If you are given a handful of words and have to get numbers from them, what do you do? Count them of course!
There are many ways this can be done!
You can count the number of letters in a word:
N 42 12.dog,goat,horse
W 083 00.cat,bird,lizard
The answer to this would then be: N 42 12.345 and W 083 00.346.
You can use the number of the letter in the alphabet:
N 42 12.c,d,e
W 083 00.c,d,f
To solve this, count the letters in alphabetical and numerical order such that a=1, b=2, c=3, d=4, e=5, f=6, g=7, etc.
The answer to this would also be: N 42 12.345 and W 083 00.346.
You can also spell numbers if you include additional text:
"The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs."
N 42 12.(11,13,21) (1,12,15) (27,2,10,3,25)
W 083 00.(1,2,26,3,21) (14,15,18,10) (37,6,16)
To solve this, take the numbers in parentheses and count from the left such that t=1, h=2, e=3, q=4, u=5, i=6, c=7, k=8, etc.
Another way to help yourself with this type of puzzle is to notice that one, two, and six each have three letters; zero, four, five, and nine have four letters; and three, seven, and eight have five letters. If you find the first letter, you don't have to count the rest of the word out.
In the above example, the first north digit will be 1, 2, or 6. If we count to the 11th letter we see that it is an O. So that digit will be a one.
By counting and estimating, you will see that the numbers spell out another number:
N 42 12.(one)(two)(three) and W 083 00.(three)(four)(six).
This takes a lot more time to solve but you will occasionally run across it!
The Puzzle:
The cache is hidden at N 42° 33.ABC W 083° 01.DEF
A=carotid
B=lobe
C=axon
D=cortex
E=fissure
F=medulla
You can check your answers for this puzzle on GeoChecker.com.