The mystery cache Mystery Cache
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(small)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
The idea for this cache is derived from one of the caches that I found near Vancouver when I was in the area a few years back.
One of the trickiest things about the concept of the mystery cache is the almost limitless possibilities that the person hiding the cache can employ when designing the clues required to find the cache.
The first mystery cache that I ever found caused me untold hours of grief (mainly due to my inexperience with geocaching in general), and since that particular cache is no more (and was about 13000km away anyway), I decided to produce this cache in tribute!
Thus, I hope this series of clues can give you as much pleasure and head banging irritation as they gave me (and it goes without saying that coordinates can be gleaned from careful reading and are not hidden in HTML code or any such silly thing – this is a good, old fashioned puzzle!):
The following (slightly self referential) tale, imaginatively called “The mystery of the missing coordinates” tells the story of geocaching trio The Three Amigos, and specifically the eight day saga surrounding their attempts to find the most difficult cache on Geocaching.com.
Our team consisted of some canny puzzle solvers: Blitzer007, team leader and a guru of number puzzles, AeroFlot – a mathematician with zero tolerance for failure, and SquizzyBob who was the main gadget man, with nine of the most advanced GPS devices available at his fingertips at all times.
On the Saturday morning in question, our heroes were gathered for the usual pre-caching breakfast of trail-mix and hard boiled eggs and planning out the routine weekend caching run, tossing around ideas for tackling the six or seven remaining mystery caches in the 10km radius around home, when Blitzer007 suggested they attempt the toughest cache on Geocaching.com, the mind-warping “Evil Puzzle Cache”, rated top-marks for difficulty and terrain and unsolved for over a year.
Pieces of the puzzle were equally divided into three between our heroes and AeroFlot immediately got to work, applying his mathematical genius to start forming workings of a possible solution involving quantum mechanics and string theory.
SquizzyBob approached his third of the puzzle from a completely different angle, entering the numbers into his computer and using one of the many algorithms at his disposal - dragging the coordinates out kicking and screaming.
The final portion of the puzzle consisted of a heavily encrypted number puzzle, with enigmatic symbols clustered in the four corners of a rectangle, with intersecting lines dividing the symbols in half, and leaving a single mid-point which contained the final symbol – a question mark.
It was this puzzle that had SquizzyBob, AeroFlot and Blitzer007 stumped for almost five days – trying various methods of analysis and trying desperately to make a translation: from symbol into number…
The intrepid trio had experienced zero luck extracting coordinates from the symbol/number puzzle until Aeroflot, the mathematician amongst them, stumbled across the final transformative method to change the symbols into numbers and then, alternating addition and subtraction eight times, finally produced the final missing coordinates!
With the coordinates in hand, the team roared off into the darkness in the Cache-Mobile, the boys’ GPS devices pinging away frantically as the destination approached until they were at GZ (within a five meter accuracy) and before they knew it the cache was found, the log signed, hugs administered all round, and everyone was cruising back to home base, smiles on faces matching the smilies on Geo-maps.
After an amazing night of success: solving the puzzle, the camaraderie of working as a team, getting an elusive green tick from GeoCheck and scoring the FTF on Geocaching.com’s most difficult mystery cache; the intrepid trio finally had the chance to settle back, relax, bask in the glory of their achievement, and do what one would expect after so exhausting an exercise…start solving the number two most difficult mystery cache on Geocaching.com!
So now that you have heard the story of SquizzyBob, Aeroflot and Blitzer007, The Three Amigos, and the quest for glory against the most challenging puzzle around, you will surely have experienced one of the familiar A’ha moments and deduced the final coordinates for this puzzle – there is a prize or two for the FTF and STF!!!!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Gung juvpu whzcf bhg ng lbh jvyy yrnq lbh nfgenl, xrrc vg fvzcyr naq ernq pnershyyl naq lbh'yy svaq gur jnl...
Vs svany TCF cbvag vf n yvggyr whzcl, ybbx ng tebhaq yriry ng boivbhf ynetr gerr
Treasures
You'll collect a digital Treasure from one of these collections when you find and log this geocache:
Loading Treasures