Anyone Use Ponce deLeon Springs or Miranda Canyon in solve?

[jakebrakes]

I had Ponce de Leon as my WWWH and Miranda canyon as Canyon down ?  Anyone else ?

[annie]

NO

[jakebrakes]

Okay, so it seems no one is going to come out of the woodwork and claim they had it all along after the REAL SOLUTION is revealed... so just for posterity and to memorialize my seven years of failure searching in the Taos-Vadito area, I give you my solution, previously published and ignored by thousands:

1. Begin it at Ponce de Leon Springs - now called Taos Pueblo Springs 2. Take "it" - the el Camino Real trail 3. In the canyon down - Miranda Canyon 4. Below the Home of Brown is where a creek intersects the el Camino Real trail on the left (nigh) 5. and leads up to an ancient micaceous clay mine -Home of Brown- famous to local archaeologists and historians for the Brown pottery made by the ancients 6. This clay mine is on the old US HILL MICA MINE property and when you view it from above, the outline of the mine forms an "F" in the landscape. This was my BLAZE. These last clues are new and still theoretical since I got cut-off before I could search it this year - 7. quickly down means "at a sharp angle" i.e. archaic definition of quickly means "sharp angle", and down means due south. So go due south from the blaze at a particular longitude that intersects the sharp angle of the "F" shape. 8. Marvel gaze means a view of the mountains from an amazing overlook. So you stay on this particular line of longitude until you come to a mountain ridge that gives you the marvel gaze - and also gives "your quest to cease" since it's a drop off if you continue forward. 9. Take the chest and go in peace refers to the HIGH ROAD to TAOS - famous for all of its mission style churches - which is about 1000 feet away, down the drop-off from the marvel gaze and not accessible, up on a place some maps call Borrego Mesa.

So that's the whole solution in my mind... creates a map... all places are historically significant and would be searchable for a hundred years... and completely and totally contiguous from the Ponce de Leon Springs all the way to a spot overlooking The High Road to Taos. Total distance is probably 12 to 15 miles ? But the best part is that an 80 year old could drive his jeep right up to Borrego mesa on a marked Forest Road, hop out and walk about 500 to 600 feet up a steep slope and he's THERE. Ridiculously easy access, after a page full of clues that take you through history and the wilderness and rough terrain, that you never even need to physically go to. But I've got lots and lots of pictures and credit card bills to remember all of those wilderness places that I did not need to go to over the years, to find the chest. Wish I had known then what I think I know now... we'll just have to wait for the actual true solution to be released.

[jakebrakes]

AND I FORGOT.... while the longitude and the GPS reading would make it easier and more practical in the field, you don't really need the GPS if you have that GOOD MAP that FF referred to, which will show the OUTLINE OF THE BLAZE and also that the ANGLE OF THE BLAZE points to and lines up perfectly with the HIGH ROAD TO TAOS. So without a GPS you would climb/hike up onto Borrego Mesa from the Forest Road and look for a view over the portion of the Highway that runs due north/south, and align yourself on a north/south line, and search up and down that line, and the chest or something that leads you to the chest should be visible as you walk up and down that north/south line on top of the mesa, which is not very big.

If Anyone lives near Taos I would dearly love for someone to go and take pictures and see if this looks like the SPOT. Need a 4x4 to travel less than a half mile on a Forest Road, then walk up a hill for 500 to 600 feet.

Cheers.

[goldwatch]

Sounds like a nice place to check out, at any rate.

[annie]

Jakebreaks “1.Begin it at Ponce de Leon Springs - now called Taos Pueblo Springs “
Where does warm water halt?

[jakebrakes]

Jul 10, 2020 12:37:53 GMT -5 goldwatch said:

Sounds like a nice place to check out, at any rate.

Thanks for that... yes it was a great place to visit for mountain hiking.

[jakebrakes]

Jul 10, 2020 12:45:06 GMT -5 annie said:

Jakebreaks “1.Begin it at Ponce de Leon Springs - now called Taos Pueblo Springs “
Where does warm water halt?

Annie,

The warm water runs out of a crack in the mountain and flows down into pools. So the warm water halts in the pools there at Ponce de Leon Springs. It is a "hot" springs.  The water then continues to flow out of the pools and down the side of the hill and into an acequia, I think... so the pools stay warm because new warm water is constantly coming in.

