The Miami GeoHunt
WELCOME TO THE MIAMI GEOHUNT!!!!
This is a tribute geocache, modeled after The Tropic Hunt, which was later renamed The Herald Hunt. If you've never participated in past years' hunts, you have thus far lived a deprived existence...as if you were a two-dimensional drawing who has never experienced the glories of three-dimensional reality. And if you've never participated in geocaching before, you, too, have lived a similarly deprived existence...as if you have subsisted solely on unembellished tofu your entire life without ever tasting the sweet joys of a ripe mango or a strawberry-topped cheesecake. I (the cache owner, hereafter referred to as the CO) have been thinking about this tribute geocache for 15 years, so I am thrilled to finally make it a reality and offer it to the world. Hopefully, it will remain solvable and in place for years to come!
WHAT IS THE TROPIC/HERALD HUNT?
The Hunt first appeared in Miami in 1984, and, since then, new incarnations of it have been offered over 20 times in Miami and at least 8 times in Washington, DC. It was co-created by three (IMO) brilliant individuals: Author/columnist/humorist Dave Barry, along with the editors of the now-defunct Tropic magazine, Gene Weingarten and Tom Shroder. It is, at its core, a giant alien puzzle made up of smaller individual alien puzzles, all structured around varying sections of the city in which it takes place. Whenever the Hunt has appeared, many thousands of people have gathered on the day it is offered, either individually or in teams, to attempt to solve the bizarre-but-fun puzzles and claim the glory and the end prizes! You can read all about past hunts here: http://tropichunt.com.
Note that while The Miami GeoHunt is modeled after its predecessors, it was created by the CO of this geocache and is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by any other organization or individual.
WHAT IS GEOCACHING?
The first geocache was hidden by Dave Ulmer in Oregon in May 2000. From the Geocaching Website: "Geocaching is a real-world treasure hunt happening right now, all around you. There are millions of geocaches worldwide. Geocaches are found in parks, urban areas, forests, deserts, on top of mountains, underwater — pretty much anywhere you can imagine." They can be as small as a button or as large as a footlocker. You can locate the coordinates for geocaches by logging onto the geocaching website -- www.geocaching.com -- or by using the geocaching app. There, you can find traditional caches (get the coordinates, go to the coordinates), mystery caches (which first require you to solve a puzzle or complete a challenge in order to get the true coordinates), Earthcaches (which take you to amazing natural locations, where you'll have to answer some questions about your surroundings), and more. Once you have the coordinates of a cache you want to find, you use the app or a GPS unit to navigate to its location, and then...you search! If you find the container, you sign the log within it and place the container back where you found it for the next person to find...you excitedly report your find on the geocaching website, which tracks your stats...and if there are prizes inside the container, you can take one as long as you put something else in in its place. Note: Caches are not buried underground and never require destruction of property or nature in order to find them!
HOW THE MIAMI GEOHUNT WILL WORK
Note: As is true for most puzzle/mystery geocaches such as this one, the posted coordinates to The Miami GeoHunt (i.e. the coordinates at the very top of the geocache page) are NOT where the geocache is actually hidden. In order to determine the true final location for The Miami GeoHunt, you will need to complete the hunt. Here's how to do it...
STEP 1. Answer the four easy Opening Questions, which will allow you to determine the locations for four of the five Main Puzzles. We have graciously provided you with the North half of the coordinates...the correct answers will allow you to identify the West coordinates that correspond with the provided Norths. The fifth Main Puzzle is the "traveling puzzle". It will require you to visit several locations to gather the information you need.
STEP 2. Solve the puzzles in any order you want. The solution to every puzzle will be a number that will correspond with one of the numbered clues listed, not surprisingly, under the "Ye Olde Numbered Clues" section of this geocache. If you think you've figured a puzzle out but there are no matching numbered clues, we think you should be thinking that you might want to rethink your thinking.
STEP 3. If you have correctly identified the numbered-clue solutions for all five puzzles, you will then be entering what past years' hunts have dubbed the "End Game". This has typically been the hardest part of most Tropic and Herald Hunts. Study the five clues. Either you will be driven mad, you will be struck with permanent hysterical blindness, or you will eventually notice something that ties the five clues together to provide you with a secret message that will "clue" (HA!) you in on what to do next. Then do that next thing. Then do the thing after that. And then the thing after that. And, if you get that far, you are WAYYYYY too capable of thinking like the CO of this geocache...seriously, dudes, seek therapy!...and you should go to the final location to reap the rewards or, at least, the glory and self-satisfaction that will surely come your way!
THE LOCATION OF THE GEOHUNT
Note: You do not need to enter ANY buildings in order to participate in the hunt. While establishments you will pass would of course love your business, all puzzles and locations are in parking lots and public areas. Except for the final location, the borders of The Miami GeoHunt are as follows:
* The Southern edge is the South side of SW 152 Street (Coral Reef Drive).
* The Northern edge is the South side of SW 136 Street (Howard Drive).
* The Eastern edge is the West side of South Dixie Highway (US-1) -- you do NOT need to cross US-1.
* The Western edge is SW 93rd Avenue.
NOTE: The final location is located within 2 miles of the search zone outlined above.
PRIZES
NOTE: MAKE SURE TO LEAVE THE CONTAINER WHERE YOU FOUND IT AND OBSCURED FROM VIEW.
