www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6E8Fu9wX2g
you start the chase by getting in your car an going to the first clue,
So BOTG starts at the first clue, or we need use a second mode of transportation once we get there. Or there is information that we need to find at the first clue in order to move on (with our car) ...correct? I need to start over....
I was going to post on this subject so I'll put a few thoughts here.
We know we drive to the first clue. We also know some people have been at or around the first two clues (side-note: these seem to come as a pair, e.g. the Little Girl from India can't get closer than them). There are some quotes that tell us that some were there but didn't realise the significance, i.e. it is possible to be there by accident.
I think on the balance of probabilities the first two clues are a place which quite a few people go to AND it is likely you can park there or nearby. My reasoning is if people mention a place to Forrest or send him a picture, it's going to be somewhere they stopped at, not drove past. There would also be a reason for stopping there.
So hold that thought.
Option 2 appears to be that the first two clues give us a location to start a driven journey from. In order for that to be true you need a direction to go in and either a stopping point or a distance to travel. From the poem we could use NFBTFTW as some sort of vague distance and/or hint at driving, in which case it appears we stop at HoB.
So here's my analysis:
Option 2 (park at HoB) has a few issues.
First, if you can drive to it, it is possible to find it without having solved the preceeding two or three clues. Forrest has mentioned that people shouldn't be driving up and down roads looking for the blaze, presumably this applies to other clues after WWH too.
Forrest said you have to find WWH. If you can drive to HoB, why not cut the poem short of a few clues? He also said you have to follow the clues in order. Have to. If you have to, then it is not possible to shortcut any parts.
Also, he said he followed the clues when he hid the treasure. Why not just drive straight to HoB (unless WWH is on the way anyway)?.
In addition, even with >300k searchers, he has never said 'some folks were at HoB' either on purpose or by accident. If there's a parking spot at HoB and someone mentioned they were there, it would be weird (but not impossible) if he said some people were at WWH but not that some people were at HoB.
I'll mention again that NFBTFTW can't be a specific distance mentioned in books after TTOTC since Forrest couldn't be sure those books would even be written or published, i.e. he could have passed away after publishing TTOTC.
So option 2, park at HoB has some serious issues for me.
So let's consider option 1, park at WWH. It doesn't suffer the issues of option2 above, however...
If it's a relatively popular place to park/stop, that makes it difficult to use as a base to transfer over $1m of gold and other valuables from, doesn't it? I guess you could turn up, see cars there, and go away until they leave. Even so it's a risky endeavour when returning for the second load. I believe there is a quote somewhere that says Forrest was relieved that the parking place was deserted when he went (or words to that effect). So even this stacks up.
How likely is it that Forrest starts a poem with clues that lead us to a spot where people stop, and we don't stop there?
(Less compelling) What do the 500ft searchers tell us about the scale of the poem?
Therefore, overall it seems more likely to me (say 80/20) that we park at WWH rather than HoB. There may also be other options, but these are the two front-runners I think.
So if my reasoning is correct:
Park at WWH, the rest of the journey is on foot. WWH is a place where people stop with some regularity, maybe even some kind of touristy place.
I know there are some decent searchers that think the opposite, I would only say that I welcome any logical criticism that is not of the type 'my pet solution says you stop at HoB, therefore you're wrong'
