TTI Treasure Story #2 – The search for the Past and Future Box in There’s Treasure Inside! Six Questions with Johnny_Rockstar (Discord Username)
On page 158 of the book, Jon Collins-Black writes: “I hope you will share your stories with one another. Much can be learned through mutual experiences.” What better way to show our appreciation for JCB’s Treasure Hunt than by sharing our stories with each other. Read how you can participate!
The following is an amazing treasure story – searching the Lake Tahoe area! THANK YOU Johnny_Rockstar for sharing his adventures – excellent! (Join us the MW Discord ! Lots being shared there too)
Six Questions with Johnny_Rockstar (Discord Username)
- 1Q) Which Treasure Box were you looking for and what made you choose that box?
Right away I was drawn to the Past and Future Box because of the “games” clearly set out. The cryptogram and word search appear to be straightforward puzzles that needed solving. That seemed easier and more fun to me than reading a long narrative of potential clues that might not be anything. Once I started making progress on those games, the small successes kept pushing me forward to look deeper at the puzzles and chapter text until I really started to appreciate how much time and effort JCB must have put into creating all of this.
Once I had typed up all of the word search into a spreadsheet and then created parallel spreadsheets with formulas that would shift letters forward and back for me, was I really going to go back and start another chapter from scratch? No, I became pretty determined to try to get to the bottom of this one before moving on.
- 2Q) Can you share some of the clues which led you to your location?
I thought I found a lot of clues that supported my “solve.” Since I didn’t find the box, it is hard to know which ones were accurate or not.
I appreciate the debate over California/Nevada vs. Ohio, Carolinas, Tennessee, maybe Virginia, etc., but because of the “state of gold” reference and the discussion of silver, I think the Golden State and Silver State are most likely. Ohio is a proper noun that “may” be ignored, and the placement of state abbreviations only seem to me to emphasize that there is a weird state-to-state reference west of all of that, that seems to match the angle of the design on the coin.
Once you narrow down to that circle you start trying to match the words in the wordsearch and cryptogram.
A eureka moment for me was when I had converted the 5×2 block into numbers and was shifting them 5 places (“There are five steps to unlock it.”). At this point I was doing the shifts manually and converting to numbers and back. I realized that the numbers after the shift (3, 5, 11, 9, 22, 19, 12, 22, 5, 21) matched up very significantly with the numbers found in the word search (9, 19, 3, 11, 12, 5, 3, 0).
I ran around the house yelling like a crazy person when I saw that. There was NO WAY that was a coincidence. I still didn’t know what it meant but I knew there was no way that was a coincidence– I think I got it to partial “sick elev” (like what a bro might say when skiing?) before I found your website/YouTube/discord where someone mentioned Van Sickle, which connected the dots for me to the park and trail. Confirmation bias? was easy enough for me to look at a map showing this was between Castle Rock, South Lake Tahoe Community Play Fields, Armstrong Pass and lots of creeks. I like the “sheen” of the lake being a view of the lake, and Saphire as a reference to the lake’s color. “Sickle” came up in four ways that I could figure. Maybe I just hadn’t figured out the fifth?
This all made sense to me in the context of the narrative. It would be somewhere that he loved… Tahoe seems a likely getaway for someone from California, right?
I have tried and failed at figuring out the corners, so I appreciate there are likely many more clues that I did not know, but I thought the leftover “three and zeros” in the word search referred to elevation (probably still had “elev” on my mind from possible elev signs that I thought I would see on the ground).
On the 7000-elevation line, the bridge over the sickle falls (which I saw on google map pictures) sounded like a promising place to me. The strong to stream is the waterfall itself, the rock is right before the bridge on the ground, and I did not know what “field” could mean in this context. (I realize I already used the poem, but it could have more than one meaning!) The “It’s under, over, in between” seemed like a perfect clue for hiding it under the bridge in the metal structure. I also thought a metal box would blend in with the bridge and that it had a bonus if Jon was trying to thwart the use of metal detectors.
This screen shot from 1/3/25, just after midnight is when I made that connection. (image below)
After that, I read online someone’s thought that the reward might be at an “interior wall”, and some people were posting things that I was coming up with. I was freaking out that someone else would post the same solve any day… and I waited trying to solve the rest of the puzzles daily. I spoke with my wife, family, and friends about it to see if I were crazy to go looking for it, and ultimately my teenage daughter and I made the trip together. Hey, if we come home empty handed, we at least would have the memories I told myself.
