User:Endurazone/List of caccbag puzzles based on Wikipedia

"Puzzle caches", also known as "unknown caches" and "mystery caches", in the hobby/sport of geocaching are cache types that are not located at the posted coordinates (except for "challenge caches" a special type of unknown cache). This means to find the coordinates of the hidden cache, the cacher needs to solve a puzzle that is somehow hosted on the cache listing, or out in the field, hosted on a linked or referenced page, or a combination of all. Caccbag is a geocaching member in California. With nearly 500 hidden geocaches, caccbag has over 200 caches based upon puzzles putting him in the top 10 of all such cache owners in the USA. Here is a list of various puzzle caches created by CACCBAG that require a cacher to access a specific Wikipedia page to gather information to convert to the coordinates.


 * Pacifica is based upon information contained in the Wikipedia page Pacifica, California where the cache is hidden.
 * Mission Bell is based upon information about mission bells in El Camino Real (California) The cache is located near one of the bells.
 * Parkmercache is based upon information in Park Merced and was located in that area (it is now archived).
 * Sanchez Adobe, this puzzle will actually take the cacher to the Sanchez Adobe where the cache is located.
 * Mission Blue is based on mission blue butterfly and is located next to one of its very last habitats.

Obbedisco To find this cache, cachers must visit the Wikipedia page about Giuseppe Garibaldi and gather information about the famous Italian.

Tower of Power This puzzle requires information from the Coit Tower Wikipedia page.

The Great Quake This puzzle is based upon the Wikipedia page about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

Marie Sklodowska This puzzle is based upon facts about Wikipedia's Madam Curie page.

'''II. Solving'''

This is the body of the Parkmercache cache. Because it is archived, it is a perfect example to use to demonstrate how to solve Puzzle Cache Based Upon Wikipedia.

Geocache description
The coords are not at the cache....I mean the cache is not at the coords.

Parkmerced is the second-largest single-owner neighborhood of apartment blocks west of the Mississippi River after Park La Brea in Los Angeles. It was a planned neighborhood of high-rise apartment towers and low-rise garden apartments in southwestern San Francisco, California.

It contains ABCD residences (after sale of five blocks to San Francisco State University). It has over 9E00 residences and is one of F remaining privately-owned large scale apartment complexes in the United States.

The property was purchased in October 200G for approximately $HIJ,000,000.

Development started in the 19N9, but was slowed due to World War II. The first tenants moved into the Font Boulevard buildings in early 19KL. The development was completed in the early 1950s and was a first home to many military families returning from the Second World War and the Korean War.

Bus service through Parkmerced primarily is provided by the San Francisco Municipal Railway 1M Parkmerced route. Additionally, the 18, O8, 28L and 29 bus routes operate along nearby 19th Avenue, and 18 46th Avenue bus line runs on Lake Merced Boulevard.

The cache is located at:

When you find it, please note the magnet holds it well, but only on one side - please be sure to rehide carefully so that it doesn't fall. And be very careful of all the muggles!

Now, from the Wikipedia page for Park Merced, the cacher can collect the following information:

1. It contains 3,221 residences (after sale of five blocks to SFSU) and over 9,000 residents, and is one of four remaining privately owned large-scale garden apartment complexes in the United States. 2. The property was purchased in October 2005 for approximately $687,000,000 by a joint venture 3. Development started in the 1939, but was slowed due to World War II. The first tenants moved into the Font Boulevard buildings in early 1944. The development was completed in the early 1950s and was a first home to many military families returning from the Second World War and the Korean War. 4. Bus service through Parkmerced primarily is provided by the San Francisco Municipal Railway 17 Parkmerced route. Additionally, the 18, 28, 28L and 29 bus routes, as well as the Muni Metro M Ocean View light-rail line, operate along nearby 19th Avenue, and 18 46th Avenue bus line runs on Lake Merced Boulevard.

From the Wikipedia pages, the cacher finds the following values for the letters in the puzzle: A=3, B=2, C=2, D=1, E=0, F=4, G=5, H=6, I=8, J=7, K=0, L= 4, M=7, N=3, O=2. Now plugging those values into the puzzle's formula, a cacher gets: AJFNEKMDCBOILGH = 374304712228456 which translates into the following coordinates: N 37° 43.047 W 122° 28.456

Alternate
A. If the Wikipedia article has coordinates related to the subject matter, a reference to that specific article could lead the cacher to use the Wikipedia article's coordinates as the puzzle solution.

B. Copy a full sentence or piece of data that is footnoted in the Wikipedia article and the cited footnote number is a coordinate digit.

C. Copying a full sentence from the article and then either the number of the sentence in the Wikipedia article, or the number of the paragraph in the article from where that sentence came from provides the digit.

The problem with methods B and C above is as the Wikipedia article is modified/edited, these numbers can change creating an incorrect coordinate solution.

Not based
Sometimes, a cache owner will create a puzzle that appears to be completely based upon a Wikipedia page and, some coordinates seem to found from the Wikipedia page. However, this is a red herring and the actual solve is located somewhere else.