I was introduced to geocaching in July 2006. Not long after, I discovered the Mystery Cache type – a kind geocache that requires you to solve a puzzle in order to determine its location.
Personally, I think puzzle caches are twice as good as traditional caches. You get to experience the excitement of the hunt and the thrill of the find twice – once when you find the real coordinates, and once again when you find the real cache!
Unfortunately, I’ve discovered that a good number of geocachers out there actively shy away from puzzle caches. Some just don’t care for them, but others tell me that they just don’t feel like they know how to begin solving them.
I’m certainly not a puzzle expert by any stretch of the imagination – my puzzle books have a lot more unsolved pages in them than solved ones. But I figured that I’d try to share my own experiences with the caching community to see if I could help to demystify that blue question mark.
The first nine caches in the series will help you build your puzzle-solving skills. Each one contains a lesson focusing on a specific skill, examples of how to use that skill, an exercise to test that skill, and a cache to find as a reward. Study the lesson, complete the exercise, and you’ll find the location of a geocache. All of the puzzles (except for the last puzzle of the Final Exam) can be solved at your desk.
