The background
When I first started to geocache, I only looked for traditionals and then I discovered the joy of puzzle caching. Some puzzles are easy (the "google the answer to these questions" type comes to mind) and others range from 'a bit tricky' to 'downright impossible'.
The first puzzle that I set fell into the category of 'downright impossible' and therefore has now been archived! To all those who spent hours looking at that puzzle, often without success - I apologise!
The reasons for setting this cache are:
- Closure for those who still want the solution, whether they found the original cache or not
- To show the method I used for the original puzzle as this will help everyone to solve one of my much easier later puzzles (edit - and should give a little insight into one other harder puzzle that I have set later)
- To act as a springboard for a later series of traditional caches which will give puzzle guidance with a view to more people attempting puzzle caches
The solution
The only lines of the puzzle element of the cache were:
"I love the area we (or I!) created this cache.
The solution to this puzzle can be found close by."
The first line is very oddly worded - solvers were supposed to identify this. Unfortunately it was my first cache, so solvers had no idea whether I was semi-literate or giving a clue! You should notice that there are 10 words in this line and that is a dead give-away that it is something to help with a solution as minutes of co-ordinates have 10 characters.
The second line was indicating that the first was critical to the solution. This bit isn't a bad cryptic clue but doesn't really tell solvers what to do with the line above! I did give a hint which should have confirmed that the first line was much more than it seemed but didn't do this when the puzzle was first published.
The puzzle was called:
"Puzzle: # i, i - Substitution"
Here is where it gets tricky. The title was supposed to be read as follows: "This is a Puzzle" (really?!?) "Number the letter I (in the first line of the description discussed above) as 1 and then do some kind of Substitution."
The # used is very difficult to interpret as "number" in the event of hashtags and even more difficult to then correctly interpret as "start counting" (to number items as in to assign a number to them)... The first i in the title could have been written I to be more helpful. The second i (roman numeral) was almost certainly too cryptic, encouraging most solvers to think they were looking for the letter "i" throughout. Solvers were, in reality, supposed to count the letters in the words of the oddly worded first sentence:
I = 1 (given in the title); love = 4; the = 3; area = 4; we = 2; or = 2; I = 1; created = 7; this = 4; cache = 5.
I'm impressed by anyone who comes to this conclusion on their own. I know I wouldn't have done!
The substitution
The second line of the puzzle gives a further clue to the required substitution. The cache being close by indicated that the published co-ordinates of the cache may hold some clue.
The published co-ordinates were: N 51° 21.570 W 000° 38.190. Ignoring the degrees, which never change in puzzles in this neck of the woods (the second hint, which also wasn't given in the puzzle initially, tried to indicate to ignore the degrees), and writing down the remainder of the co-ordinates, gives:
2157038190
If we move through this list of numbers stopping when we get to the positions indicated above (the number of letters in the words of that oddly worded first sentence) we get:
I = 1 2157038190 (The first number)
love = 4 2157038190 (Move another (love =) 4 numbers on in the list)
the = 3 2157038190 (Again, move another (the = ) 3 numbers on)
The twist
But now what does the solver do once they have run out of numbers? The puzzle description also contained another line:
"To find the right co-ordinates you will need to go round and round.
If you have run out of numbers go back to the start and carry on through a never ending loop of numbers:
2157038190 2157038190 2157038190 2157038190 etc. So carrying on picking out numbers:
area = 4 2157038190 2157038190 2157038190 2157038190
we = 2 2157038190 2157038190 2157038190 2157038190
or = 2 2157038190 2157038190 2157038190 2157038190
I = 1 2157038190 2157038190 2157038190 2157038190
And so on. When you complete this for all 10 words the boldened numbers are:
20.117 38.715
The moral of the story
Seriously, congratulations for getting this far with the solution explanation! The fact that I have said that tells you the moral of the story - set puzzles which have a fighting chance of being solved!
Just to add insult to injury, when I published the original puzzle I classed it as a D = 3.5 rating (subsequently changed to a D = 4)!
Please look out for more puzzle help caches (which I promise will be much simpler than this one!) in the future.
PS As a reward for reading this far, the other puzzle of mine where seeing this solution might help a little bit, is here. This time it isn't the co-ordinates, but something else very close by that is critical to the solve. The title and the picture clue are referring to it. I've not been quite so generous in giving away the solution method to the harder puzzle that the above might help a little with or even which of my other ones it is!