Congrats to Brian P. who has successfully claimed the Forrest Fenn Gold Medallion of treasure hunt #4!
The clues for the Hunt were released on Monday, the 25th, and the stone was found on the 28th! Many searchers were in pursuit of the hidden treasure, and it was a close finish. I had received an email a hour later from a searcher who had a person of the area on site, but the stone could not be found. It had already been retrieved!
No worries though!
There are 6 more to go in this initial round!
Here is the list of the following releases of clues for this first series of FFGM Treasure Hunts:
FFGM #5: Being released on DalNeitzel.com on March 6th
FFGM #6: Being released on MysteriousWritings.com on March 20th
FFGM #7: Being released on Dalneitzel.com on April 10th
FFGM #8: Being released on MysteriousWritings.com on April 24th
FFGM #9: Being released on Dalneitzel.com on May 8th
FFGM #10: Being released on MysteriousWritings.com on May 22nd
But let’s learn how Brian P. put the pieces together to discover the location of the hidden Forrest Fenn Treasure Stone to claim the Gold Medallion!
Here is his story in his own words!
First of all, I want to thank you and Dal. The puzzle was SO good. Right up my ally. The other puzzles I hadn’t connected with, but this one was perfect for me.
Of course, I got the ‘Scrapbooks’ anagram from the highlighted letters right away. I didn’t know what to do with it though.
Also, I noticed the “Two’s” and “Four’s”. But again, didn’t know what to do.
I tried the numbers to match your text. Didn’t expect it to be that easy — and it wasn’t.
I used the hunt title words trying to get the cipher and kept getting “stone” or “store” depending what was done the with “#4”. And somehow I got the other words anagrammed to say “stone darts forge”. I was stuck on this a LONG time. [It ended up being like this because Scrapbook 2 starts with “Forrest” too.]
Finally, I looked at Scrapbook 2, and the cipher started to make sense on Line 1. “STONE UNDER LOG”
Then went to Scrapbook 4 (Line 2), and anagrammed those words. “NEXT TO PAVILION”
Scrapbook 24 (Line 6) worked out nicely and I anagrammed those words. “O BETWEEN TWO ROUTES A” The “O” and “A” didn’t make sense, and with the double dashes thought those might be actual Route numbers and not supposed to cipher those. So, I had: “189 — BETWEEN TWO ROUTES — 157” I started googling routes 189 and 157. Found these in all kinds of states, and decided to give up on this clue (temporarily).
(Line 7) – I used Scrapbook 42, and got the letters “SACOLNA” I couldn’t get this to anagram to anything, but thought it might be a small town and would never get it to anagram a Proper Noun through the Anagram Solver. (Sometimes, hunches are right.) This would later get anagrammed to “ASCALON”. (A small town / road that would have the rock located.)
Back to ciphering, I thought I had figured out the whole puzzle and how to cipher it. But… I didn’t. Nothing seemed to work out. The lines that had TWO and FOUR weren’t working using SB2 and SB4. I tried many combinations of Scrapbooks with 2 and 4 combinations – nothing. Again, I was stuck for a long time and finally decided to call it after a very late night.
When I woke up, I had a thought to do Scrapbook 102 and then 202 and so on… for all of the lines that had the “Two’s”. [Little did I know that Scrapbook 202 didn’t even exist! HA!]
So, I got lucky that SB 102 worked on Line 3. “TRAILHEAD PARKING” It worked, but I couldn’t figure out WHY it worked. I counted the letters in your text and thought maybe 102 would land in a special spot. No dice. I was about to brute force every Scrapbook (“I can be tenacious”)… Then suddenly, I saw it! “ofTEN TWO” BOOM! I had it! TEN – TWO. 10 – 2. 102!!! Scrapbook 102!!!!
The rest of the cipher went pretty easy from there.
“PhraseS EVEN” “TWO” – SB72! (for Line 4) “MIND FOUR ON MY” (which would eventually “phrases even might need to be fixed” to “Georgia (4th state) on my mind”)
“TWO” “dO NExt” – SB21! (for Line 5) “SW OF FIVE POINTS” This sent me to NYC immediately, and later Atlanta, but finally to the correct “5 point trail”.
“FOUR” “stONE” – SB41! (for Line 8) ” “WHERE YSK AND HEART MEET” What??!? What is YSK and how does it relate to HEART??? Well, I had trouble anagramming “YSK” to “SKY” [easy to laugh at now] and HEART also anagrams to EARTH. So, the real saying was “WHERE SKY AND EARTH MEET”. This is how Cloudland State Park would fit into things.
Once I had all of the text, I found the spot pretty quickly. Getting “Georgia” from “Four” really helped and then quickly found routes 189 and 157. From that point, everything was very obvious.
All of the above was solving the puzzle. That is a very tough challenge. I enjoy it. There are “AH-HA” moments that I wish upon everyone. A natural high. “AH-HA” I figured out this, and “AH-HA” I figured out that. “AH-HA” moments are why I do these puzzles.
But the challenge doesn’t end there. And this next part I dislike / am not good at. I am 9 hours by car away from the spot in Georgia. So, I have to find someone to get it for me. It sounds so simple, but in reality it isn’t. I contacted about 30 people to get it for me, but no one wanted to go get it. So, I offered money. And then more money. I got a few responses back, but they said they couldn’t go until next week! I knew someone would solve it by then. So, I offered MORE money. Finally, a friend of a friend said they were interested. Of course, I trust my friend (can I shout out Dave Meyer?), but I don’t know his friend, so it is hard for me to trust him. I tried to establish some “rules”, and suddenly he thinks he is getting PUNKED! Things settled down quickly, but I was concerned he wasn’t going to go. Anyway, he (can I shout out Chris?) drove right to the spot I told him and found the log in the picture/video that you provided without any problem. He sent me pictures of the rock (his end of the bargain), and I sent him $XXX (my end of the bargain).
All of that happened in less than 3 days. That is a FULL 3 days – with other ‘normal’ life things happening in between. I am exhausted physically and mentally. I know I am going to sleep well tonight.
Thanks again, Jenny and Dal,
Brian P.
PS – Forrest (can I shout out Forrest???) – I’m still looking for your WWWH!
Brian’s Solve:
LOVE IT! And thank you for sharing your adventure and FOUND TREASURE with us all! It is So Wonderfully inspiring!
Below is the map of Cloudland Canyon State Park:
There is also a zoomed in image where Ascalon Trailhead is located in the park— between routes 189 and 157, SW of Five Points trailhead. The stone was under a log, next to the pavilion in the parking area. Georgia was the 4th state admitted to the union, and Georgia on my mind is its state song. All this led Brian P.’s friend of a friend to the location!
close up of Ascalon area:
Congrats again, and be ready for more in the coming months!
We aren’t even half way through the adventures!
Best of luck with all that you seek! Always Treasure the Adventure!
Congratulations, Brian P.