Hippo gets around. Maybe you have seen him. He has become our "mascot" of sorts for all Green-Hippo caches, as we have recently completed our second year of hiding geocaches. But Hippo has been wandering around, and we need to find him. Hippos do like the water, but he is not hanging out in the Kettle Reservoir at the posted '?' coordinates. Those are fake coordinates. You should not search for him there. This is a puzzle that must be solved to find the correct coordinates to a padlocked container. You will likely also need to figure out a combination code related to the padlock before you go searching.
IMPORTANT: At GZ cellular signal may be weak or non-existent. You will need to fill out the combination puzzle sheet and have that with you to work the simple padlock puzzle once you get to GZ. This puzzle sheet is provided by the geochecker response, so use the geochecker first after getting the correct coordinates, and then fill out the combination puzzle sheet and take it with you to GZ. Please alert mrGreen317 by email or messenger if you have any problems with the geo-checker.
The posted/fake coordinates are within range of State Game Lands, so please be sure to observe all normal game land rules and wear orange during hunting season if your solved coordinates happen to place you in the game lands. During the primary hunting season following Thanksgiving, possibly avoid geocaching Monday through Saturday of those weeks. There is no hunting allowed on Sunday, so that could be a safe time to find the cache during those heavy hunting times. Hunters have priority in the game lands, so please be respectful of their presence.
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A congratulations on FTF goes to r.e.s.t.seekers and ted28285. You surely earned the prize on this one! The FTF prize has been claimed. While we searched high and low to find an appropriate themed gift (how hard is it to find hippo things around Altoona!?), I discovered an older TB that was purchased for a different cache idea that never happened; I think it worked to be included in this prize pack. Congrats again!
A special mention goes to toolrep1 as the first to get a correct on the checker (after the test "correct" that I made on the checker) and therefore be the first to solve the puzzle for the coordinates. We were very excited to have an out-of-the-area geocacher notice our new puzzle. Thanks for checking it out!
And finally, a special mention and thank you to Profbrad who was the first (to our knowledge) to "catch on" to this puzzle and who kept it a secret for a bit of time, waiting for publication. It was likely a Profbrad puzzle elsewhere in the area that provided a bit of a nugget of an idea that eventually developed into the final form of this puzzle.
This is a Green-Hippo cache
A Green-Hippo Cache
Green-Hippo Cache #19 [ S ]