Mulit Cache Found with only 4 Coordinates?

[+jbhodj & Drake]

This is probably easier to figure out than what Im making it, but I am not a math wizard and fairly new at geocaching.

 

The scenario is this. Lets say you have a multi cache, 6 in total, that have coordinate clues that will finally direct you to the final cache. You collected 5 of the clues, missing one of the coordinates for the cache. What and how can you find the final cache using only the 5 coordinates you have obtained?

 

I have heard the term triangulation but but have searched and have not found a definitive answer with the math or information to solve this type of question.

 

Help is appreciated or a link to solve something like this.

[+derangedlunatech]

I'm just a noob - but isn't the point of a multi to collect all the stages?

[+TotemLake]

In some circles I'm just a noob too. But yes, you do.

[+jbhodj & Drake]

I'm just a noob - but isn't the point of a multi to collect all the stages?

 

Yes it is and thanks for pointing that observation out. But I have seen where multi caches are found using only 4-5 coordinates to located the final cache and being the FTF.

[+WRASTRO]

Sometimes a lucky or an educated guess will give you viable coordinates. Then you just have to be willing to try the possibilities to see if you are right.

[+jbhodj & Drake]

Sometimes a lucky or an educated guess will give you viable coordinates. Then you just have to be willing to try the possibilities to see if you are right.

 

Thats the general thinking I am share. We had a multi cache in our area where the final stage was found before the final multi-stage clue was posted. I inquired about how they got the final coordinates for the final cache and was told "wax on wax off wax on wax off, triangulation my friend"

[Clan Riffster]

With only 6 digits to fill in, your initial data would look something like N20* 12.ABC W40* 67.DEF.

The ease of filling in the gap would depend largely upon which digit was missing. If you had all but "C", you could punch in 10 sets of coords, replacing "C" with 0 thru 9. In Florida, this would give me a straight line roughly 60' long, with ground zeros every 6 feet. Walk the line and find the cache. If the missing digit was "B", then your hunt would be tougher, as you would have roughly 60' between each set of coords, with a 600' line. If the missing digit was "A", I'd have 600' between coords, with a 6000' long line. Often, you can deduce a lot just by looking at where your coords are. If your 6000' long line goes through a park, and you know the cache is hidden within its boundaries, you can exclude any coords that aren't inside.

[+SimbaJamey]

There's one like that near my house that I did recently.

I found all the stages to get the coordinates for the 2nd to last stage...the page said the last digit didn't matter and you'd see why when you got there. At the location of that stage there were two giant fallen trees that make a giant V on the ground. Now granted, I made it MUCH harder than it should have been, having to leave and come back for a second try and pretty much mapping out the whole area covered by 'X being the last digit' as the cache page said. Turned out it was laying right there out in the open next to one of the fallen trees only 20' off the trail. I looked around for probably 2 hours because my geosense didn't exist yet. Even though it's still barely at the few divided cells stage, if I went back today my developing geosense would have looked all around the trees much more thoroughly before going off in the woods. Ok...it was so blatantly out in the open...let me re-phrase that and say I would have LOOKED around the trees!!

So is there something else in the cache description or possibly the hint that provides a little help? One tree out in the middle of a field type of thing perhaps? Or something else that would make the last # not matter?

[+jbhodj & Drake]

With only 6 digits to fill in, your initial data would look something like N20* 12.ABC W40* 67.DEF.

The ease of filling in the gap would depend largely upon which digit was missing. If you had all but "C", you could punch in 10 sets of coords, replacing "C" with 0 thru 9. In Florida, this would give me a straight line roughly 60' long, with ground zeros every 6 feet. Walk the line and find the cache. If the missing digit was "B", then your hunt would be tougher, as you would have roughly 60' between each set of coords, with a 600' line. If the missing digit was "A", I'd have 600' between coords, with a 6000' long line. Often, you can deduce a lot just by looking at where your coords are. If your 6000' long line goes through a park, and you know the cache is hidden within its boundaries, you can exclude any coords that aren't inside.

