The Ultimate Puzzle Cache…
Ðámn! It’s taken me almost two weeks to finish this entry and I’m still not done yet! Well, at least I’ll get this first (and close enough to final for you all to begin work on) draft out this month. Everything but what is represented by the several 999:999’s is properly and completely encrypted and will not change in the near future. The complete and final version will go on the geocaching site within the next week and a half. Go nuts!
When I was a child, I read a lot. I was an avid participant in the Los Gatos library’s summer book club, a prolific enough member that I would end up with dozens of free books by the end of each summer to add to my own personal library. My collection grew exponentially over the years.
I loved mysteries. Hardy Boys. Tom Swift. Nancy Drew. The Fantastic Five (a wonderful British series). You name it, I devoured it. I relived the exploits of these famed duos and teams as daydreams and fantasies.
Around the same time period, in response to all those mysteries floating around in my head, I developed a simple code I thought unbreakable — or at least extremely difficult to crack. It has never really been tested.
Until now.
To commemorate my finding of my 500th geocache, I am unleashing my revenge on fizzymagic, kablooey, the Rat, and other locals who have plagued my nearest-to-home list with infuriating puzzle caches that dared me — and sometimes defied me — to solve them.
Although the code eventually evolved into greater complexity, the cache instructions to count this as a find located below are encoded using the original, most simplistic version.
Will the Ultimate Puzzle Cache — created out of the mind of a mere 10-year-old kid — defeat you?
45:564 1:62 16:23 9:6120 3855:4209 86:299 179:322 221:70 92:53 407:4 265:30 265:31 265:8 265:196 4:84 92:37 86:305 92:30 407:3 112:44 41:9 207:177 207:178 425:42 402=22 16 20 2 30 16 1 54 19 7 47 20:2 371:5 97:100 207:16 181:31 216:9 41:1 204:19 403:2 11:3 299:42 196:1 10:9 186:17 86:13 59:24 365:3 200:84 128:3 425:12 5:1 100:8 125:63 174:18 20:2 200:105 97:10 146:35 90:32 123:2 123:48 123:49 69:178 69:179 123:50 186:17 189:3 151:16 174:151 174:152 174:153 111:293 4:50 111:4 316:10 236:223 269:10 174:20 111:87 290:6 403:1 299:42 169:133 174:151 93:42 93:43 78:307 362:3 355:32 392:183 146:10 9:252 13:3 100:6 194:9 181:6 17:3 180:17 440:369 180:16 180:119 180:120 181:95 174:20 180:297 77:96 29:296 262:72 185:1 392:224 381:56 145:4 357:37 261:3 278:20 146:34 410:1 17:109 86:51 69:100 69:101 146:77 279:35 200:363 267:7 27:248 69:138 362:3 207:16 306:51 29:223 29:299 29:74 86:62 417:192 417:193 63:70 169:157 169:1 111:90 269:10 291:1 275:6 17:134 389:24 277:290 277:291 277:10 9:252 350:35 111:90 236:207 350:13 236:100 418:15 381:100 61:20 97:100 100:7 100:1 380:7 86:102 180:55 179:320 68:245 228:11 27:15 181:2 51:63 411:1 51:66 51:6 180:55 107:5 190:258 86:127 41:9 262:156 236:227 425:12 139:1 171:71 351:54 16:5 452:84 4:19 999:999 999:999 999:999 268:210 999:999 999:999 999:999 169:52 17:116 41:182 61:20 999:999 999:999 999:999 268:210 999:999 999:999 999:999 169:3 180:55 417:11 174:19 220:105 179:321 131:31 342:11 219:5 342:51 190:39 342:64 342:263 381:15 405:1 189:125 390:127 342:235 4:87 390:30 390:306 86:6 390:309 453:187 342:22 344:10 163:7 57:235 97:128 52:10 265:25 146:7 146:306 200:308 100:6 97:100 86:104 194:4 180:162 194:3 180:208 443:1 179:323 146:31 86:299 86:100 304:283 111:87 146:292 147:7 440:257 299:29 171:23 41:136 112:25
Absolutely no hints or verification will be provided. Don’t even ask. If you record this as a find without having fully completed the encoded instructions, your log will be deleted. Period.
Not really expecting an answer (let alone a hint or verification) but is it correct that the 25th term has an = instead of a
Since the next 10 terms are all single numbers I suppose a more experienced cryptographer would note this aberation as a clue.