The cache is NOT at the posted coordinates
Derived from
image by addisonbr
About This Series
Puzzles are wonderful. They challenge and entertain you. They can be educational, good for your mental health, and aesthetically pleasing.
Combine puzzles with geocaching and you double your rewards. First comes the joy of solving a clever puzzle. Then, you get the smile from finding a nicely hidden cache.
With the wide variety of Calgary area puzzle caches, there should be something fun for everyone. Unfortunately, a fair number of people avoid the blue question mark icons. For a few, puzzles just aren’t their cup of tea. For many, though, the difficulty comes from trying to solve puzzles in the unfamiliar context of geocaching.
“I don’t know what the solution is supposed to look like.”
“All I see is a bunch of jumbled letters, which might as well be Greek to me.”
“I go to the cache description page and there’s no puzzle. What’s up with that?”
Fret not, Gentle Geocacher. We’ve designed this Calgary Puzzle Solving 101 Series (CPS101) with you in mind.
The first 12 caches in this series help you build your puzzle-solving skills. Each contains a lesson focusing on a specific skill, examples of how to use that skill, an actual puzzle to test that skill, and a cache to find. Study the lesson, solve the puzzle, and you’ll have the location of the cache.
Each puzzle has a geochecker link, which will confirm that you’ve discovered the correct coordinates. Each geochecker link also will reveal an image with five symbols. Save these 12 images (60 symbols). They’ll come in handy when you take the final exam (the 13th cache in the series).
You must solve the final exam last, but the lessons can be done in any order. We recommend, however, that inexperienced puzzle solvers at least read the lessons in the listed order.
After you finish this series, you’ll be well prepared to tackle most geocaching puzzles. And you’ll have a solid foundation upon which to add more skills for conquering the tougher puzzles.
This CPS101 series is based on the highly praised Puzzle Solving 101 Series that ePeterso2 created in Florida.
Ready to begin?
Lesson 01: Getting Started
Easy Puzzles
When you learn a new skill, it’s usually best to start with something easy and work your way up to the harder stuff as your talent develops.
Like other geocaches, puzzle caches have difficulty ratings. Search for ones with 1 or 2 stars and solve them first. An excellent place to begin is the easier puzzles created by One Bad Ant. Most of these are straightforward and fun and have very helpful hints.
As you vanquish the simpler ones, you’ll get more comfortable solving puzzles. You’ll also start to recognize certain types, which makes it easier when you encounter similar puzzles in the future. Once you’re ready to take on the tougher ones, then search for those with at least 2.5 stars of difficulty.
General Strategies
Lesson 02 will discuss some relatively specific tactics for picking apart puzzles. For now, we’ll suggest a few broad strategies to consider.
Image by Stephan.opitz
Start at the End
Imagine the result before you look for it. While seeking a traditional cache, for example, your focus usually is very different if you’re searching for a nano-sized container rather than an ammo box.
The same applies to puzzle caches. Their descriptions normally provide at least a hint of what their solutions will look like. Usually, the answer will be the cache’s true coordinates, so consider ways that coordinates could be represented on the page.
In Alberta, the north and west coordinates usually are expressed with seven and eight digits, respectively. So, look for a group of 15 items that might translate into something like 51 01.234 113 56.789. Some puzzles omit the degrees and make you solve only the minutes (e.g., 01.234 and 56.789). For others, the result will be just the decimal portion of the minutes (e.g., 234 and 789).
Coordinates aren’t the only things that can be hidden in puzzles. Some might yield projection information. For example, a solution of “123m45tn” could indicate that you should go to the posted coordinates then walk 123 metres at a bearing of 45 degrees from True North.
A few puzzle description pages will inform you that the cache actually is at the posted coordinates. In these instances, a result of “123” might be a padlock combination.
Know What You Know
Carefully read the puzzle description and make a list of the basic facts it presents. Don’t let your preconceptions restrict your thinking. While you’ll need to jump to tentative conclusions and test theories, be prepared to backtrack to what you know for sure.
Consider this brain teaser:
Plant ten trees so that the trees are in five rows of four trees each.
At first glance, five four-tree rows appear to imply that you’ll need twenty trees. So, how can you do this with just ten? The key is to avoid thinking in terms of a standard orchard. The puzzle has no constraints on how those trees can be arranged. In fact, there are at least six ways to accomplish the task.
Devious puzzle writers can exploit the differences between what you know and what you assume.
Apply Science
You’ll often make all the logical inferences you possibly can from the puzzle facts and still not have a solution. That’s when you resort to educated guessing.
The formal name for this approach is the Scientific Method. You develop a theory, test it, and see if it holds water. If the theory is true, then add it to your knowledge base. If it’s false, then make another educated guess and test it.
Solving a puzzle is like completing a maze. You know where to start and end but often have little idea about how to get from here to there. Start at the beginning and proceed until you reach a fork. Now you must choose between two or three paths. So, pick one and carry on. If you come to a dead end, then go back to that fork and try another way.
