Wicked Wednesday

Wicked Wednesday posts may be about anything related to geocaching puzzles. Posts may include:

• how to recognize and solve different types of ciphers
• where to look for hidden information
• tools and resources available on and offline
• step-by-step solutions using archived caches as examples

Why a Wicked Wednesday?

Well, I’m pretty good at many standard types of puzzles and thought I’d be pretty well prepared for the geocaching world’s versions. Boy, was I wrong.

What I’ve come to realize is that there are as many different types of puzzle caches out there, as there are geocachers that create them. I’ve also discovered a whole other world called cryptology and it is fascinating. Puzzle geocache creators amaze me with their creativity and powers of deception. Anything, and I mean anything, can be fair game for creating a geocaching puzzle. I’ve experienced puzzles using multiple ciphers, airport abbreviations, railway signal codes, U.S. History, world geography, NASCAR, poker, Scrabble tiles, and now I even know the name of the man that invented the “crown cork”, or bottle cap. All of these things I’ve learned, or know more about, because of a puzzle cache.

Puzzle caches are often delightfully frustrating, and while I am no expert in this area, but I am an avid learner. I’m hoping that sharing as I learn will help others to solve and visit more puzzle caches. Puzzle caches almost never get the kind of traffic I think they deserve, as this video explains:

Wicked Wednesday will also include puzzles that I’m working on and may need your help with! Please feel free to offer suggestions or hints if you can! Whatever you do don’t “give” me the answer! I like to learn and figure out the solutions to really earn that smiley!

Wicked Wednesday will be the 3rd Wednesday of each month starting February 17, 2010. You can find a complete listing and the current Wicked Wedneday posts here.

If you would like to “Guest Post” on this topic for any other Wednesday, contact me at I’d love to learn from you too!

Wicked Wednesday is a Blog Carnival / Theme Meme

Participating is easy:

1. You create a post or write an article about something related to Puzzle Geocaching and add one of the banners below or a link back to coastcacher.com to your post so readers can find other Wicked Wednesday participants.

Copy and paste this code for a textlink:

 <a href="http://coastcacher.com/blog/2010/01/08/wicked-wednesday-blog-carnival/">coastcacher.com</a> 

Copy and paste this code for the above small banner link:

 <a href="http://coastcacher.com/blog/2010/01/08/wicked-wednesday-blog-carnival/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i757.photobucket.com/albums/xx217/coastcacher/ww125.jpg" border="0" alt="ww125"> 

Copy and paste this code for the above large banner link:

 <a href="http://coastcacher.com/blog/2010/01/08/wicked-wednesday-blog-carnival/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i757.photobucket.com/albums/xx217/coastcacher/ww.jpg" border="0" alt="ww"> 

2. Then you come back here to the current Wicked Wednesday post and create a link to your post using the “Simply Linked” form at the bottom of my post. it will look like this:

3. If you do not have a blog, you can still participate by posting a brief “Wicked Wednesday” comment or resource link in the comments section. You can include a link to your Twitter or Facebook account if you wish.

4. I’ll publish my “Wicked Wednesday” post sometime between 5pm and 9pm on Wednesdays. I’ll keep linking open to the post until for one week, ending at 11:59 pm the following Wednesday. As with all links and comments on this site, I reserve the right to delete any that are inappropriate, do not follow the guidelines, or are not family-friendly.

That’s realy all there is too it. Once you’ve submitted your link I and others reading posts here can quickly and easily find your blog and your content. I hope you’ll be joining us for Wicked Wednesday every month. I look forward to learning from your experiences! Happy Caching!

Signal the Frog is a registered trademark of Groundspeak, Inc.

On December 3rd, Groundspeak enlisted the help of geocachers nationwide to participate in a social networking/GPS technology challenge commissioned by the, Defense Advanced Research Project Agency of the United States, or DARPA. The challenge was designed to “…explore the roles the Internet and social networking play in the timely communication, wide-area team-building, and urgent mobilization required to solve broad-scope, time-critical problems.” according to the DARPA Challenge website. The Challenge was to be the first group to correctly submit the locations of 10 moored, 8 foot, red, weather balloons stationed at 10 locations in the continental US. A $40,000 dollar first prize amount was set for the first person/group to correctly report all 10 locations. If Groundspeak won they offered to put up and additional $10,000, to bring the total to $50,000 and to donate the entire amount through DonorsChoose.org to help fund school programs in need of GPS equipment. A fantastic gesture and a wonderful investment in our children’s education and future.

The date of the Challenge was set for December 5th, 2009. It wasn’t a lot of notice from Groundspeak to its troops in the field, but geocachers from all over the US responded to the call. A blog “10 Balloonies – Groundspeak’s DARPA War Room” was set up to help keep geocachers informed of the challenge as it unfolded and a temporay Twitter account was set to keep the information flowing.

