Today marks the beginning of a new promotion at Geocaching.com. Mystery at the Museum (MatM) is a month long game-within-the-game in which geocachers can earn several cool, new badges. For the details, click (here). Although I spend most of my time playing Munzee, I do like these promotions because it gives you a chance to earn something other than a just a smiley.
(artwork from geocaching.com)
When I first heard about MatM, I wondered how they would be able to hide clues in the caches. How hard would it be to crack the case? Would I need to break out my tweed suit and calabash pipe? Sadly, this promotion is similar to others by GCHQ, in that badges are earned based simply on geocache finds. The twist here is that the specific clues are earned only when a cache with that clue is found. Geocaching.com has added some new filters to the search map, so it is easy to see which caches qualify for a particular clue.
The first clue I needed for MatM was the ‘Detective’ clue, which is required to have before you can look for the other clues. I set my filters to search for caches that would qualify me to meet this virtual detective, and there were about 30 within a mile or two radius of my house. I have no clue (pun intended) how these caches were selected. There was a mix of old and new, regular and puzzle, and even a few disabled caches were on the list. Seemed very random. Many of them I had already found (or were puzzle caches that would require significant upfront work!), but there were a few that I hadn’t found yet, including another one of the 4:10 series (4:10 to Poway GC72PW0, see this post for more info on the 4:10 series). I drove over at lunchtime and scoped out the scene. I didn’t see any bodies, weapons, jewels, or anything else related to the case. Just a whole lot of lumber to investigate. Although I have found several of these 4:10 caches, I don’t seem to be getting any faster at finding them. The virtual detective waiting to brief me on this case floated impatiently in the sun and shook her head in disgust as I fumbled around for the cache. When I finally found it in an area I had already searched once, she thrust the virtual case file in my chest and muttered, “Good luck, Sherlock. You’re gonna need it.”
Although it may cast doubt on my abilities to solve a complex crime such as a jewelry heist, at least it wasn’t a DNF right? RIGHT?? Anyhow, I signed the log and logged the cache to get my first badge. This unlocked the next phase, where the goal is to find three different clues (2 of each type): a footprint, a fingerprint, and a SHADOW! Dun dun daaaa… tune in next time for MatM and see how bad I’m bungling the case.