But what if your guess leads not to a dead end but to another fork? Now you must guess again. Just be sure to keep track of your guesses so you can “unwind” if your guesses based upon guesses are wrong. If you’re a video gamer, then marking the place where you made a guess is like creating a save point. If you mess up later, then you can return to your last save point.
Recognize Patterns
Many puzzles involve identifying and manipulating patterns of information. Suppose, for instance, that you’re given the following data:
Yellow: 0 Orange: 1 Green: 4 Red: 5 Indigo: 7 Violet: 7 Blue: 9
There are seven pairings, so could they somehow represent the cache’s northerly coordinate? One obvious way to shuffle the numbers is to put their colours in alphabetical order: 9471570 or N 94° 71.570’. Even at the North Pole, however, the latitude is only N 90° 00.000’.
Just because you can arrange information in a reasonable order, that doesn’t mean it’s the puzzle’s solution. There’s no guaranteed way to tell what’s relevant and what’s not. Good puzzle writers like to keep you guessing. Arriving at the right answer often is a matter of trial and error.
Did you notice that those seven colours are the colours of a rainbow? Could this be the pattern? If you rearrange the colours in the order of the visible spectrum, then you get: 5104977. Interesting. N 51° 04.977’ has great potential for a Calgary area cache.
Image by Producer
Find the Light Switch
You’ve pondered, inferred, conjectured, tested, brainstormed, and backtracked. You’re just about ready to give up (or at least shelve the puzzle for a while). Then you spot that key detail you’ve overlooked. A light bulb appears over your head, and you see everything clearly. Eureka!
Many puzzles require you to recognize one important element then sit back and watch in awe as everything falls beautifully into place. For instance, you might not know what to make of this:
0x72 0xF 0x34A
But when you finally realize that “0x” means that the numbers are in hexadecimal (base 16) instead of base 10, then decoding them to 114 15 842 (or W 114° 15.842’) becomes trivial.
These lessons will help you find some of the light switches, but don’t underestimate the value of experience. Start with the easy puzzles, then work your way up to the harder ones.
Take a Break
What if you cannot find the light switch no matter how hard you try? Maybe you’re trying too hard. Your mind might be focused too narrowly, and you’re having trouble seeing the bigger picture. In that case, redoubling your efforts won’t get you any farther.
What you need to do is relax your mind, and taking a break is a good way to do this. Stand up, walk around, and stay away from your computer for at least 30 seconds. Then take another crack at the puzzle.
Still no solution? Take a longer break. Walk around the block once or twice. Another way to distract your brain is to take a bath or shower.
Keep a pencil and paper beside your bed. Inspiration often strikes as you’re falling asleep or just waking up. Sometimes, a difficult puzzle solution will reveal itself to you in a dream.
If all else fails, then set the puzzle aside for a few days or weeks. You’ll be surprised how many new ideas will come to you when you revisit the puzzle with a fresh eye and additional experience.
Derived from image
by Chase Anderton
Puzzle 01: Calgary Votes!
It’s October 17, 2016, and Calgary’s elections are only a day away. This has been a busy weekend for John Ward (no relation to the notorious English pirate).
John works for a local television station and is transitioning from weatherman to news anchor. All weekend, he has been dashing around Calgary (and beyond) conducting person-on-the-street interviews with potential voters.
Yesterday, the temperature reached a high of 11°C, with moderate winds coming from the north. John’s first interview was with Faizah in the community of Whitehorn. A quick detour to Airdrie allowed John to chat with Michael, an American attorney visiting an aunt. That interview, of course, was worth zilch as far as the Calgary elections are concerned.
During an early lunch at a Coral Springs seniors centre, John talked with Zaide, a retired plumber. In Bankview, he spoke with Dawn at a coffee shop.
That afternoon, John interviewed Zhen in Coventry Hills, Herb in Inglewood, and Sydna in Glenbrook.
Today, there are light breezes from the west, and the mercury has climbed above 10°C again. John started the morning by interviewing Gavin in Nose Hill Park, then Orenda in Hidden Valley.
During a quick visit to Bragg Creek, the hopeful news anchor spoke with a German tourist named Max about an unrelated story. Then he went to Hillhurst, where he spoke with Dora.
Afternoon interviews included Becky in North Haven, Camille in Highland Park, and Gene in Thorncliffe.
John has one final appointment scheduled, but he has lost the paper on which he had written its location. Can you help him out?
Verify your answer by clicking on the image below:
The cache is a sandwich-sized Lock & Lock inside another container. Accessing that container is a field puzzle, but it shouldn’t be too hard. Please don’t damage the container trying to force it open. No key is required; use your head instead.
We initially stocked the cache with 12 carabiners, but feel free to trade whatever you like.
Congratulations to Bearberry and The Cub for being the first-to-find.