Current at 11/6/2011 (Online waypoint URL) You have already found this cache! Master Index    Nearest Caches Crossbird puzzle by angelcastaneda (3/1.5) (Archived) N49° 50.113  W97° 06.229 (WGS84) UTM  14U   E 636354  N 5522034 Use waypoint: GC24J7Q Size: Micro    Hidden on 3/3/2010 In Manitoba, Canada Difficulty:     Terrain:                           This is my first hide, and the title was suggested by my beautiful wife, SeptemberLily. Stage one is very easy to find. Please take one of the *objects* inside, and let me know if the number of *objects* is below five. Once you have this *object* you might need to consult the intertubes, so you can figure out the second location. Stage two is also fairly easy to find, provided you've figured out the set of coordinates. You're looking for a small, wooden container. Original contents: - iPod-shaped erasers - Mouse-shaped sharpeners. - Travel Bug - Vancouver 2010 Olympics pin - Log and mechanical pencil. - There's no FTF certificate here, but I'll send you one, along with a Tim Hortons or Starbucks card. - The FTF Timmy's $10 gift card goes to Mr. Lizardo Once you solve the puzzle, click here to verify your coordinates Note: While Lizardo had to jump through some hoops that would earn him a spot in the 1995 movie "Hackers" (or at least, Revenge of the Nerds), you do not need a Blackberry, or any other mobile device. I'd appreciate if you sent me a private message explaining how you figured this one out. So far, I'm impressed at how many different ways people have used to get to the same result! The second stage was muggled on 04/15, so the second stage has changed locations (about 5m W from the original) - The outer container has also been replaced with a smaller one that will hopefully be muggle-resistant.

Additional Hints Hints

3/30/2010 by Kabuthunk
And I return from a successful trek to the second half of the cache! When I was at the first half two days ago, I had only partially solved the first portion of the puzzle (of which I separate into three separate 'things' that must be solved). I naturally took the sheet home, and ended up not having time to work on it on Sunday. Aaaaand kinda forgot about it on Monday as a whole . However, TODAY I indeed remembered the existence of said sheet, and took it with me to work in hopes of having a chance to solve it a bit during break or whatever.

So 2/3rds of a work day later, I had time to pull out said sheet, and begin working on it. Actually taking the time to read it a bit more thoroughly, I decided that I had made a few mistakes, and was able to solve it enough to be able to figure out what the second part of the riddle was leading me towards. However, being at work I had extraordinarily few resources at my beck and call. Spending a little bit of time with my good friend 'the internet', I quickly discerned the answer to the second part of this puzzle, and set about trying to come up with a way to solve the third part. Annoyingly however, I'm a bit surprised that I didn't recognize this type of puzzle right off the top, since I AM at least somewhat familiar with the existence of it. It explains quite a bit of the confusion that I had when I first looked at the sheet, anyway . I am still however curious as to how the cache's hint works into it. I had looked at the hint back on Sunday, and even drew a makeshift version of it on the sheet at the time... but yeah, still can't see how it fits in, really. Also while I'm thinking about it... oh, wait, no. I was about to mention that the name of the cache doesn't make sense either, but it just clicked in. Don't mind me, just thinking... on screen or something .

That aside, back to being at work. As I said, I have very little access to anything to call upon. Fortunately, me being fairly good at improvising, a healthy dose of Google combined with some MSPaint allowed me to fanangle a solution of sorts out of it! Since geocaching's site is blocked at work, I had no way of verifying my answer (although I technically suppose I could have when I went home to drop off my work bag before heading out caching... but that turned out to be unnecessary). With the final solution in hand, I turned on my GPS and plopped the coordinates into it. Aaaaxcellent, the second part of that isn't that difficult to get to. Thus, after dropping my bag off at home, I headed out for ground zero and began the hunt. Gotta say though, I never knew that this area was here, and am a bit surprised there wasn't other geocaches here previously. Or maybe there were, and they were archived or some such, who knows. In either case, I parked the car and worked my way towards the coordinates.

Once I arrived, the location of the cache was fairly easy. I'm pretty sure I've seen a nigh-identical cache container in the past, and although I might have done some custom tweaking to make it look a bit more natural, I'm always generally pleased with this type of cache container. Generally safe from bystanders, and generally available any time of the year. Can't go wrong .

So thanks again for the puzzle (thanks also noted in the logbook). Gotta say, although I wasn't expecting a puzzle, I'm quite happy that I stumbled across it. Definitely a fun one to solve all the way from start to end .

Took: Northern Atlantic Lobster Geocoin
Left: Logbook entry and chainmail ball

3/28/2010 by Kabuthunk
Most peculiar. Today, being the beautiful day that it was outside, I decided to prep my bike for another anything-except-winter and take it for a spin. Turning on ye olde GPS, I noticed that this one was relatively nearby, and would be right on my path. SWEET! Biking along the Bishop Grandin Greenway, I took the minor detour that led me to the coordinates.

Stage 1 was found relatively quickly, however I was quite perplexed by the contents of said stage. I'm more familiar with a multi-cache being along the lines of "here's another set of coordinates, go get 'im!" This cache I'd moreso classify as a puzzle cache, but one way or the other, I've gotten the ball rolling on this one, and have the sheet at home to try to figure out stage 2 (note: there's like... 20 more sheets in stage 1, so no worries about those anytime soon). I spent about 15 minutes attempting to solve some of the puzzle, and after getting about 75% of the words, I figured that there would be a lot more to it than what I could do immediately. Stashing the note in my bag, I headed onwards. Methinks the internet is going to be of valuable use to me for this one .

In either case, I shalt return for stage 2 once I figure this fella out .

Hints (Back)
Google will be your friend, to solve the first puzzle, and to get the final set of coordinates.