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I’ve always wondered that myself. I order from them regularly and all I can say is that the cheaper one sometimes drops off the site and then comes back so maybe it’s like a sale item or something but not clearly marked that way?

I just always order the cheaper item 😛

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So happens on challenges like this if the owner of any of the caches you find decides that the difficulty or terrain is “not right” and changes it. Or they change it based on the seasons. You think you found one and then you didn’t!

Always willing to play devils advocate.

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My only problems with the Star Wars puzzle are that I am unclear on the Anakin padwan question as to what you are exactly looking for and I am still trying to determine the “order”.

I even tried alphabetical based on first significant word in the question sentence lol 😆

Looked at it again yesterday and still couldnt get a success.

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I’m not sure why that cache moved so quickly from “wet log – needs maintenance” to archive

Yeah i noticed that too… unfortunately not even the “cacher community” can keep a cache going when it get’s disabled so fast by the reviewers. And once it’s disabled, if the owner does not come forward it’s a goner. In this case a new log and baggie is all it would have took.

this was one of my first caches found in Appleton when I first started and I still hadn’t seen many hidden like it after nearly 700 caches found.

Oh well, we move on.

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All the trees in my backyard are still green and they don’t drop their leaves until after it snows a couple times. Then I fill up the entire (a good 75 feet) front of my house along the road with a pile thats as wide as my truck, 5 feet high. 3 giganto maples in my backyard.

Ahhhhh… Fall. Beats shoveling snow!

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the narration and pictures are excellent!! I think many are enjoying reading your posts.

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mine’s done… we’ll see how it fairs with it’s review!

thanks marc for the inspiration. I enjoyed finding 3 of these today while out there. Too bad I couldn’t crack the Star Wars one yet…. never would have guessed I would struggle with that one!

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If you wanted to be able to try to do the puzzle, and can’t figure it out, you could still get the cache and also the answer to the puzzle inside the cache.

Okay, I still don’t get it. what does “you still get the cache” mean exactly? So you post the answer to the puzzle on the cache page? Is that what you mean? Then place more about how to solve the puzzle inside the cache? What might be more intriguing is to place an actual container at the bogus coordinates that gives you hints (not the solve) to the puzzle. Hmmm.. wonder if s|s has ever done that?

I have actually seen many puzzles that give you the answer in the encrypted hints. Gotta wonder how many just look at the answer and find it as another on their list of caches to “clear off the map”.

One of the best parts about puzzle caches is that the drive-by cachers who create most of the avoidable maintenance problems by and large avoid them.

A little off-topic but I have to agree. Puzzle caches seem to be muggled less, taken care of better by finders, and as a cache owner you can know that traffic will be much lighter and depending on the puzzle really light and choose hiding locations accordingly based on these insights.

Back on topic and to respond to s|s’s comments regarding his puzzle caches in specific. To solve them and experience them is like no other geocaching experience. I am glad I live in Appleton and get to experience many new things, learn a ton, and have this much fun. s|s takes an area with very few wooded trails (alas not many places to put a plain ole ammo can in the woods) and turns it into an educational, historical, urban playground. Yeah some of his puzzles expect you to make intellectual leaps in order to solve but as he states, he offers help when help is needed and that help will allways bring more understanding of the puzzle topic and overall almost a better geocache experience. Yeah, giving you the answer up front might still make for a fun cache as many of these have custom containers and very well planned placements but it’s just not the same.

If you want to experience the best s|s has to offer in what I am talking about above please turn your attention on these:

– Native & Invasive | Alien Invaders – finding invasive plants as a requisite for logging a cache and posting your “spotting” on a map that the dnr will follow. How cool is that???
– Chronicles | You Turn Me On – building a geocache that teaches you about the world’s first Hydro-electric power station. A cache that you will never forget. By the way, before this cache there was a coin trading magnetic keybox along the trail by the power station and there was no reference to the wonderful history of the area on that cache page. Hmm, I wonder which I would want to experience?
– Pinball Wizard caches – Placing caches that it’s actually easier to find them if you are physically handicapped or live with someone who is. Don’t see many caches like that around.
– Laughing waters – We come from the water – requiring placing a water sample into a fountain and tracking where all of the samples came from as the requirement for logging a cache. Again, how cool is that?
– Pace yourself – I’ve only done the first one but I cannot beleive how fun that cache was to find. Only not many will experience simply because they ignore puzzles.
– Camelback Cinema | The Passings of Mr Pink – The work put into this puzzle and the custom container are appreciated when you finally make the find.

With his caches everything is done with a purpose. Nothing is accidental. A cache about flags is placed on a container where you can submit flags for burning. A cache about police officers is in the shadows of the police station. A cache about a sail boat is well you guessed it near a sail boat.

Every cache worked on for months even more than a year before actually publishing them. I had the pleasure to work with him on at least a couple caches and you would not beleive how much thought, work, blood, and sweat goes into making these some of the best experiences around.

