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Seven Paces Vermont Treasure Found! Six Questions! CONGRATS all around!
After more than a year and a half of searching, theorizing, and hitting the trails, the $2,500 treasure hidden by Seven Paces in A Fortune Lies in Vermont has finally been discovered. In this Six Questions, we catch up with Phoenix of Seven Paces to reflect on the hunt, what it was like watching searchers work through the clues, and what’s next for the team. Then, finder JB takes us along on his journey to the treasure, sharing his biggest aha moments, the clues that finally led him to the right trail, and the final BOTG search that brought months of hard work to a successful end.
The treasure was found, but the adventure behind the discovery is just as rewarding! AND OTHERS AWAIT YOU!
Enjoy! (And join discussions of clues on many hunts on the MW Discord, MW Forum, or MW Facebook Group page)
3 Questions with Phoenix (of SevenPaces)
- Q1) CONGRATS on another hunt being successfully solved – treasure found. This hunt took more than a year to solve. How was it for you watching searchers work through the clues and pursue different theories? Were there any approaches or discoveries that surprised you?
It is crazy that it took more than a year and a half to find. That being said, it was great to go check and see that it was in perfect condition. It lived through winter and fall and back and when I went and looked it was clear and clean. Watching it from a far is always a tough situation. I think we are just such available guys that you want to yell and scream at the screen and tell people what to do. But you have to sit back. And people are so smart. It is amazing!
- Q2) Having created several treasure hunts, you’ve had the opportunity to see how searchers approach, interpret, and solve your clues. What have you learned from watching searchers work through your hunts, and what insights have you taken away from those experiences as a creator?
People definitely send pictures and solves that always blow you away. I can honestly say that during 2026 we had to pay way more attention to AI than we ever had to in the past. The amount of effort and cross-checking with AI agents was a lot. And unfortunate. We understand that it is inevitable but the change in one year was massive. I think people’s ability to navigate the internet is a massive challenge for creators. But when you see hunters share their ideas and pictures, that is exactly why we do it. You can hear and read the excitement in their stories. And how their minds are working. It is so fun, yet so stressful. And you can see people honing in.
This hunt was great because I don’t think people could rely on AI. It was a lot more knowledge based. It was literally a recant of our experience that we disguised ourselves with false names. People that spent BOTG time, like Jonly, figured out our journey. People have definitely researched our hunts and become more in tune with our styles. And that is why we offer different types of hunts!!
I think this hunt was discovered exactly the way we wanted it to be found! The final finder may have missed a few clues, but that always happens. He had enough to find it. We have not had a chance to speak personally about it. But I was really hoping the “matt/matt boundary” would have been solved. At the end of the day, this hunter solved it the designed way!! And the thing that excited me most was that I was in town. I think of myself being there. Checking on it gave everyone a renewed sense of energy!!
- Q3) Seven Paces has had so much going on lately – with the Bootlegger’s Bounty treasure hunt – for 25K still going on! You’ve said searchers have been super close to finding that one. So what is next for Seven Paces?
We do have a ton going on. But we have always said that we want to be the Nike of treasure hunting. And for that to happen, we need to be very active. We appreciate all of our fans and supporters. We beg for more. We currently have a treasure hidden in PHX. I imagine we will release this hunt soon. We have been honored to have been asked to be presenters at both TreasureCon and Seekers Summit. We owe Minot a big hunt. And locally, we should probably do a holiday hunt. And yet, the $25K Bootleggers Bounty is still out there in Grand Forks.
3 Questions with JB (the Finder!)
- Q4) This hunt took more than a year to solve and required a physical search. Once you had an idea of where the treasure might be, what was the process of narrowing down the location and finding the treasure? Were there clues in the book that you could only fully understand or recognize once you were physically at the location?
Finding the final confirmers after finding the correct trail was crucial. While one may have deduced or intuited what the stone markers/divides/boundaries might be from the book, only a BOTG exploration gave them up. And in my previous searches, they did not exist in any other location (see solve below).
- Q5) Looking back, was there anything you misunderstood, overlooked, or spent too much time pursuing? What lessons did you learn that might help you in other hunts – or help other treasure hunters working on their own hunts?
