Hi, if you are here, you probably know this hunt, thus I will not explain the background of this treasure hunt. And sorry for my english, I?m french 😉
Preamble
I like to begin a treasure hunt several years after his start, because some of the best ideas have been found. You just have to consider the best 2/3 solutions, and to find a hack to finish it. With your fresh look, it?s often easier for you than for people who started from the beginning. I did it with this chase, and found a wonderful and elegant solution, but in the end, a totally new and obvious solution come to me like a revelation.
Here is THE solution of this treasure hunt, and it should be announced this summer.
The poem
Solution
Lots of people have found that first stanza is pointing Yellowstone. They?re right ! But why ? How to be sure ?
In fact lot?s of solutions on Internet begin at the home of brown? Despite FF saying it?s a very bad idea. But? there is so much place that can be this ?where warm water halt??
How to find the good one ?
Help will come from line 17 : ?So why is it that I must go?
Someone write on a blog, about other Forrest Fenn stories, that Gardiner and Gardner river were often mentioned? This is the key !
If ?I? (letter i) must go, then from word ?Gardiner? you have now word ?Gardner? ! And if you look around Yellowstone, then North entrance is the best place to be. And your ?where warm waters halt? become ?Boiler River?.
Then naturally if you ?put-in? = follow the Gardner river from Boiling river, you have 2 possible directions. South one allows you to go to lava creek canyon (?in the canyon down?), and going there, you pass next to Mammoth hot springs (you know this brown big mammoth)? home of brown !
So easy? you are not convinced ?
Let me show you a picture !
If you take a look to this picture, you can see that Boiler River is on the border of Montana and Wyoming.And if you spent time on this poem, you KNOW, that 3 lines are differents, that 3 lines have only 6, 7 and 7 syllables instead of 8. There is a clue behind this.
Let?s me try something. Telephone code for Montana is 306, and telephone code for Wyoming is 407. For a treasure hunt, having only 6 and 7 is enough.
Thus this clue (and stanza 1 and 2) can be rewrited like this: ?Begins at Yellowstone, at the border between Montana (6) and Wyoming (7), follows Gardner river, in the direction where you are still in Wyoming (7) after passing next to Mammoth hot springs, and being in a place with a canyon (Lava creek canyon). And notes that information of ?Lava creek canyon? is important, because without it, you will follow Gardner river in a too long way.
Ok, we have the GOOD beginning of the chase (and stanza 1 and 2 are done), the end is already close.
Stanza 3
I leave this stanza to you.
Just note that ?ever drawing nigh? is a wordplay for mount ?evert? you can see on gmap, north to Lava creek canyon.
Stanza 4
Have I found the blaze if I follow Lava creek ? Yes I have. The blaze IS Lava creek !
Keep swimming, keep swimming?
Until? Undine Falls. A piece of wikipedia give : ?Undine was named for WISE, usually female water spirits from German mythology who lived around wterfalls??
Ok, I?ve been wise and found the blaze ! I need now to look quikly down (= south), ?but tarry scant with marvel gaze?.
After ?Lava creek? I have ?Lupine creek?
Lupine is a flower, and probably the marvel gaze !
Thus I need to be careful and I will probably follow this new creek but not in a long way. Because the end is near 🙂
Stanza 5
Ok, again I have this ?So why is it a must go? ? I can have used it in the start of my solution because ?the answer I already know?, but ( ! ) FF says that poem is to take in order. Thus why is this line here ?
Response is simple.
We were in Undine Falls (Lupine creek is for the future, not now). Undine falls was originally called ?East Gardner? or ?Gardiner River Falls? (Gardiner/Gardner). Great !
What more ?
Oh dear FF you have done it tired and now you are weak ? But you are lucky, because after ?Undine Falls? we have ?Lava creek picnic area? (?tire? and ?weak?). So drop your car here for the end.
Stanza 6
We are near the end, we now that we will continue with Lupine creek but shortly. Lava creek picnic area is a good place for your car and for a 30 minutes (single way) trek (2 times).
But hear me all and listen good ! What ? I SAY HEAR ME ALL AND LISTEN GOOD ! Sorry I need to yell because of the Wraith Falls ! (see picture above).
Ok, so if you are brave, because with the wraith you need to be, FF will give you title to the gold ! But for that, he needs a podium? And if you used googlemap, now you need to use the satellite view.
Yes, south of the Wraith Falls, you have a meadow with stones in the middle. Probably FF will use it like a podium for the title to the gold (or the gold medal).Just to give you data. This meadow is about 500 feets from the falls, and center of the meadow is about 200 feets to the border of the woods.(may be some of you will be interested by those numbers).
The end ?
It probably was, one day, but FF changed is mind ! >_<
I read somewhere that the last line of the poem should have be ?take the chest and leave my bones?. Which was rhymed with the word ?stones?. I guess it was the spot for the treasure, but probably too risky if a tourist decided to visit this area without knowing the hunt?
Then where ? A last wordplay !
So from the stones in the middle of this meadow, go in a direction (last clue / last wordplay), in the woods (probably 5 meters maximum to be reasonable), and find a tree that contains the chest (?in the wood?). Thus less risk with the lost (too curious) tourist 🙂
Last clue/wordplay ?
?worth? the cold = ?west-north? ?
Or better :
?So hear me all and listN good? ==> ?N good? (like ?I must go?)?Your effort will be wORTH the cold? ==> ORTHNorth ?
I leave you the last thrill 😉
End of the game, end of the Forrest Fenn treasure hunt !
