Found this YouTube Video on “Jon’s Adventure Vlog: Geocaching For Buried Treasure!”

I had no idea how to solve this seemingly unsolvable puzzle rated at a mere 3 in difficulty.
I watched as user after user logged this cash as “Quick and Easy” and every time they did…
My self-esteem took a dive.

I thought, “Maybe I’ll never be a Puzzle Geocacher. Maybe I should stick to crosswords and jigsaws.” I’d sulk and within a couple of days I would find myself looking at “THAT” page again. This went on for over a month.

The very last time I looked at that puzzle page I thought to myself:

“I know everything that is here…. So… What isn’t?”

That was the day that I learned a very valuable lesson about “Unseen Things”.

Sometimes what ISN’T there IS the biggest clue.

Here is the cache: Just for Fred – GC1CNDY

I was so mad at myself I waited almost a year to go get this cache. Can you see what I missed? There is no line that says:

GEOCACHE IS NOT AT POSTED COORDINATES!!!

Now, granted not every puzzle cache page says this. But! If the puzzle your working on doesn’t have this line, or one like it, and you can’t find another way into the puzzle to try and solve it, then, there is a possibility that the actual listed coordinates are indeed the final coordinates. This type of puzzle is a version of a “Liar’s Cache”. And this cache made a liar out of me.

It turns out, I am a Puzzle Geocacher. Now that doesn’t mean I am the best puzzle solver in the world or that I can solve every puzzle cache out there. I does mean that I am curious, persistent, an avid learner, and a dedicated good sport and have a pretty good sense of humor. I’ve learned to laugh, not at myself, but with myself, doing puzzle caches. Especially this one.

During the course of doing this cache I learned a great deal about how I think and operate. Persistence is good, but resistance to looking at something from a different perspective is bad. I know a coin has two sides, but what I often forget is that it also has an edge.

These are the reasons I decided to begin the Wicked Wednesdays series with this cache. I learned to think wider, to think broader, and expand my perspective to see the edges of things. I learned to look for the obvious, even when the obvious is invisible.

Wicked Wednesday

In the coming weeks I’ll be going over some of the other “Unseen Things” mentioned at the beginning of this article. If you have any suggestions for additional “Unseen Things”, please leave a comment and let me know about your ideas. There is a lot of ground to cover when it comes to geocaching puzzles. I’m going to break the information up into bite size pieces to make it easier for beginners and experts alike to find exactly what they are looking for quickly and easily on this site. See you next Wednesday. Happy Caching!

Help Us Get the Word Out!!

To do my part in helping to spread awareness for Gewoodstock VIII, I created a little folded flyer called a Zine. I chose this format instead of a regular old piece of paper just because they are fun to find and fun to give. The finished size is 2.75 x 4.25 inches and two of them fit nicely into a 4 x 5 zip-lock bag.

I put two in a bag so there is one for someone to keep and one for them to place in another cache to keep the message moving. There is a space on the back for you to fill in your caching name and I leave the other one blank for the finder to fill when they drop it into the next cache.

It’s a two page PDF file. The first page is the flyer and the second is the folding directions for those who are new to the format.

PRINTING SUGGETIONS: Please make sure that your print settings are set to “NO SCALING” when printing this document. If they are not, you will have a very hard time folding the flyer and having it line up correctly.

New Puzzle Caches

Not that Washington doesn’t already have more than enough ammo cans stashed in the woods, but 13 local cachers have been very busy making sure that your visit here to Geowodstock will be caching heaven. The most recent series of caches definitely caught my eye!

The “PEACE SIGN SERIES” uses 42 separate puzzle caches to create this lovely array. Now, here’s the kicker… 21 of the 42 caches contain a clue to the final cache in the series: PEACE SIGN SERIES #43: THE FINAL – GC24NBA. This should keep all puzzle lovers very happy come July! I know it has tickled my fancy quite a bit!

