The Emergency Cache, by Jarhead28

Hi, Jarhead28!

Well, apparently I was about two hours too early for the First Find. How is that possible? Well, I’m not sure, but I was there at 10:00am, and the cache wasn’t. I searched every inch of the item in question, as several firefighters and an EMT can attest to. No cache … but when I came back at 5:45pm, I walked right up to it. I have to wonder if the cache page was published a little while before it should have been.

Thanks to downward I was able to take half of the First Finders prize anyway, and I left my signature. Thanks for a nice excuse to get outside on such a lovely day, and for a chance to meet some of our local emergency team members!

Zhanna

Plimpton 322, by captainmath

Hi, CaptainMath!

Early this week Rich alerted me to your new cache, knowing how much I like puzzles. I had a little extra time at work that evening and I was able to solve the initial puzzle quite easily. Intrigued by the cache, but both stuck at work during the week, Rich and I planned a trip east for Friday.

Once at the coordinates, we located Stage 1 quickly. Some slight ambiguity tripped us up but after a few minutes spent fiddling with the given information, we were again on our way toward a new set of coordinates, sure of our answer despite how unlikely the location seemed.

Unfortunately, when we arrived at the site, we were reluctant to search as thoroughly as we’d have liked. Perhaps this location would be less busy on a day other than Friday, but as it was we felt that merely our presence there was enough to arouse suspicion. We looked around a bit, but not finding anything encouraging, we decided to leave and try your “PO Box” cache instead.

In all honesty, we loved the puzzles but were somewhat underwhelmed by the final location. Had it been a more peaceful, isolated location we probably would be in a hurry to go back and try again. We’ll still probably return at some point in the future.

Thanks for a really intriguing puzzle, and the chance to learn something new!

MissMath Zhanna

… Spring is near!!! We spotted this bald eagle, one of a pair, as he rested for a moment on a chunk of ice in the Delaware River. Thanks, Rich, for the photo!