- 3Q) Once you had Boots on the Ground, what surprised you most about the area?
The area was stunning. When you hike up past about 6800 ft, you can turn and see the lake. It is quite breathtaking. I did not appreciate how the elevation would cause the hike to be harder for me. There was more snow than I had hoped for.
I think there are a lot of clues on the ground. I suspect now that JCB intentionally made the puzzle so that you would have to visit in person to pull all the pieces together–or at least that it would give you a significant advantage. For example, the gigantic lawn chair (?) on the edge of the Gondola Vista development underneath the gondola “vehicles” that say the ski resort name “heavenly” on them. Is that what he was referencing, or is there another gigantic chair out there?
There are so many great hiding spaces in these hills. We found a geocache randomly (peanut butter container with notes inside) and lots of curious pieces of trash/cans in unusual spaces. We looked under, over, and in between hundreds of rocks. We were exhausted, but it was a wonderful exhaustion of a good hard day.
- 4Q) What was the most memorable discovery of your search? What did you enjoy most?
Ready to get really cheezy? Hiking in the woods with nature all around is just fun. Doing it with my teenage daughter as a shared experience was great fun. Her big smile after hours of not finding anything was pretty awesome. Climbing all over hills and rocks is just fun. These are natural highs that to be honest I haven’t been out doing in quite a while. It took a goal to get me out there searching.
The most fun was surprisingly not searching the bridge. That was fun, but also was filled with expecations and hopes that we knew might not work out. After that failed, the most fun was actually about every 5-10 minutes for hours, you would say to yourself: wow, look at that unusual rock formation (or strange tree, mini-cave, or stump, etc.). Maybe it’s in there!!! The chances of finding it randomly without a clear plan seem to be next to nothing. And yet you would run over and look. And not find the box. So you would start looking for the next one. The search itself was great fun, even when almost impossible.
I was also satisfied when we left that we had given it our all and taken our shot at it. That bridge and water was searched very closely and it is not there. We checked near the rest stops near benches we found, areas along the 7000 ft elevation (or between 68 – 70 hundred elevation) but certainly could have walked right by it. We had our heads up looking for meaning to the poem and words from the narrative text. We did all we could do in the time we had and left satisfied.
- 5Q) You didn’t find the treasure box this trip. Are you still confident in your spot? Why or why not?
I think the bridge could have been a great solve (and someone’s favorite place), but I think it must be elsewhere still waiting. I didn’t crack all the puzzles so what remains may make all the difference. I’m now thinking there is a reasonable chance it could be along the 8000 ft elevation line–there’s an interesting area near Heavenly Valley Creek intersection with Van Sickle trail, but I think it is under snow until the spring. Another angle I would now consider would be if the cryptogram really is giving directions for you to follow once you find the starting space. If so, it seems you go from the beginning of Van Sickle park to the Vista rock formation… but then to a field? I do not know what field you could see from there. I am confident it will not be me, but I am VERY interested in learning where it is finally found to know how close I came!
- 6Q) Do you any advice for others looking for this treasure box or have anything you’d like to add?
What I did on this trip was not incredibly safe during this season. Due to the snow and ice, some parts of that trail are iffy. Be careful and maybe bring snow cramps for your feet if you plan on trying to go before the snow melts (or maybe just listen to JCB and not go until there isn’t a blanket of snow on the ground!).
Doing this with someone else was WAY more fun than I think doing it alone would have been. I recommend you join others in the hunt.
I did not have a direct flight, so I flew into Reno via a layover in San Fran. Reno did not impress me. If I were to do it again, I would have just flown into San Fran and driven the 3.5 hrs rather than the 1 hr from Reno. It would have been a cheaper flight, a nice drive through the mountains, and a chance to eat some good food or see some sights on the way in or out. (Sacramento is another option.)
Good luck out there and Happy Hunting!!!
Thank you for sharing! Best of luck with all that you seek! Always Treasure the Adventure!
Again – If you’d like to share YOUR TREASURE STORY – Please do! We’d love to hear it!