**Cache is not at posted coordinates - Do not go swimming in the Malad river**
This mystery begins as any other - on a dark gloomy night. The storm rolled in faster than predicted.
By the time I parked my muddy car at the edge of the Bear River, the rain was already splashing against the windshield. Lightning flickered across the sky like a warning. Most people would have turned back. But I'm not most people—I am a geocacher, and I was chasing the final clue in a mystery that had consumed me for weeks, even longer than the latest RSI cache.
The cache was called "The Mystery of Bear River" All six previous caches had led me deeper into this desolate farmland, each revealing a fragment of a cipher that spelled out the coordinates of tonight’s final location.
I zipped my rain jacket up and clicked on my headlamp.
The GPS pinged. The cache was a quarter mile ahead, near the ruins of the old Holmgren cabin—a place whispered about on local forums. Something about a cache that had gone unlogged for over 10 years (the lonely cache points were through the roof!).
Thorns clawed at my coat as I trudged through the thick grass and brush. Those annoying little grass seeds were wedging themselves into my socks. Thunder cracked and the wind howled - which, though chilly, kept the tenacious Box Elder mosquitoes at bay. The glowing arrow on my GPS drew me forward.
At last, I saw it—half-buried stone walls and a blackened chimney, all that remained of the Holmgren place. My GPS chirped. I was within ten feet.
I scanned the area. A toppled dresser lay rotting in the corner. I tugged open a warped drawer—and froze.
Inside was a small, rusted tin box. Could it be the cache that I'd anguished over for weeks?
I opened it.
It was EMPTY. The word "Decoy" had been written inside with a black marker, like some kind of mischievous madness. But there, folded and tucked carefully underneath the box was this cryptic page:
Can you help me discover the "Mystery of Bear River" and find the final cache?
Big congratulations to grumpywombat (who solved before any hints were posted) and oreoshakers for the FTF!
You can validate your puzzle solution with
certitude.