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!

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!