The hardest part is always the BOTG search. It is difficult to search any area so completely that you can permanently rule it out. In this case, I was at the final location on Saturday, did a really good search around the base of a (what was the correct) tree and found nothing. Because I was losing daylight, I had to head back to the trailhead. Starting in the morning on Sunday, I knew I had to cover the same ground but be much more diligent. I eventually returned to that same tree, walked past it to look at a different tree, and on the way back, spotted the boulder which held the treasure in a cranny almost at ground level.
My biggest advice is: trust your intuition. Once you have a good armchair solve and are BOTG, remember that a human like yourself (hopefully) walked that area and hid that treasure. Your gut feeling might lead along the same path. Also, your gut will often keep you safe and out of danger.
- Q6) Beyond the $2,500 prize, what was the most rewarding part of the experience? Please share some of the ‘aha’ moments, unforgettable experiences, and a brief solution – AND how you felt when you saw that treasure peeking out at you!?!!
The perpetual pleasure of hiking in beautiful, natural environments in lovely weather is simply the greatest privilege. Over many trips to the larger Little Rock Pond area, I have searched in light snow, high summer, and misty fall. Nothing beats Mother Nature at her best. Beyond that, sharing with and being supported by this treasure hunting community is one reason I remain invested in The Search. Finally, I truly think Seven Paces’ ability and desire to put themselves out there (Instagram, interviews, Vermont Hunters Meet-up) is what helped me keep my nose to the ground. It was terrific meeting Matt/Phoenix last weekend!
This solve for me was unlike any. In order to form a complete idea about how to approach the puzzle in the book, I felt I needed to devour every scrap of Seven Paces: Vermont info I could find. This included every interview with Phoenix and Red Beard that was available.
Over the 18 months or so of the hunt, they were generous in describing how they came to hide their treasure and write the book. They also intentionally (and unintentionally) gave us some hints e.g. what the treasure container looked like – a food thermos. So, I knew going in that I was looking for a trail in the Little Rock Pond area; a trail that did not directly lead to LRP. I do think that one had to be fairly familiar with the area to understand the book – clearly they were obfuscating all the place names they travelled to. But for better or worse, I bought into the narrative’s travel log which I felt would ultimately lead to finding the actual treasure in a location similar to the book’s.
I will admit I do not have solves for every aspect of the book. I believe they start up on Lake Champlain in Burlington, Vermont with the iconic carving of Chief Grey Lock in Battery Park. From there, they make their way to Rutland (Redfield?) and eventually land in Wallingford (Stonecross?) at the Sweet Birch Bakery (Bitter Oak Bakehouse). So I felt I was definitely on the correct treasure path. The next few bits of story left me bewildered with few leads (Amber Hearth Hostel, The Seventeen Circles?).
But when they set off for the final push, I felt the book was really pushing the Ursala Cordillera name at me so I needed to nail that down. I thought it was most likely a play on the name Bear Mountain and wondered if that was merely a jokey reference to a current TTI Appalachian Trail box solve. But I had also been searching much closer to LRP and hadn’t found my way north to the final location yet. Because of the gravestone with “Ursala Cordillera 1727-1766”, I REALLY wanted that to be a clue for an elevation window on a trail, so my first four trips were searches of the LRP pond area at those elevations. (It wouldn’t hurt if I accidentally found the TTI box – IYKYK) But those searches were unfruitful and also felt incomplete because I never found any BOTG confirmers that would help me zero in.
My “aha” moment was twofold. One, realizing that the Bear Mountain trail existed and was just east of Wallingford, where it seemed their book base of operations was. I told someone that my solve was 90% complete (because I was convinced it was the BM trail) but the final 10% was not understanding what the stone markers/dividers/boundaries were which lead to the final treasure location. Two, it was not until I was BOTG for the second time at BM trail that I saw that the forest had historically been sub-divided into fields by STONEWALLS that you cross as you hike that trail. So crossing the third stone wall led me to the right place.
My last day involved crossing every stone wall on the trail and extensively searching (to the left) for a magnificent oak behind which the treasure was hidden close to the ground. Success at last.
Feelings: excitement/boredom of looking under the thousandth rock, shock/racing heart of spotting the actual treasure cannister and not a discarded beer can, elation/vindication for months of hard work and BOTG!
Sincere thanks to MW Jenny Kile, Matt and Justin at Seven Paces, the treasure hunt community on Facebook and Discord!
Keep searching; your treasure awaits!
