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Blooming Words (KPC2025) Mystery Cache

Difficulty:
3 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:


The cache is not located at the given coordinates. Solve the word puzzle below to determine the actual coordinates of the cache.

With the weekly word puzzle stimulation in Livermore, it's probably not too surprising that I have come up with another word puzzle. This one should be fairly straightforward. From each word, the second and fourth letters bloom into the first and fifth letters of the word above it. (See the diagram.) All the words are five letters, but the clues are not in the order that the words need to be placed into the diagram.

Clues:
Playing marble
Thicket
Denounce
Thick (in the head)
Lawn tool
Pole workers?
Recital music
Walmart employee's job
Flood preventer
Musical group
Eyes
Shaped like recent hunt items
GPS output?
Puffed
Recipient of a key toss

Special Notes about the 2025 Puzzle Challenge: To be considered for Fastest Solver points, you must verify your solution with Certitude. Finders will receive Top Finder points when submitting Found It logs to the cache page. All "point" scoring is arbitrary, subject to change, at the discretion of the cache owner, and probably completely meaningless (unless you just want to be announced sooner at the celebration party, which will probably happen sometime in March 2026). The real challenge is to see whether I can keep coming up with puzzles every month! To maintain fairness, hints should not be offered by the cache owner or other solvers until the fifteenth of the month.

Special Notes about this month's puzzle: Okay, I thought the last one would be easy. I really think this one is easy (or at least straightforward). Published at D2.5, but it looks like it was not as easy as I expected; so I raised it back to D3.0. 10Oct2025: Cache is now located in the fence post -.004 south of the puzzle solution.


You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.

First To Solve: ddlatham (31 minutes)
First To Log: thanman2 (147 minutes)
Named pre-hint solvers: 36
Pre-hint finds logged: 13
KPC2025 Solvers Scoreboard
KPC2025 Finders Scoreboard
Previous KPC Puzzle: Boxed In (KPC2025)
Next KPC Puzzle: Ballgame (KPC2025)

* KPC2025 Final Exam *

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

[Hints added May 15th.] Gur pyhrf fubhyq yrnq gb svir-yrggre jbeqf va nycunorgvpny beqre. Gur fgnegvat jbeq (ng gur obggbz bs gur qvntenz) jvyy or gur bar gung unf svefg naq ynfg yrggref gung pbhyqa’g cbffvoyl or sebz n cerivbhf jbeq.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)