I admit I'm not very good at solving puzzles. So, while I've got smileys for most of the caches near me, there are still a lot of blue "?" marks on my map. The hardest ones for me seem to be where solving the questions in the cache description is easy enough - but then what? What are you supposed to do with that information? It doesn't obviously translate into a set of coordinates. Sigh. Reminds me of my first encouter with Zen koans.
Well, if you can't join em, beat em.
Maybe by hiding a geocache of my own, wrapped with a few puzzles, I might get a bit better at solving the puzzles set by others. Perhaps even with the biggest puzzle: birth and death? So, here is my puzzle cache offering, utilizing a few of the methods and norms that I've seen used in other puzzle caches. Below are ten puzzles to try. They all lead you closer to the thing itself. Maybe you could try solving one or two? Maybe all of them? They all occur here in the N43 W79 area.
The hint relates to the cache once you get to GZ, not to solving the puzzles themselves. You won't need anything extra to solve these puzzles. You already possess everything you need. But sometimes the most useful thing to do is not to stare at the puzzles, but to stare at the staring itself.
A.
B.
GC7Q
HX9G
C67T
H4GC
57EA
TGC6
QRV1
C. C'mon. Every inquiring geocacher has troubles
D.
E.
F.
G.
H.
I. This one has been encoded in the most common way. It's hardly trying, mostly logical. Could others decode ever?
J. How many geocaches are hidden in the Codex Seraphinianus? Zero, of course!
Ok, that ought to keep you finders busy for a while. Ten letter values to add to the N43 W79 neighbourhood. If you want to check any of your ten values, just ask.
What, you need still more info to put them together in the right order? Well alright. But
this is the last puzzle.
Probably.
Feedback on the D/T rating is always welcome. I'm reluctant to claim this is a D5. But a little more hinting might be possible:
- Solve the ten puzzles for the ten digits needed
- Solve the jigsaw to get the solution clues for the N and W coordinates
- Solve the solution clues to assemble the ten digits into coordinates that can be checked
- Go there and solve the field puzzle
If you want help, ask. Otherwise I will let the challenge stand for a while :-)
By request, here is a checker for the intermediate coordinates
Don't despair. There now is a newly associated bonus cache with even more clues