New Event Listing

Another recent Geowoodstock related event was published recently. The Lost & Found Celebration – GC24GYW – Hosted by the Groundspeak Lackeys. It’s July 4th, the day after Geowoodstock. They are asking for will attend logs before finalizing arrangements for the event so be sure to visit the page as soon as you can.

Well, that’s enough for now. It’s Tuesday and ya’ll know what that means. And today… I’m thinkin’… Road Trip!

Happy Caching!

It’s late. Or early if you like. 12:20 am. It’s raining. And the sound of the rain hitting the roof has made your mind tired and groggy. You are getting ready for bed, but feel compelled to check your email one more time and… There it is. A Puzzle Cache. Should you go for it? Aptly named I’Dunno (GC240W2), it’s listed less than a mile from your house by a cacher you know. A fellow cacher with a great big-brother-teasing type sense of humor and you know, you just know, that if you don’t go get this one you may never hear the end of it!

You open the page and… shit. It looks like a multi. But wait! You read on: “There is no container to find at the Reference Points. They are for Reference. You don’t need to bother anyone. Reference Points are for Reference.” Ok… Google Earth. You see the locations and it clicks. You know exactly where to go online to get the desired information and in less than the time it took you to open your email, you have the coordinates in hand! Success!!

That’s exactly how it happened to me! But…

Oh, wait… The water pump on my truck is acting up. No driving that far, at night, alone. Hmmm, not good. PJ seems really busy, so I calmly mention a possible FTF on a Douglas_Clan puzzle and the next thing I know, PJ, Karma and I pile into the jeep and away we go! Co-FTF on a very early Tuesday morning is a fantastic way to start the day!

Late That Afternoon

If you read last weeks post, you know I was working on a Multi-Cache named, Lakewood Historic Markers(GC1P8KZ) by Subman123. With only a couple of hours to cache we decided to finish up the remaining waypoints and take the dog with us to the final cache site. We had enough information without the last waypoint to know that the final was going to be near the Ft. Steilacoom Park Dog Park. It seemed like a good plan. Dog. Dog park. You’d think that would be a perfect fit! Well, Karma had other ideas today.

When you adopt a dog from the Humane Society, you don’t always know how they will react to new situations, places or people. Rose and Karma had just recently finished the beginner class of dog training at the local Pets-Mart. From it, we learned that Karma had never been socialized with other dogs and that her barking and acting up seems to be fear based. It was one of the things that we have been working on with her consistently over the last eight weeks. She had been doing really well. She has learned to be comfortable and responsive to tours of Pets-Mart and is getting better with the parking lots. We had even been to this dog park area before and she had calmed down after her initial barking, whining and lunging episodes to really rather enjoy her walk. Today, she was having none of it. Every dog, human, bird or gust of wind, was setting her off. She was shaking and not from the cold. We did our best to calm her and work her through it. We had parked near the last waypoint, which is located in the cemetery. I have to wonder if maybe that was an issue for her. We got back in the Jeep and moved to park closer to the actual final and to help Karma calm down. It made some difference, but she was still pretty worked up. I still have no idea why today was so different than the other days here, but it was.

We made it to the final as the sun set. PJ made a quick grab and we signed the log and dropped some Travel Bugs. It wasn’t until we got home that we discovered that the cache has a TB listed in it that is not there. Sad. The cache did not appear to be compromised, so I’m hoping that someone just picked that one up and forgot to log it. Geocacher Responsibility! Oh wait.. that’s another blog post.

So! If any of you local geocachers have not done this Multi yet, I would encourage you to do so! If while you are there, you would pick up and log the TB’s we dropped off today, it would be greatly appreciated! It seems we’ll be spending quite a bit of time there with the dog, so I’ll keep a lookout for ya!

Happy Caching!

Tupperware Tuesday

So, tell me .. How was your “Tupperware Tuesday”? To find out more and how to participate, follow this link: “Tupperware Tuesday”. If you love geocaching, we’d love to hear from you! Chime in with your comments or your weeks caching highlights. Can’t wait to read what you found today!

N 47° 10.567 W 122° 29.590