I thought I was the second one to the box in 2010 as I found a hole inside a hollow tree in the Lamar Valley. This seem to fit the poem and all I wanted was for Forrest to say no it is not in the tree and you are not second or thanks for letting us know that it is gone. I took a photo history of the solve and brought it to Sante Fe to have the book store hand it to Fenn. I never got an answer. I asked Forrest about the notebook of pictures when I had him sign my copy of ” The Thrill of The Chase” at the book store in Sante Fe. Forrest explained that he got so many things he just couldn’t remember the pictures.
I had one of the lowest times of my life just before a friend told me of the treasure and it seemed like a way out of a very very dark place for me. IQ, creativity and willingness to be outside the box blurs the thin line between irrational and rational thought. There lies the difference between foolishness and genius. For me it is time to face reality, I have read so many stories around searcher just like myself who hope for away out of their own predicaments by having a life changing event take place. This was one of Forrest reasons to secret his treasure so others would have away to lift them from their tough situations in a time of financial depression.
When we are kids often we believe the world circles around us as we are the center of the universe. We may compensate for our lack of esteem later by striving to be different than others, we may believe we are gifted or that God love us more or that we have a special connection to someone or thing. I have fallen victim to all these things. God is helping me to find the clues and just like Fenn I am left handed so I think like he does or I am different and so my solve is special.
The internet is a buzz with such people because we are so similar at our deepest selves. Yes I read how sure someone is about their solve and how witty they where to discover what they have learned. I fall victim to this human behavior often and so have become a “Dog of the Chase.” It wasn’t long before my solves had me looking in the Lamar Valley up the Lamar River in the Lamar Canyon, up Slough Creek, and several other creeks close by. I went north of the Lamar Ranger Station (home to Ranger Brown) and later into Ice Box Canyon, Pebble Creek and Cashe Creek to Death Gulch. It was a life savor the Church of the Rockies as I spent many days often alone in their.
Over these years I have had the privilege to be accompanied by others who believed in the adventure. Two trips in the Yellowstone Paul and his uncle Roberto were with me as we faced snow and winter like weather in April. It was on a trip in April on Easter day that I was there in the Lamar Valley viewing what I later called the Immaculate Impression. My brother Jim came with me to Yankee Jim Canyon just north of Gardiner Wyoming. It was then that my brothers fear made me realize some of the places I went required bravery. Jim did great getting down the steep canyon as he braved the climb but he brought a sober reality for me too. The rock that sank Ransome’s boat was the blaze back then and that area lost over 18 ft from the high water mark in four weeks. Tom Miner Creek and the Tom Miner campground took several days of searching as well as the many side trips around Gardiner.
Over the last two years Bret and my good friend Kendrick have come to look and Kendrick has been on at least six of my last trips. These trips were memorable and the best was Death Gulch. Recently again on an adventure we were deep in Deer Creek Chasm that will very defiantly be the best and the last trip.
Quiting is not something I do. I will never forget the look on the principal’s face at the high school I interviewed at for a head football coach job. He couldn’t hide his surprise that I was there. He was my 8th grade English teacher and my English level was maybe 3rd grade at best. Dyslexia and a broken home led to little discipline and that lead to failing grades. Add to that ADD and ADHD and you can understand why he had written me off as having a chance of being a collage graduate mush less have a Master’s degree but he didn’t know that I don’t give up. I was a small sophomore my first year on the football team. I just got over mononucleosis when I found myself competing for a 33 man team. That year 166 players tried out but the coach claimed he would runoff all but 33 and he did. I got into one play that year but I never new the word quit and at the end of the season the head coach told me to come back because they could use me on the team because I don’t give up. It took me 8 years of trying to get my first head high school job but soon I head coached track, wrestling and golf. I don’t quit.
This is hard for me to say but I feel its time to grow up and admit there is nothing special about me or my talents. I am not given any gifts from God and I am not likely to find a treasure with odd as great as 1 in a 1,000,000. I always said it is the chase not the treasure that is the true gift but after 7 years my next great adventure will be fighting isolationism that comes for so many of us as we lose our best friends and mates. So now I am giving my best solve to those who carry on. I will find answers for the lonely if I can using the skills I learned while counseling and doing social work. I will move on not quit but rather continue to grow using my limited resources to be put there for now.
Get something to take notes because this treasure hunter is going to tell you what my experience has taught me. Take it or leave it.
The poem is understandable, no mysteries, no codes to solve. People are their own worse enemy as they fail to listen to the one who knows what he meant. Forrest may or may not know it but he uses what Milton Erickson called meta language. He is a master at letting the reader presuppose, generalize, delete etc. He allows the reader to fill in the blanks but he is being very clear on how to solve the poem. It is hard enough with out messing with his poem. Where warm waters halt or where warm water halts is a good example. It reads warm waters halt. To find the place to start look for warm waters. Look where warm waters halt. Warm water halts at Old Faithful, warm waters halt at Mammoth Springs. (Old Faithful – singular… Springs – plural). the starting place is a place to start from not some mythical generalization of a place. It is not at 20,000 ft where water gets cold and rains or the Continental Divide which isn’t in one point but rather multiple points from which to start. Here’s another, take it in the canyon down. Is it in the canyon down or is it down in the canyon?
The treasure is not in the same canyon as the canyon you drive down. The poem is a map of places and directions if you miss a direction you’ll miss the place. I only know of one thing that has an end drawing that would be a creek. To get close (neigh) you need to be in the right canyon. That place has been passed by many times as the first two clues have taken many searchers near that ever drawing place but they go right on by. What is meant when I say don’t paddle up your creek. What is meant if you’ve been wise. Is wise a direction the Bible says it means to the right. ” The wise man goes to the right”. Where could something be hidden by water but not be under water? Behind a waterfall? Would it be wet? One more thing it is not close to a road or trail. Forrest didn’t like to walk trails he preferred creeks to walk. Try walking into the forest without using a trail then you’ll know how Forrest wrote a map of direct clues.
This is the last solve I hope it helps, for me it is good bye for you perhaps it is a boost to your next adventure.
Begin it where the south and the north fork of the Shoshone come together (Colter Hell). then take the south fork into the canyon and put in below Thomas Brown Ranch at Deer Creek Campground. From there it is not for the meek. Really it is not for the meek huge overhangs, flash floods treat but no bears. Bears are too smart to go in there. Go at your own risk. Danger is relative some say its not that dangerous but some have died in there.
Now go up your creek, Deer Creek to the Cathedral. This geological place makes the trip worth while but you may not want to tarry. Above the creek on the old creek bed there are two interwoven omega signs the one on the south has a blaze of white and at the bottom there appears to be a box or shadow. I would look in that horse shoe area if I were still searching.
The solve is simple and straight forward. No messing with the poem no code but the way Forrest wrote it. If you got one better then you really have something. I wrote Forrest saying I hoped to bring him the treasure at the Black Bow Tie event in Cody this September. That was grandiose and I hopefully have grown up a little. Good luck to all.
Bye
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