2. How Do I Solve These #@&% Puzzles?!! Start Easy Mystery Cache

As I said in the first cache in this series, these are intended to help BEGINNER puzzlers by covering some of the techniques I talked about in my "Puzzles 101" classes. The first one was an introduction, and talked a bit about why I think puzzle caches can be a fun addition to one's caching experience.

So - where do you start?

First off, if you are the type of cacher who, when searching for a traditional cache, gets frustrated and wants to quit if you don't find it within a few minutes, who LOVES the UPS (Unnatural Pile of Sticks) that tells you RIGHT where the cache is, then you might find many puzzles to be more frustrating than fun.

But if you enjoy the challenge of an easter egg hunt, of trying to think like a cache hider to find a cleverly-hidden cache, then you might enjoy the double reward of tackling puzzle caches.

You can approach puzzles in much the same way that you might approach a traditional cache hide.

First, start easy. You might very much want to get that 4 or 5 star difficulty puzzle that's near your home, but I recommend you save it for later. You wouldn't start a beginning cacher on this cache:

Same thing with puzzles. Start with puzzles with a 1 or 2 star difficulty rating.

Do you remember what it was like when you first began caching? The fumblings and frustrations of your first cache searches? And how, the more you did it, the easier it became? How you started learning different cache hide techniques and how to keep an eye out for different potential cache hiding spots?

It's the same with puzzle caches. The more of them you do, the better you get at doing them and the more puzzle-solving techniques you'll pick up.

Believe it or not, there are many easy puzzles out there. It just takes a bit of looking around. Some are like multi-caches that you solve on site, some are trivia searches you can do from the comfort of your couch, some involve activities (like movie watching) that you can do with family members.

So, with that in mind, here's a hopefully easy puzzle to start you off.

This is the puzzle you must solve to find this cache:

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

The cchae is at ntroh fuor fvie dregees trhee zreo pnoit nnie sveen fuor; wset one tewtny trhee dgeeres zreo zreo pinot tehre six eghit

That's it! Now you can go and find it! The area between parking and the cache gets quite soggy during the rainy season. Your feet will stay drier if you walk on the wood chips to the east.

As I said, this is one of a series of "How Do I Solve..." caches. They are spread out in different neighborhoods. It might help to solve them in order, but you don't need to. I tried to make these easy to understand, but if you have any questions about them, please ask.

Here are all the caches in the series. They are also posted in a "How Do I Solve These #@&%$ Puzzle Caches?!!" bookmark list.

Have fun solving puzzle caches! And remember ...