"How to Puzzle Cache" book question

[+Squirrely]

I bought this book because I am terrible at PuzzleCaches. I've been Geocaching for a year and don't have much experience with these. I got the book by Cully Long and finished the first chapter. I am stuck on the first 'Solve it Yourself' on page 30. Can anybody provide some guidance?

[+luvvinbird]

I bought this book because I am terrible at PuzzleCaches. I've been Geocaching for a year and don't have much experience with these. I got the book by Cully Long and finished the first chapter. I am stuck on the first 'Solve it Yourself' on page 30. Can anybody provide some guidance?

Like you, puzzle caches are not my forte. However, I was lucky enough to attend a puzzle cache event last month where I purchased that same book. I've not read too much of it as yet but I would recommend contacting a puzzle cache owner in your area to see if a similar event designed to help novice puzzle solvers, is upcoming for your locale. We covered a few of the examples in the book but what I got out of attending the event was that puzzle cache owners are very friendly, openly communicate with their puzzler peers and are only too happy to help others. Meanwhile, I'll take a look at page 30 and see if I can come up with something. I thought you might like this....GC1MH0T

Edited April 25, 2015 by luvvinbird

[+SageTracey]

Cully Long, the author, is on Facebook, and is very responsive to questions such as this.

[+indigodave]

Yikes, Now I need a hint. I am stumped already! Help please!

[+goodhorsehymn]

I need a nudge on The Rivalry too. Can anyone help please? 

[+Auld Pharrrt]

As a Scottish cacher, it took me a few minutes to realise that the Americans would understand the importance of the player numbers that they were assigned ... unlike British football (soccer) where players numbers might change in the USA they appear to assigned only to that one player (I may be wrong) ... also, the edition of the book might be different in newer publication runs ... I certainly had trouble solving that puzzle at first, but eventually my daughter and I stumbled upon the correct (ish) answers by using Google Streetview.

Cully Long, the author, was helpful, but I didn't get to the solution with his help because I still didn't realise that the player numbers were so important.  After I solved it, I worked my way through most of the book and hit another stumbling block which resulted in me leaving the book aside for almost a year, but recently I started from the beginning again and once again I couldn't solve The Rivalry and had to resort to "cheating" and reading my notes from the previous year when I had solved it.

In the end, I decided that for the very first puzzle in the book it was very difficult when most people would have appreciated an easier one to start them off ... some of the later puzzles were extremely easy by comparison.

[+Blue_Ranger]

8 hours ago, Auld Pharrrt said:

As a Scottish cacher, it took me a few minutes to realise that the Americans would understand the importance of the player numbers that they were assigned ... unlike British football (soccer) where players numbers might change in the USA they appear to assigned only to that one player (I may be wrong) 

You're right, in American football a player wears the same number for at least as long as he stays with the same team.  If he goes to a new team, he might end up wearing a new number, but he might get lucky and his new team might have the same number available to him.  Chad Ochocinco might look a bit silly if he ever had to wear a number other than 85.  (He actually changed his legal name to Spanish for 85, and there was a flap over the fact that he changed it too late for it to be printed on his jersey the first season.)

[+noncentric]

33 minutes ago, Blue_Ranger said:

You're right, in American football a player wears the same number for at least as long as he stays with the same team.  If he goes to a new team, he might end up wearing a new number, but he might get lucky and his new team might have the same number available to him.  Chad Ochocinco might look a bit silly if he ever had to wear a number other than 85.  (He actually changed his legal name to Spanish for 85, and there was a flap over the fact that he changed it too late for it to be printed on his jersey the first season.)

OT, but I always thought his name change was a bit odd, since he changed it to "eight five", not "eighty-five". I mean, most people state their jersey numbers as one number, not the separate numbers. Jordan was "twenty-three", not "two three".  But "eight five" in Spanish does seem like an easier last name than "eighty-five" would've been for the sportscasters and jersey makers. Saves three syllables too.  FYI - He changed his last name back to Johnson a few years ago, after retiring from the NFL.

 

[+Hagar 62]

I was given the book for Christmas and, with help from this forum, have managed to solve The Rivalry but have got stuck on the next one, Type O.  It seemed straightforward and I got the correct checksum but my result completely fails the secondary check.  I can see no sign at my co-ordinates.  Any ideas out there?

[+Auld Pharrrt]

On 1/5/2018 at 4:53 PM, Hagar 62 said:

I was given the book for Christmas and, with help from this forum, have managed to solve The Rivalry but have got stuck on the next one, Type O.  It seemed straightforward and I got the correct checksum but my result completely fails the secondary check.  I can see no sign at my co-ordinates.  Any ideas out there?

If I remember correctly, you can view the area in Google and if you use satellite view the "SIGN" you are looking for is written in trees, not written in the trees but written BY the trees ...

 

[+Hagar 62]

You are so right!  How did I not see that before?  Thank you so much.

[+02Bhkn]

I'm hoping for a hint on "Come And Knock On Our Door".  Google gave me a reference to a popular book series.  Without buying the books, I don't know if that is relevant.  Looking up TV addresses seems like a google puzzle not a funny papers puzzle... any hints?

[+cerberus1]

2 hours ago, ktTris said:

I'm hoping for a hint on "Come And Knock On Our Door".  Google gave me a reference to a popular book series.  Without buying the books, I don't know if that is relevant.  Looking up TV addresses seems like a google puzzle not a funny papers puzzle... any hints?

 

A popular late 70s, early 80s sit com had that as their theme song.  

 - Other than that, by the  Terms of Use, we agree not to "Publish on our websites the solutions, hints, spoilers, or any hidden coordinates for any geocache without consent from the geocache owner." 

[+Lynx Humble]

3 hours ago, cerberus1 said:

- Other than that, by the  Terms of Use, we agree not to "Publish on our websites the solutions, hints, spoilers, or any hidden coordinates for any geocache without consent from the geocache owner." 

I don't have the book but isn't the puzzles generic or with the geocache owner consent to get it inserted in the book?

[+CAVinoGal]

The puzzles are given as teaching tools - one or two are given as examples, and a walk through of the steps used to arrive at the puzzle solution are given.  Then you are presented with one or two puzzles for YOU to solve on your own using the particular technique(s) taught in that chapter.  It's a fun book!

 

The hint given above by cerebrus1is a good one - and likely all the help one is likely to get from a puzzle owner in the real world, unless they are prone to just hand out answers.  Yes, we probably *could* give more info and still be OK and not violate any rules/guidelines, as the puzzles in the book are "bogus" coordinates and not real caches anyway.  But I don't think it would be in the spirit of the book to hand out answers either, as the book is teaching you techniques and ways to think about solving various puzzles.

 

I think the sitcom was limited to US release pretty much - so anyone outside the US may have a tougher time "getting" the hint/clue in the puzzle.

Edited December 16, 2019 by CAVinoGal

[+barefootjeff]

In the second edition of the book, Cully has provided five levels of hints on each of the exercise puzzles, going from a gentle nudge at the first level to what he calls "nuclear level" at the fifth. The level 3 and higher hints are ROT13 encrypted.

[+02Bhkn]

Thanks all.  Sounds like I need to upgrade the first edition that I just bought.  I noticed there is a $6 upgrade book available.