Nifty 90 Encouragement Cache Tier 4: 60 Mystery Cache

Ever since January 2022 I've been on a bit of an obsession: knocking off peaks from the Sierra Club's list of ninety prominent peaks of the Bay Area: the Nifty Ninety. To that end, I made that a public list of caches nearest the 90 peaks, and started hunting down the ones I hadn't already found. I've found it a great way to see all of the Bay Area's splendor, from all corners of the region. As of this placement I have found 86 of the 90 peaks, and placed or found 80 caches from that public list.

Now that I've caught the virus, I'm attempting to pass it on to others. With modern GC challenge cache rules, I can't make a suitable challenge around these caches, so instead I've placed this Encouragement Cache! It started with the Tier 1 Encouragement Cache, then Tier 2, then Tier 3, and now Tier 4!

You are encouraged but not required to have found 60 of the associated Nifty 90 caches on that list before logging this one. Or you can log it anyway, I can only encourage you to qualify. D is 5.0 stars if you've been suitably encouraged, and for the puzzle. 2.0 stars for the puzzle and the find alone. I've marked the terrain as 4.5 to encompass the amount of terrain you'll need to pick up 60 of the Nifties, though the real T rating is probably 4.0 depending upon your trailhead.

To increase the encouragement, I have posted a table of all loggers (found, signed, and qualified: Gold Star ⭐!), plus the top 20 that have qualified or are halfway there (greyed out if not yet signed, light pink for top 20 not yet qualified). To create the list I did a search for the "usual suspects"; if I've forgotten you or someone else, please let me know and I'll add them to the list. Here's that table, including ourselves for encouragement.

Updated 09/27/2026

OK, now the puzzle and find. I've learned from a previous Encouragement Cache that either folks don't read or they just log anyway, which is fine. But to add a slight bit more of a hurdle to those that might otherwise stumble upon a traditional, I've included a simple in theme puzzle to solve before the coordinates are provided. To solve the puzzle, enter the name of the nearby (non-Nifty 90) peak (seven letters) just east of the posted coordinates into the provided Certitude. It doesn't always show up on maps, but it is on the Peakery SF Bay Area 100 Challenge list where it is #35. (No, currently no intentions on making a challenge with this list!) It is also an anagram of the name of the person that prepares for the painter to do their job. There is currently a geocache on that peak with its name. If successful, the coordinates and a hide hint will be provided.

Congratulations to Psychoticjesters for the unencouraged FTF, and congratulations to Cats4us for the real FTF!

You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.

Good luck and go get 'em!

PS: The series is probably done at this point, unless there is a lot of movement towards another Tier!

Update 11/02/2024: Congratulations to Cats4us and In The Vault for being the first two to complete the full Nifty 90 cache collection set!!! ⭐ Double Gold Star!!! ⭐

Update 01/27/2025: Congratulations to (ahem) penguinphloppers for being the third to complete the full Nifty 90 cache collection set! ⭐ Gold Star! ⭐

Update 06/19/2025: Congratulations to 7Nails for being the fourth to complete the full Nifty 90 cache collection set! ⭐ Gold Star! ⭐

Update 05/03/2026: Congratulations to nozy nabor for being the fifth to complete the full Nifty 90 cache collection set! ⭐ Gold Star! ⭐

Update 07/11/2026: Congratulations to atc for being the sixth to complete the full Nifty 90 cache collection set! ⭐ Gold Star! ⭐