along a camera, some binoculars, you never know if you will need them.
I would like to thank the following people:Your quest begins at: North 41 33.898 West 73 16.836 Park at 41 33.402 73 16.862 trailhead is across the road marked with wooden steps.
- Jamm for providing a sanity check on the hide locations and other odds and ends.
- Ardnamuchkin who provided many of his suggestions and talents to help the puzzles make sense beyond my warped thinking.
This puzzle took over a year to put together, due to the need for the motivation required to do the work necessary. Hope you enjoy it, have fun and remember the key advice is to have have patience with the quest. Feel free to log with notes of your progress without giving away any spoilers.
Those esteem few who achieved the BIG BANANNA AWARD for completing this cache.
WILL YOUR NAME BE HERE? I DOUBT IT
| Congratulations to YODADOG on your FTF |
