A Ridge Walking Adventure
Recently I completed a ridge link-up between Lake Fork Peak and Wheeler Peak. The ridge is fantastic, with rocky scrambly sections, two un-named peaks and exceptional beauty.VI was accompanied by two other hikers, both non-geocachers, despite my constant badgering to give this game a try. They were in it for the adventure, and the hike provided plenty of that. Even from a distance you can see that the ridge line between Wheeler and Lake Fork is not all walkable.IThere are rocky bluffs, steep knife edge sections, and numerous elevation changes. SomeGpeople might consider this kind of exercise miserable, but I was having a blast. One of the odd things about this route is the abundant presence of survey markers. I'm used to seeing these occasionally, especially on summits, but the ridge-line seemed to have them every 400-600 ft. They were usually set in a piece of metal pipe surrounded by a large pile of rocks,Eand there was one word on the markers that befuddled us. What did this word mean? It was not a word any of us had seen before, but it was a cool sounding word, and we started shouting it outNeach time we encountered one of these survey disks. It actually became kind of funny, to see one of us rushing ahead to the marker to shout out this ridiculous sounding word. A word that sounds like it could be a constellation, or maybe part of a magic spell from one of the Harry potter books.
At un-named peak, 12,819, also known locally as Sin Nombre, I decided to leave a little cache.EAnd as is my want, I decided to be a little mischievous in revealing the coordinates. The magic word that we had been shouting out along our route is the pass-phrase for the ciphertext you see below. What is this word you ask? Well, apparently,Rit is french in origin and has to do with establishment or re-establishment of real property lines. More than that I'm not saying. Of course, you could always just hike up on this ridge and see the word for yourself. It is marked quite prominently on each disk. I am pretty confident that when you see one of these boundary markers, you'll know which word is the passphrase. Heck, you could probably locate this cache without solving the cipher at all, simply by hiking up peak 12,819Eand searching "logical" areas. I won't be surprised if this happens.
The code to Break
VHHCG GKATP EUIKE FCLVE GUFWV RLEAG AKMIA WOAUK WKRTY QRWHL AZREA SLXVX XRPGS WHJXV THQPR IFMWO FTZHR GLZXH GSWOF XYUYF RHDSG UFTXE GEYKV EDVWH NLRWI GGDRT KXMEY GIJHL REIYG XAX
Regardless of how you reach peak 12,819, be prepared for a long day of hiking high in the Rockies. In the summer and early fall, thunderstorms can sweep in very quickly and pose a very real threat. Plan your trip accordingly and enjoy getting "high".