On May 3, 2000, the man pictured below started one of your favorite hobbies, by hiding the first "GPS stash", in the woods near Beavercreek, Oregon. He could be considered the First to Hide (FTH).
The FTH originally called this game the "Great American GPS Stash Hunt". Most of his ideas are still in play today, including the concepts of signing a logbook and trading swag. However, the first "stash" was a 5 gallon bucket buried most of the way in the ground, something not allowed by Groundspeak today.
Who is he? That's what you need to find out to solve this puzzle.
Here are some informational links related to the first geocache hide; check them out to learn about this important event in geocaching history. Once you find out who the FTH is, follow the instructions below to decipher the coordinates to the final. You will need his first and last name.
- A YouTube video of the first geocache ever placed, filmed by the FTH himself.
- The newsgroup post by the FTH announcing the creation of the first "stash hunt stash".
- The cache page of this first geocache hide. Note that as geocaching.com and Groundspeak were created some time after this hide was placed, this cache listing was put together after the fact. This cache has been archived.
- The cache page of the tribute plaque that currently exists at the location of this first hide.
Use the FTH's name (nine letters, with no spaces) as the keyword to decipher the text below using the keyword cipher (you can use this link for the deciphering).
Puzzle: lbieqruvdvrudqijoqrljoqylblqyubmrqkjbiqqrouulbtujiudiewupqzuojputuiqyljsozuojpbxkjbiqlbtujiuqwj
You can check your answers for this puzzle on GeoChecker.com.
Per the rules of geocaching, a Found It log must correspond to a signed logbook.
Happy caching!
*** Congratulations to TAMgeobusters for FTF! ***