Cleopatra

The cache is not at the listed coordinates. Solve the puzzle to find the cache. This story is fiction. Any resemblance to real cachers is strictly a coincidence.

You can check your answers for this puzzle on geochecker.com.

At a recent geocaching breakfast event, a young woman I didn't know came up to me. Her geocaching nametag read "Cleopatra". "I hear you like puzzles. Can I talk to you privately about a puzzle?"

"Sure," I answered, "Let's go sit at that quiet table in the corner." I sized her up as we got a couple of appetizers and made our way to our spot. She seemed like a real outdoorsy type--slim and muscular, dark complexion, hiking shorts, boots, button-down shirt tied around her waist, and high-tech backpack. Her GPSr, the latest Garmin Colorado, showed prominently through a transparent side pocket in her pack.

"I'll get right to the point," she began as we were settling in. "I'm an anthropologist working on my PhD in Ancient Civilizations at CU. I drove all the way down here just to talk to you. I've got a mystery that involves one of your caches. I didn't want to trust email for this.

"I'm studying with Prof. Baylor and Nimbus. Our research team was in Egypt for several months, one of several groups in the immediate area. The camp next door was headed up by Prof. Green from Virginia Tech. We went over to share a beer a couple of times but they immediately hid what they were looking at and seemed anxious to get rid of us. Green is a mathematician and from what I gathered, they were looking for Egyptian mathematical artifacts.

"As we were packing up to return to the US, Green's assistant Spinney came over to our camp. Green himself had left a few days earlier. Spinney's eyes immediately lit on one of the papyrus scrolls we'd found with some Egyptian numbers on it. That was when something hit me from behind.

"The next thing I knew, I was waking up and our case of artifacts was gone! I knew it had to be Spinney so I grabbed one of the Jeeps and zoomed over to his camp. It was deserted. Cleaned out. I searched the area and found just this one scrap of paper.

"It looks like some kind of code for where Spinney is supposed to make the drop. We need to get there before Green picks it up so we can recover the artifacts! GC19829 is your Deadman's Creek Overlook cache," she continued, "but I don't know what to do with those numbers."

"Hmm..." I uttered as I stared at the paper. "The top numbers look like they could be the minutes part of some coordinates, but I don't know what to make of the bottom numbers. Deadman's is N39 01.571 W104 55.348. What if we put those top numbers in to make N39 03.757 W104 59.952? Where is that?"

Cleo whipped out her Colorado and punched in the numbers. "That's just off Mt. Herman Road. That could be it!"

I shook my head doubtfully. "But that's not very close to Deadman's. You would think they would have mentioned one of the caches up there instead. Also, that solution doesn't use the bottom numbers."

"Could those horizontal lines mean the numbers are fractions? What if you divide?" Cleo suggested.

That's when it clicked. I tapped a few numbers into the calculator app on my PDA and paused while a feeling of triumph engulfed me. "Shall we go get the cache? It'll be a bit of a hike, but we'll be able to get back by lunch."

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