Mmmm... Puzzles!Pan and Foo Present a Plethora of Perplexing Puzzles

From time to time, the discerning Rochester-area cacher may have noticed, Pan and Foo like to put out a puzzle cache.  We (well, I, Foo) don't much care if they are easy.  In fact, I will admit to a certain amount of enjoyment of the skull-sweat to which I subject my fellow cachers.  After all, they happily do the same for me.

So as of this writing (spring 2009) there are four reasonably challenging puzzle caches of my devising out there:
  1. QMXLP (hidden February 2007)
  2. Rochester Wins! (hidden May 2007)
  3. Best of all Possible Caches (hidden February 2009)
  4. Coordinate Factory (hidden March 2009)
Now, of these, I think Rochester Wins! is the easiest, but then there's the fact that I put the same puzzle in Syracuse and nobody even gave it a serious try.  Of course, isn't that one of the neat things about these puzzles?  What one person struggles with for days or weeks the next person flashes on in a minute or two.

It occurred to me recently (thanks, Taz!) that a series was just the thing to pull all this together.  Taz is doing a fine series that hinges on being the quickest to each cache, and he's put together some really yummy looking caches.  Given that we're not interested in the racing aspect of it, we'll be finding those after the prize is awarded and the points no longer matter.  That is to avoid taking points from another cacher who will actually use them.

Our series lays out as follows: the first four caches in the series have already been placed, and they are listed above.  There are three more caches plus a final* being published near the time of this page going up.  

In each cache (all eight), taped inside the lid, is a clue for the final.  The final describes in detail what to do with the clues.  Note: if you have already found one or more of the four older caches, within a day of the final's publication you will receive an email with the clues to which you are entitled. I see no sense at all in annoying those of you who take the trouble to solve & find our caches by making you go out there again just to collect a couple lines of verbiage!

Update: Those emails went out the night of May 19. If you did not receive yours check your spam folder. The subject line would be "panandfoo contacting «you» from Geocaching.com". If you need yours re-sent, drop us a note.

The caches that are new to this series are:
  1. Hidden Pictures (hidden May 2009)
  2. Those Dang Roaming Charges (hidden May 2009)
  3. Just the Fax, Ma'am (hidden May 2009)
    and...
  4. Puzzles, Puzzles and More Puzzles (the "Final" - hidden May 2009)

*- The "final" is not part of another cache, like a multi. It's a cache that stands on its own, like all the other seven in this series. That said, the final is designed so that the clues from all seven of the preceding caches are absolutely required to perform the simple calculations to get the coords to the container with the swag and the log.  This is to prevent guessing at the coords by people who have "all but" finished the series.

I hope you will all have fun with this.  If you have any questions, shoot us a note at davidandjill (at) davidandjill (dot) net, or via our profile.
 

Congratulations to saberspark77 and kgazette, FTF on the final cache of the series!