It's an historic site. Maybe even pre-historic. The old puebloans came there and it is a sacred site to the current day tribes, who allow the public to use the pools but have one area fenced off and private for tribal use only, as I understand it. I've been there a couple times, 2014 and 2015, and didn't see any roped off areas back then, but I've seen You Tubers who have taken videos there and show what it looks like current day.

Cheers.

[annie]

Jul 10, 2020 11:28:08 GMT -5 jakebrakes said:

AND I FORGOT.... while the longitude and the GPS reading would make it easier and more practical in the field, you don't really need the GPS if you have that GOOD MAP that FF referred to, which will show the OUTLINE OF THE BLAZE and also that the ANGLE OF THE BLAZE points to and lines up perfectly with the HIGH ROAD TO TAOS. So without a GPS you would climb/hike up onto Borrego Mesa from the Forest Road and look for a view over the portion of the Highway that runs due north/south, and align yourself on a north/south line, and search up and down that line, and the chest or something that leads you to the chest should be visible as you walk up and down that north/south line on top of the mesa, which is not very big.

If Anyone lives near Taos I would dearly love for someone to go and take pictures and see if this looks like the SPOT. Need a 4x4 to travel less than a half mile on a Forest Road, then walk up a hill for 500 to 600 feet.

Cheers.

Jakebreaks that sounds really amazing though. Do you think you could still go there and check out the close up area? 
I agree with you about a GOOD MAP i think a normal topographical map with contours and other symbols is the best one to have.
What  line of the poem do you think was the last clue?  
Very convincing solve, be good to see photos. A x

[jakebrakes]

ANNIE,
I would dearly love to go out there and check out the spot. My car was packed and I was leaving out on Sunday morning, June 7, when I just checked the internet one more time before I packed the laptop, and learned it was over. CRUSHING. But then again I could be WRONG... that is why I didn't just go ahead with the trip on June 7. I can't be 100% certain about any of it, but I was willing to bet on a chance for a million bucks. Not willing to make the sacrifice for a hole in the ground and a mythical second place ribbon. And risk corona virus...

If you have a Forest Service map for motorized travel in the Carson National Forest, I think it shows the outline of the US HILL Mine and you can line up THE HIGH ROAD TO TAOS, Hwy 518, with the corner of the mine that points due south. Just use a straight edge. If that is the wrong map, I know there are forest service maps that show it. Also the topo maps like the maps kpro bought from FF. Or get on google earth and use the ruler function and draw your own line. That's the easiest and best way. Due north south line following Hwy 518 intersecting through the old mica mine at the CORNER of the "F" shape.

It's hard for me to number the clues... but the last clues/hints were definitely (for me) look quickly down-due south, quest to cease-you have to stop at the edge of a cliff/ridge, marvel gaze-amazing view of mtns., and go in peace-the High Road to Taos. Which ones are hints and which ones are clues ? Hell, "tarry scant" might have been a clue/hint after all, if the chest was half-buried in the ground with the lid exposed, like some of us believe, it would be almost flush with the ground like a "scant" i.e. flat rock.

So yes, Annie, I think the area could be easily checked in good weather, so long as you have a 4x4. But in the summer I would expect tall sage brush, etc, so it's probably too late to check for the Finder's trail... best to wait til Fall probably. AND if it is NOT an amazing beautiful view when you get to the edge of the ridgeline on that straight line of longitude, or at least somewhere nearby, with open areas exposed to the stars... then maybe it's not the spot. BUT I REALLY THINK IT IS.

Cheers.

[annie]

Thanks jakebreaks for that account: i think you should still go to check it out. I felt the same disbelief when i heard the news, i was about ready to try and book the journey before the winter, but in honesty it probably wouldn’t have been this year with all that has happened.
I still want to go to Montana one day though. If we don’t hear anything this year i think it is over. I am even having doubts about the poem being real, even though my solve did fit in pretty good.

[annie]

You could always go and ask Forrest to check it out - that is in his area isn’t it?

[jakebrakes]

Yes Annie, I will definitely go there one day. The Chase has made me a huge fan of Northern New mexico and the Taos area, so I will be back - just don't know when or how....