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Caesar's Secret Mystery Cache

This cache has been archived.

BASSETSLAVE: Time for this cache to retire.
Basset

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Hidden : 3/1/2004
Difficulty:
3 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size:   regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:

THE ABOVE LISTED COORDINATE IS LOCATED SOMEWHERE IN ELIZABETHTOWN KY. THE CACHE IS LOCATED IN ELIZABETHOWN KENTUCKY. THAT MAKES THE LISTED COORD'S BOGUS FOR THS CACHE . IN ORDER TO FIND THIS CACHE YOU HAVE TO DECYPHIER THE CODE BELOW.

This cache is a puzzle cache located in Elizabethtown Kentucky just off the 31W By-Pass on the Banam-Shaw Trail. The waypoint at the top of the cache report is not a valid waypoint.


When you were a kid, did you have a “Captain Midnight” decoder ring? With it you could send messages to a friend that no one else could read. If you didn’t you will get your chance to see what it was like in by gone years. Believe it or not BassetSlave remembers using a decoder ring as a kid to decode message with his friends.

The Roman ruler Julius Caesar (100 B.C. - 44 B.C.) used a very simple cipher for secret communication. He substituted each letter of the alphabet with a letter three positions further along. Later, any cipher that used this "displacement" concept for the creation of a cipher alphabet was referred to as a Caesar cipher. Of all the substitution type ciphers, this Caesar cipher is the simplest to solve, since there are only 25 possible combinations. Often this type of cipher is implemented on a wheel device. A disk or wheel has the alphabet printed on it and then a movable smaller disk or wheel with the same alphabet printed on it is mounted forming an inner wheel. The inner wheel then can be rotated so that any letter on one wheel can be aligned with any letter on the other wheel.

This cache will deal with substitution ciphers. This set of ciphers deals with finding a waypoint to a cache. The plain text for the waypoint was enciphered using a Caesar Wheel and value shifts. You will have to do your research to find a wheel

In order to find this cache a secret code will have to be deciphered using the Caesars Cipher. Deciphering this secret code requires that the cacher know three things:

  • Cypertext. Supplied
  • Value Shift of the Cipher
  • You will need a Caesar Cipher Wheel. Who knows, your homework may give you another way to do the cipher.

So here goes the cypertext:

  • STWYM
  • SGHQSXRDUDM
  • RADFKFIA
  • EDU
  • NRPQCHNRPQC
  • LTHI
  • HMZW
  • OSQRDIPSFO
  • YBYMRMAKXX
  • RQH
  • ZLCLUAFZLCLU

Follow the directions and you will be able to crack the secret code and log the cache.

Had to do some research on this cache to figure out how a decoder ring works. I enjoyed doing the research. AbbyWinston and myself enjoyed setting this cache. Enjoy the hunt.

Be Safe. Good Caching. Hope To Meet You On The Trail SomeDay Soon

BassetSlave, Abby and Winston The Elizabethtown KY Bassets.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Flpnzber

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)