The Tropic and Herald Hunts have often offered fabulous prizes, financed either by the parent company or by sponsors of the hunt. When we won the Tropic Hunt back in 1998, the prize was a 7-day trip for four people on a major cruise line (I gained 15 pounds on that cruise...the first time I had gained weight in 20 years...and, with that Pandora's Box now opened, I have since then put on another 37 pounds...so that prize was the gift that keeps on giving!). While the prize for this cache is NOT going to match what we won that year...sorry, but our pockets simply do not run that deep...inside the final container you will find:
1. FOR THE FIRST-TO-FIND -- A crisp $100 bill, redeemable at all establishments that still take cash!
2. FOR EVERYONE WHO FINDS IT -- A Certificate honoring your accomplishment! Take one! Frame it! Glue it over your diploma and display it prominently in your office! (Priorities, people...priorities!). NOTE: If we've run out of certificates, please let us know and we'll either send one to you via messaging/email or will replenish the supply of certificates within a couple of days for you to retrieve.
3. A BUNCH OF "SWAG" ITEMS -- If you see an item you like, take one...as long as you put something else of worth into the cache in its place. Don't be greedy...swap one-swag for one-swag, but leave some of the "good stuff" for other people! If you encounter a "travel bug" within the container, you can take it as long as you plan to place it into a different geocache in the near future (travel bugs are items that travel...hence the name...from geocache to geocache).
AGAIN...MAKE SURE TO LEAVE THE CONTAINER WHERE YOU FOUND IT AND OBSCURED FROM VIEW.
Also, WE IMPLORE YOU: Please do not share the solution to The Miami GeoHunt with people who have not actually done it, and do not post any hints to the solutions online. Only those brave souls who have put in the time, effort, blood, tears, torn-out hair and prolific amounts of sweat required to reach the End Game and beyond should be able to receive the glory of making it to the final location.
WHAT YOU'LL NEED
1. A copy of the entire cache write-up. The directions you are reading now are virtually identical to those that will be on the geocache page, except for parts of this paragraph you are currently reading...but the clues and puzzles will be available from the geocache page only, once The Miami GeoHunt publishes. There are two ways to make sure you have it all. One way is to simply read everything on your cell phone. However, for the most authentic experience that most closely mirrors the hunts to which The Miami GeoHunt pays tribute, you can print out the entire write-up -- that's exactly what we did when we test-ran the puzzles before this Hunt was published. If you are printing it out, we strongly encourage you to print it out on the backs of scrap paper.
2. A cell phone. Even if you are using a dedicated GPS device, you will need a cell phone. It will be very useful at some stages and, at least twice, you will not be able to complete tasks without one.
3. One or more friends. Okay, granted, this is not really a requirement...The Miami GeoHunt can of course be done by sole practitioners. However, it is a lot of fun to do it with friends and, as the Tropic/Herald Hunt makers have often said, "Two brains can think up a LOT more wrong answers than one."
4. A pen, pencil, marker or crayon...and paper. You WILL need to write things down.
5. RECOMMENDED: Comfortable clothing, sunscreen, water, an umbrella and comfortable walking shoes. The Miami GeoHunt is entirely outdoors and will require a significant amount of walking.
6. A GPS-capable device. You can use a dedicated GPS unit or the aforementioned cell phone. If you use your cell phone, you can punch coordinates into any Maps program and it will take you right to each location. To type coordinates into a map program, type N25-space-##.###-space-W80-space-##.###.
7. Wheels. This is not a requirement...the entire Hunt Zone can be done on foot. However, there's a lot of distance between some stages, particularly when traveling from stages on SW 136 Street to stages on SW 152 Street (and vice-versa) and particularly when you have to travel to the final location. You could use a car or, even better, you could use a vehicle of the two-wheeled, non-motorized variety, i.e. a bicycle. There's even a handy-dandy bike path that runs adjacent to US-1 between the two streets as part of the dedicated bus route.
8. Time. We estimate that The Miami GeoHunt should take, at the very least, 3 hours to complete. Note that it is NOT a requirement for you to complete it in one day...if you get stuck on a couple of stages or run out of time, you could come back another day with a refreshed brain and hopefully finish it up.
9. An account at www.geocaching.com. You'll need an account in order to read all the information on the webpage for The Miami GeoHunt. Basic geocaching accounts are free. Note that if you use the geocaching app on your cell phone, access will be limited unless you have a paid premium geocaching account. However, if you use your cell phone's browser or a computer, you should be able to read everything on the page whether your account is free or premium.
RANDOM SUGGESTIONS
1. Read EVERYTHING. You never know what may wind up being relevant or useful, such as idle musings that an S looks like a 5, an O looks like a zero, and, with a stretch of the imagination, both upper-case and lower-case B's look like numbers, too. When we conducted a test run of The Miami GeoHunt, the victims...er...the PARTICIPANTS gleaned invaluable guidance by re-reading these instructions.
2. Participation in The Miami GeoHunt is an entirely voluntary activity (unless you are being mind-controlled by your best friend, in which case you need to don your protective tin-foil hat PRONTO). You participate at your own risk. Know your limitations, be careful where you step, be aware of your surroundings, don't play in traffic, don't dive face-first into a cluster of poisonwood or poison ivy, don't do anything illegal or immoral, and, most importantly, don't accidentally get onto a train to Atlanta (if only I had a dollar for every time THAT happened to me while geocaching).
3. Sometimes the simplest solution is the way to go. When we won the Tropic Hunt in 1998, we at first did not believe that we'd won...we thought for SURE that there had to be at least one more complicated step. Even as the organizers walked us from the final location to the main stage (where hundreds of participants were gathered) to introduce us as the winners, I kept on opening the doors to every usually-unoccupied porta-potty that we passed yelling out a secret password that I thought was still needed. There WAS no secret password...I'd read into one element of the final clue WAYYYY too deeply (much to the chagrin of the occupant of that one in-use porta-potty). The solution had been much more direct. In fact, USUALLY, when you've got a puzzle right, you know it, as if a beam of light is shining on you from above and a choir of angelic voices are heralding your enlightenment. Or maybe it was just that fourth chili dog.
4. Have fun!!