So you are having trouble solving his puzzles? You don’t really “need” marc to teach you…

Here are some examples that may help (generally):

From Flags of our Fathers – Land Sea & Sky
James Priest died in camp on AF-F(E+1)-A(E+1)CA.
What s|s is saying is there is a date on the plaque in the format
MM-DD-YYYY so the Month = AF
if the month is 11 then A = 1 and F = 1.
In the Day F(E+1) means that the first position of the Day is F. The 2nd position is E+1. So if the day is 25 then F = 2 and E = 4 (because E+1 = 5).

These “replacement type” puzzle caches almost always work the same when it comes to s|s. He’s put geochecker on many of them (though they are often buried in links that are words or images within the cache page but they are still there!) so you can check your answer and backtrack if perhaps something might be off.

You could probably categorize at least 75% (maybe even higher) of his puzzles into this type. They’re actually pretty straight forward to solve…. Some harder than others but he’s pretty good at judging difficulty (at least relating difficulty to his other caches).

Another 10 – 15% are visual. Visual in terms of mapping, sattelite views, etc.

Head Case is an example of a visual puzzle. Don’t want to give this one away but telling you it’s visual might be helping you…

About as obscure as his puzzles get is Can’t you read the !Signs! I admit, I would not have solved this one without his help. However, that again is part of the experience for me. By the way, for this one just read the cache page very carefully. You can’t solve this one at home and many hints abound on the page.

Another obscure one is I’d Walk a Mile. Probably one of the most obscure in the Appleton area as an outsider looking in. Where does one start??? The encrypted hint is a good place. I printed the picture of the nice rat and played with it on my computer screen. That might help you to? This one’s like “an inside joke” so as an outsider looking in you “don’t get it”. However that does not mean you can’t solve it.

I have not solved every one nor found every one of his caches. However, I enjoy just about every one and I am certainly not afraid of trying to solve them as I know there’s a light at the end of the tunnel and sometimes that light turns on with the push of a button.

Enjoy your time off s|s. And when you come back, I still won’t have solved or found all of yours by then.

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i dont get it…

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who knew Wikipedia doesn’t always have the right answers?

I have had more than one of my puzzle caches in the past fouled by differing sources of information. In some cases it’s hard to pinpoint which one is wrong if your not super-knowledgable on a particular subject…

Also, please note that Wikipedia also CHANGES OVER TIME! So your prescious source of data today, might be completely different tomorrow. I have seen a whole section dissapear that seldom|seen used as the basis for his captain america cache. There is a way to post a link to a specific point in time version of the Wikipedia article and you might want to look into that if you are using Wiki for your reference for any of these caches… I can help if you need help.

I know it makes for a easier cache, but sometimes it’s just best to post your reference links on the cache page rather than dealing with differing reference sources and cranky puzzle solvers 🙂

Now if I could only find a couple hours to get up there… Marc, please let me know when you might be able to head up there to get another one in the field… Send me an email of some possible times and I will try to make one work on my end. I work Mon – Fri 8 – 5:30 for your FYI.

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None of those BBC, “foreign” ones interest me. I would be willing to take any of the following that tyedyeskyguy recommended as additions:

5. Babylon 5
6. Alien Nation
7. “V”

My preference would be in the order: V, Babylon 5, Alien Nation.

So are there spots already picked out? Are you hiding all the physical caches or are we all?

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If you still need help, let me know… been in the cache publishing mood lately.

I noticed it’s within my watching distance so I guess I can contribute 🙂

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Not all who are lost wander.

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I am going to put together a challenge cache 😈

I’ve seen many of them already even before this thread. I even had a small challenge that was more of a race but I only kept it running last winter based on finding “Winter Friendly” caches.

I think we have enough adventure and variation in the Fox Valley area to warrant a region-based challenge cache.

Hopefully I will incorporate something new and something blue and enough worthwhile incentive to get some buzz going about it.

On a related note, should I average the terrain rating or stick with the terrain of the final itself? You will get to pick your poison on this one, so it will be possible to not have to do a 5-star terrain cache.

What about the difficulty level of a challenge cache? Again, should I average it? Should I set it at a 5 for incentive/inspiration?

I assume everyone likes these challenge caches to be ammo cans so that is what I will be placing. No urban micro for this one.

Geocoin for every finder. Gift certificate for FTF. I saw the “take you out for dinner” idea. What are some other incentives you’ve seen for these types of caches?

I will disallow sagasu from FTF somehow. 😉 Joking aside, there will be some cachers that have already stepped up to the challenge so to speak and found some/many/almost all of the caches on the list. As with other challenges, I see that this is generally accepted.

I will throw a clause in about caches on the list that get archived. I’ve seen that happen on some of these “find the following caches” type caches which then wrinkles the whole deal.

For you challenge seekers, get ready to grab your flashlight, borrow a kayak, sharpen your pencils, dont forget your ladder and digital camera, bring along a child or 2, and maybe grab a pair of water wings and flippers. Hmm… How many attributes are there…

Thanks for some new inspiration pharmgirl… You asked and you shall receive!

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Congrats Trekkin’ and Birdin!

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