Games - Crossword Mystery Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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in our disclaimer.
The cache is not at the listed coordinates. Solve the puzzle to find the actual coordinates.
Honestly, I’ve never been overly fond of crossword puzzles.
When I was a kid, I loved when my Dad would toss me the puzzle page of the newspaper and let me have at it. I’d do the word search, the anagrams, the cryptograms… but not the crossword. I suppose it’s because of all the worldly knowledge that’s needed to solve the clues. I certainly didn’t have it then, and as time passed I never did develop much of a taste for it.
Sure, I appreciate the elegance of a well-crafted crossword; it’s tough to get all those letters to work out in a tidy manner. I also like the deductive reasoning aspect, where answers to the easier questions become clues for the harder questions, and you can strategically work your way through it. Some of the crossword puzzle variations were kind of cool, too. For instance, there’s a “fill-in” variant in which the clues are a bit easier and you are still told how many letters are in each answer, but there’s no legend and you have to figure out where each answer goes in the grid on your own.
If only the subject matter involved something I knew about; that I was passionate about… then, solving crosswords could be pretty fun. Hmmm….. As you might have guessed, that brings us to today's puzzle.
I can’t exactly toss you the puzzle page of the newspaper like my father used to do, but I can entice you with something else that’s black and white, and red all over. I present to you a couple of geocaching-themed crosswords for your solving pleasure. Print 'em out, curl up with a nice cup of coffee and a good ol' #2 pencil, and enjoy. Once complete, pay attention to that "red all over" stuff and solve for the fourteen digits of the final coordinates.
Printable PDFs of the two puzzles are available here: Traditional and Fill-In. They are easier to read than the images below.
Many thanks to the beta testers--mmammel, ZippyFinn, and some muggles who won't read this. You rock!
You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
[Puzzle Hint 1, 8/18/15:] Na hahfhny cnggrea bpphef rknpgyl 14 gvzrf va gur svyy-va.