Blaze, Gaze & Stream
FF Solve Idea (Rocky Mountain National Park)
I understand that with the original Forrest Fenn treasure hunt, the starting point (i.e. “where warm waters halt”) was a key part to starting a solution. TTI’s poem has a similar line of “where cool water flows”. I wonder if working backwards (from the end) might be a helpful exercise for selecting possible, plausible search locations? I thought I’d try focusing on some later key terms and force a decision of where I might travel to if given the opportunity to go tomorrow (with perfect conditions of course!).
I am continuing to use Colorado as my primary search state because I like the idea I heard on a podcast that the first line of the poem has all of the letters of the state. I very much like this and further believe that it even can be sounded out (kind of): I Cruise ALong A ROAD I knOW || C-AL-A-ROAD-OW
Acknowledging my not fully understanding the rules, legality, etc. with national parks, I am focused on Rocky Mountain National Park (part of the National Park Service) for this box. This is primarily because of the point (arrowhead) and tree (pine tree) and seeing eye (animal eye) lining up nicely with the NPS logo.
The 4th and 5th stanzas of the poem seem, to me, to give specifics (if you can call them that) closer to the box’s hiding location.
Stop just beyond the campers blaze.
…
the spot is set with marvel gaze,
…
I’ll miss the golden bending stream
Let’s start with “campers blaze.” There are some designated camping areas throughout the Rocky Mountain National Park. There are also backcountry areas that, with a permit, folks can camp but those areas may not have signage. I accept that there are multiple possible interpretations of “campers blaze” (and especially without an apostrophe though that may have been a poetic decision to leave out).
I am taking a simple approach to say that it is a sign that marks off a place that is ok to camp in the park. As an example, here is an area that is interesting to me because there is something called “Sourdough Campsite” (though I can’t find any photos of the trail signage for the site).
I think this is interesting because there is a stream (Mill Creek) that goes between two large mountain areas (a canyon of sorts). I don’t know how “golden” or “bending” it is, but maybe during the sunset it gets a lot of light coming into the canyon.
I also am interested in the words “marvel gaze.” In the original Forrest Fenn poem, I believe it was just a poetic term used to say don’t just stare at the box but pick it up and get moving (tarry scant). It did not seem to have any real BOTG information. But what if TTI’s author thought it meant that where the treasure was hidden would have some kind of beautiful, majestic view?
In this area I think that you’d have to be at one of two types of places to “marvel”:
a peak or a ridge with a view (unlikely given if an 80+ year old man with prior health issues was meant to hike to a 10,000’ elevation with a heavy treasure box by himself)
an area with a clearing and nice view, often found near lakes.
I don’t know if these photos on AllTrails are from this exact trail, but generally the area is pretty impressive.
Finally, going back to the “where warm waters halt” and “where cool water flows”, there are things named Glacier Creek and Fire Trail, all not too far from accessible roads and parking lots (“park my car”).
There are other words of course that have some importance like the thinker’s stone and the white mark upon the seat, but those are things that I currently do not have an idea for that could be searchable on a map. And I don’t have an idea for Brown in this area either.
So, if I had the opportunity to head somewhere tomorrow (well not literally tomorrow) with perfect conditions and comforts, I think I’d check out this area. I’d probably want to explore both the Odessa and Two Rivers Lakes, but maybe also the Emerald and Dream Lakes (nestled in a dream?)