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On The Border Mystery Cache

This cache has been archived.

billrow: My geocaching activity, both for searching and hiding, has reduced greatly over the last year or so, as I just have other interests taking over. I'm having trouble keeping up with maintenance on all of my hides, and it's not fair to have people working to solve puzzles, only to find the cache is gone. :-( So I am enforcing a new rule: all of my caches that are over five years old, and haven't been found for over a year, will be archived. So it's farewell to this one!

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Hidden : 5/14/2010
Difficulty:
3.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:


The cache is not located at the posted coordinates.

To solve this puzzle, you will have to perform the following steps, requiring some on-line map research:

First, find six different locations, each of which has a characteristic related to the cache title. The coords are in this format: +38 N.y, -121 W.x

N and W are two-digit numbers; y and x are three-digit numbers. The six different values for y and x are given below. All you have to do is figure out the six values for N and W.


A: y=981, x=576
B: y=710, x=733
C: y=267, x=911
D: y=000, x=333
E: y=084, x=566
F: y=855, x=310


After you have these six coords, do the following for each: First subtract W from N. This should give you a new set of six two-digit numbers. Then find a single two-digit number that you can subtract from each of those numbers to give you a set of six one-digit numbers. NOTE: You will use the SAME number to subtract from each of the six numbers you have. Finally, just substitute the one-digit numbers into the corresponding letters in: +38 40.ABC, -121 15.DEF. This will give you the final location.

Okay, okay... I'll give you an example:
If you were to find the coords for "A" to be +38 42.981, -121 14.576, you would subtract 14 from 42, giving 28. If you then determined the number to subtract to be 26, you would subtract that from 28, giving a value of 2 for "A". You would then do the same for B thru F, subtracting 26 from each intermediate result.

To narrow your search, all values for N are between 38 and 43 inclusive, and all W values between 11 and 18 inclusive. And the six coords you are looking for relate to different combinations of things represented by the following: O, FO, F, CH, C, R, GB

You will find the puzzle hint very helpful in doing your research.

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


Congrats to turuthok for FTF (WITHOUT the extra clue!)

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

[puzzle:] hfanivthvqr mvc [hide:] Tb gb gur yvtug - Ybbx ybj - Ghea bire n arj yrns

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)