While the posted coordinates are for a wonderful pedestrian bridge, there is nothing hidden there. You must solve the puzzle below to obtain the actual cache coordinates. Trails are open from dawn to dusk. Dogs are allowed but must be leashed. Current conditions require having a face covering and maintaining 6-foot spacing.
You will be seeking a small lock-and-lock container. The cache contains a shiny new bison tube as prize for the first finder willing to use it to put out their own new puzzle cache. A few Halloween themed stickers and cards are included, just for fun. No trade necessary. Please use appropriate stealth when searching, and be sure the cache is concealed as well as (or better than) you found it.
It was almost exactly 10 years ago that teamajk started caching, and this occasion, like all such anniversaries, has led "J" to look back over the years, reminisce about fun times and good friends, and wonder at the swift passage of time. This cache is the ninth in what we hope will be an informal series of caches throughout the rest of 2020, with puzzles which may bring to mind some of our previous work while incorporating some new twists. Be sure to save the bonus information from the geochecker for the series finale.
Halloween is almost here, and this cache is meant to capture the spirit of the season. Trick or Treat! I’m providing you with two puzzles which you’ll need to solve and use together to obtain the cache coordinates. You’ll have to use a bit of logic (which could be tricky), but I’ll be telling you exactly what you need to do (that’s the treat!)
First, solve the Odd/Even Bridge Sudoku on the left below. I believe this type was invented by Akash Doulani for the World Sudoku Championship in 2017. Here are his rules: Apply classic sudoku rules. There are some pairs of circles connected by bridges (indicated here by colored squares). Each connected pair of circles has one even number and one odd number. The even number denotes the number of even numbers along the bridge and the odd number denotes the number of odd numbers along the bridge. The numbers on the circles are not counted. Numbers can repeat on the bridges.
Next, solve what I’m calling an Odd/Even Battleship puzzle. The grid below represents an ocean with ships sailing in it. Each ship occupies a number of contiguous squares on the grid, arranged horizontally or vertically. Your task is to use the provided information to find the locations for all of the ships. The numbers along the sides of the grid indicate the number of squares occupied by ship parts in that row or column, respectively. The ships must be placed so that no ship touches any other ship, not even diagonally. Blue squares represent open ocean, where you know there will not be a portion of a ship. Black squares represent a portion of a ship. In a usual Battleship puzzle (these used to be spotted often in “Games” magazine) you are told how many ships you will need to place, and of what lengths they are (1, 2, 3, or 4 spaces long). I am telling you that I have placed all of the ships whose length corresponds to an odd number (they’re all 1 space long), and you must place all of the ships whose lengths correspond to an even number.
Here in 2020 we all need masks, and this puzzle will prove no different. When you have solved both puzzles, your battleship puzzle will serve as a “mask” on top of the sudoku puzzle. When oriented properly, the squares containing portions of ships will overlie numbers which give the cache coordinates when read from left to right and top to bottom. If
You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.
Many thanks to VPPlayer for assistance in seeding the Odd/Even Sudoku puzzle and to thanman2 for testing the Battleship puzzle.