 

This is the answer that I have been looking for. Of course I understand the point of the multi cache is to find all the clues but in some cases the clues are few are far between to get published, yet others are finding ways to get to the final stage with limited information.

 

Thanks for an actual answer!

[+The NVG]

The cache at the center of this topic was a "puzzle" and not a "multi." The FTF'ers just used logic to deduce the final location. Eventually, you will figure this out and be able to beat those dastardly dudes to FTF!

[+flask]

back in the day, crashco and i used to get caches with only the north coord, or just by knowing a new cache was in a certain park and doing some good detective work.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LU...26-e4a707d6f0ad

 

once i couldn't find any of the preliminary stages of a cache and asked myself "where would i put a stage if i was the hider?"

 

so i went there, did some math and came up with a range of points within the parkd and then made some guesses about where a full-size container might be hidden.

 

a few people called it cheating, but i have defied anyone around here to repeat the result and then let me know how much easier that was.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LU...27-20fc54c6c4a2

[+jbhodj & Drake]

The cache at the center of this topic was a "puzzle" and not a "multi." The FTF'ers just used logic to deduce the final location. Eventually, you will figure this out and be able to beat those dastardly dudes to FTF!

 

Someone from my back yard pipes in, thanks NVG. Yes its a puzzle cache and not a multi as I erroneously stated. I stand corrected.

[+Renegade Knight]

...Help is appreciated or a link to solve something like this.

 

The last coord doesn't help much. You can skip it and be closer than some real coordinates get you.

 

The other coords matter, but there are only so many "guesses". Slap them on a map. Some make sence. Some don't. In the middle of the internstate? Nope. 20' miles from a road and that cacher only places urban caches. Nope.

 

There is no math method to solving it. You have to look at the options and make an educated guess as to where to look first.

[+Harry Dolphin]

I've found a few mystery caches missing a digit or two. Sometimes it helps to know the territory. (I never did figure out what Brittany Spears is famous for...) I've also brute forced a mystery cache where I couldn't solve the puzzle. (Annoyed the heck out of the third to find!) Only so much area to search. But my best FTF was on a cache where the published north coordinates were the same as the parking coords. After four tries, I finally found it .18 mile due south!

So, yes. It can be done.

[+DeRock & The Psychic Cacher]

With only 6 digits to fill in, your initial data would look something like N20* 12.ABC W40* 67.DEF.

The ease of filling in the gap would depend largely upon which digit was missing. If you had all but "C", you could punch in 10 sets of coords, replacing "C" with 0 thru 9. In Florida, this would give me a straight line roughly 60' long, with ground zeros every 6 feet. Walk the line and find the cache. If the missing digit was "B", then your hunt would be tougher, as you would have roughly 60' between each set of coords, with a 600' line. If the missing digit was "A", I'd have 600' between coords, with a 6000' long line. Often, you can deduce a lot just by looking at where your coords are. If your 6000' long line goes through a park, and you know the cache is hidden within its boundaries, you can exclude any coords that aren't inside.

In my neck of the woods we call this running a coord line. I (and a lot of other FTFers) use this technique all the time.

 

I've found a few mystery caches missing a digit or two. Sometimes it helps to know the territory. (I never did figure out what Brittany Spears is famous for...) I've also brute forced a mystery cache where I couldn't solve the puzzle. (Annoyed the heck out of the third to find!) Only so much area to search. But my best FTF was on a cache where the published north coordinates were the same as the parking coords. After four tries, I finally found it .18 mile due south!

So, yes. It can be done.

Ah yes, the old brute force method. Used it awhile ago to find a puzzle I couldn't solve. Looking for a needle in a 500 acre park. Now that was a FTF dance.

 

Deane

AKA: DeRock & the Psychic Cacher - Grattan MI

[Clan Riffster]

There is a local legand around these parts that goes by the moniker "JetSkier". He has found so many puzzle and multi finals without solving/finding stages that his nickname has become a verb, as in "I couldn't figure out that dang puzzle, so I JetSkiered my way to the final". It's an amazing thing.