The art of the puzzle cache

The puzzle cache. Also known as the Unknown cache type. This kind of cache has really become the catch-all cache that encompasses a whole other world of geocaching. Many folks have differing opinions on the type itself, but today I thought I would comment on my own thoughts and feelings about the art of puzzle caches.

Ironically, as someone who is not a big fan of puzzle caches, I have been finding a lot of them in the last few months. Mind you, not by solving the actual puzzles, but by obtaining some assistance from other cachers who are far better at solving them then I. To add to the mix, I recently published a new puzzle cache and have another one coming out this week. For someone who isn’t into puzzles, it certainly seems like I am surrounded by them.

For starters, here’s my biggest issue with puzzle caches. As a general rule of thumb, I am really bad at “solving” most types of puzzle caches. If you were to buy me one of those puzzle books with the word puzzles, and number puzzles, and all of those other kinds, I would never do any of them because it’s not something I am very good at. There’s a lot of things I can do but solving puzzles is not on my top 10 list of things I am good at.

So that having been said, with there being so many puzzle caches around, I find myself being somewhat excluded from being able to do these because I can’t solve them. It’s not a dig against those who do hide them (as I hide them as well), but it does present another difficult situation. With so many puzzle caches around, when the time comes for me to publish a new cache of my own, it’s far harder to find a spot to hide one because you don’t necessarily know where the finals are for the puzzles, and hence you may end up hiding in an area that already has a puzzle cache.

Last year I hid a series of caches along the new Gunningsville Blvd and one of them got denied because it was too close to a puzzle final. A few weeks ago, I finally went to snag the find on that puzzle and found that the container was less than 10 feet from where I had hid my other cache. Talk about too close.

But that there is the problem. If you see a puzzle cache on the map, you really have to hide and hope that the final isn’t near where you hid it, otherwise you’ll be moving your cache over and over again. This is what has led me to start getting these puzzle caches off my list so I have a better idea of where there are spots I can hide.

I do find it a bit frustrating to see a map with a ton of puzzle caches that I will likely never be able to find simply because I’m not that great at solving puzzles. There’s some stuff I have been able to figure out on my own, but by far and large, I tend to ignore puzzles. I check them once in awhile but not very often. How many of you are the same?

What about “bonus” caches? The puzzle caches you solve by finding clues in various other traditionals? What if you found all of the traditional caches but forgot to get the info for the final puzzle. Do you go back to all of the traditionals and recheck them, or do you email the owner and ask for the coordinates and tell them you forgot to solve it. I personally think asking the owner for the coords isn’t the best thing to do but I also doubt I would go back to all of the caches, especially if there was a LOT of them. What would you do?

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Now the other part of puzzle caches has to do with why you hide them. I have found that recently, my biggest reason for hiding puzzle caches is a desire to hide something different. Anyone can hide a traditional cache but it takes a bit of imagination and creativity to come up with a good puzzle that people will need to solve. My problem is that if/when I hide a puzzle cache that is difficult to solve, I feel the need to continue to give out a lot more information which then sort of takes away from the fun of having the cachers figure it out. Does anyone else feel the same way? Do you think puzzles should be easy to figure out? A lot of people have scratched their heads at one of mine, and many have taken a stab at the Ma & Pa tribute which took a considerable amount of time for folks to figure out. Do other cache owners prefer to have their puzzle caches found even though many might get the solution from someone else? For me, most of the puzzles I have I don’t care but there is one cache I want people to solve on their own. I guess it goes both ways for me.

I have tried to make the few puzzle caches I do have hidden unique. The Vodcache puzzle is one I really liked, and I have to say that the one I am going to go hide today as well as 1973 are probably my two favorites thus far. Mostly because they are a bit different and are both easy and difficult all together. Do you have a favorite puzzle cache?

What’s your take on puzzle caches in general?