The action was hot and heavy that Saturday. MIT proved to be the victors being the first to correctly locate all 10 balloons. Groundspeak and it team of Geocahers found a total of 8 balloons for a respectable showing. It was a successful social networking experiment for both DARPA and Groundspeak. Here’s hoping that this trend for Groundspeak continues.

Groundspeak and the Groundspeak Lackey’s, decided to honor the contributions of all the participating geocachers by donating the $10,000 dollars they offered to put up if they won.  They will be choosing the programs to donate to over the next couple of weeks. It was a Win-Win Saturday for geocachers and Groundspeak, geocaching for a good cause.

UPDATE:

• Here is a related article that details MIT’s strategy: Random Connections: DARPA Challenge Update
• And and update from Groundspeak: After the Challenge, What have We Learned

I just saw your latest TV commercial and it seems you have the “little guys” out shopping early this year, so I thought I better get to writtin’ ya real quick like. See… I’ve been a really, really, really, good geocacher all year this year.

• I aint’t been in the parks before dawn or after dusk.
• I aint’t crossed any “No Trespassing” signs. (That was hard!)
• I always traded up instead of equal.
• I logged every geocache, travel bug and geocoin the same day found them.
• I ainn’t done no four-wheelin’ where I shouldn’t uv.
• I stayed on the clearly marked approved trails and tried not to step on too many plants.
• I didn’t hold on to any travel bugs or geocoins more than a week. (ok maybe a week and a half)
• I even kept the dog on a leash and (if you can believe this) even picked up her poop!

Really, you’ve seen my dog, I oughta get a medal or something for that last one! Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is… I think I’m bein’ pretty darn reasonable asking for this one geocaching gift this year for Christmas. I’d really like this fancy new geocaching GPS called the Garmin Oregon 550t. (I included the link to it for ya below.)

Garmin Oregon 550t Touch-Screen Handheld GPS Receiver with US Topo Maps & Integrated Camera IN STOCK The navigator with the photographic memory — Garmin Oregon 550t combines rugged outdoor touchscreen navigation and pre-loaded 3D topo maps with a 3.2 megapixel digital camera. The result? A multipurpose device that will make your biggest adventures even more memorable. Also new is the addition of the addition of the 3-axis tilt-compensated compass. This will allow the unit to report an accurate heading even when the unit is not held in a level position.

It sure is pretty! Those geotagged photos could come in handy when the Mrs. just don’t believe I was where I said I was and when. And the 3-axis tilt-compensated compass would come in real handy after a few cups of holiday cheer. I’ve been know to tip at least three ways after the annual Christmas party! Anyway… Talk it over with the Elves and let me know what ya think. Hope you had a great year of Geocaching! ~ CoastCacher

p.s.: I’ll make sure to leave a candle burning for ya this year instead of the fireplace going. Sorry about that one. Hope you aren’t too mad about it.

p.s.s.: I found this review of the Oregon… I hope it helps you make up yer mind See ya soon Santa!Oregon 550t Review

Garmin eTrex Vista, Photo by CoastCacher

I have often been asked why I prefer the Garmin eTrex Vista HCx to the Garmin eTrex Legend HCx. Two reasons: the electronic compass and the barometric altimeter. The Vista has them and the Legend doesn’t. Now you may be thinking that a compass isn’t really important if you have a GPS unit. After-all, once you get to the coordinate location you just have to rummage around and look for the cache. Right? Well, maybe. But, if your are at the cross section of two trails, in heavy tree cover and the cache listing has a hint that says, “the cache is behind the third tree on the southwest corner”. It would be nice to have a “electronic compass”, now wouldn’t it. The same holds true for parking garages and the “barometric altimater” feature. Eight stories of parked cars, surveillance cameras and only one location for the cache. I never thought I would use the altimeter. I was wrong. Variations of both of these situation have happened to me several times over the years. Each time I am thankful over and over again I made the choice I did. I may have spent and extra forty dollars upfront to have these features, but I have saved more than triple that amount’s worth of aggravation on long days of geocaching. Click here to view a side by side comparison of features between the Garmin eTrex Vista HCx and the Garmin eTrex Legend HCx

I still have my first Garmin eTrex Vista Cx. It is still my GPS of choice for urban caching. It is small, fits in the palm of my hand and tucks away quickly without generating much notice from people nearby. It easily blends in with the urban environment unlike my other favorite GPS; the DeLorme PN-40. But that’s another story for another day.

Here is video on using the Garmin eTrex Vista HCx for geocaching.

UPDATE: Congratulations to “StrangeMinds” on your Garmin eTrex Vista Cx purchase!