Deduce #85: The campground — the solution

The Deduce puzzle from November 7, 2026, worked through clue by clue: 8 clues, 4 rounds of crossing off, and no guessing anywhere.

The puzzle

Four people — Casey, Leroy, Maya and Willa — and three things to work out about each: their state, gear and site. The clues only ever rule things out.

1. Casey is the one with the banjo.
2. The one with the cooler is exactly 2 sites after Maya.
3. The one from Texas is not the one with the banjo.
4. Casey is the one at site 5.
5. Willa is the one from Arizona.
6. The one from Arizona is the one with the canoe.
7. The one from Texas is not the one at site 2.
8. The one with the canoe is at a lower-numbered site than the one from Vermont.

The walkthrough

A round is one pass over the clues. Each round applies what the last one settled; every step below is an elimination the clues force, in the order a solver would take them.

Round 1

Start with every possibility open, and take the clues in order.

Clue 1, “Casey is the one with the banjo”: banjo comes off Leroy, Maya and Willa. That settles it: Casey’s gear is banjo.

Clue 2, “The one with the cooler is exactly 2 sites after Maya”: cooler comes off Maya; site 4 and site 5 come off Maya.

Clue 3, “The one from Texas is not the one with the banjo”: Texas comes off Casey.

Clue 4, “Casey is the one at site 5”: site 5 comes off Leroy and Willa. That settles it: Casey is at site 5.

Clue 5, “Willa is the one from Arizona”: Arizona comes off Casey, Leroy and Maya. That settles it: Willa’s state is Arizona.

Clue 6, “The one from Arizona is the one with the canoe”: canoe comes off Leroy and Maya. That settles it: Maya’s gear is telescope and Willa’s gear is canoe.

Round 2

Go back over the clues with the new facts in hand.

Telescope is Maya’s, so it comes off Leroy. That settles it: Leroy’s gear is cooler.

Clue 2, “The one with the cooler is exactly 2 sites after Maya”: site 3 comes off Leroy and Maya; site 2 comes off Leroy. That settles it: Leroy is at site 4 and Maya is at site 2.

Clue 8, “The one with the canoe is at a lower-numbered site than the one from Vermont”: Vermont comes off Maya.

Round 3

Go back over the clues with the new facts in hand.

site 4 is Leroy’s, so it comes off Willa.

site 2 is Maya’s, so it comes off Willa. That settles it: Willa is at site 3.

Clue 7, “The one from Texas is not the one at site 2”: Texas comes off Maya. That settles it: Maya’s state is Montana.

Round 4

Go back over the clues with the new facts in hand.

Montana is Maya’s, so it comes off Casey and Leroy. That settles it: Casey’s state is Vermont.

Nobody but Leroy can still have Texas, so Leroy’s state is Texas.

The answer

Previous: Deduce #84 (Fri, Nov 6) · Next: Deduce #86 (Sun, Nov 8) · All Deduce solutions

About Deduce

Deduce is Noggin’s daily logic grid: four people, three things to work out about each, and clues that never hand you an answer. Every puzzle has exactly one solution and can be finished by crossing off alone. How to play Deduce, or play today’s.