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Post by rarbowen on Dec 4, 2020 1:42:46 GMT -5
Because of family circumstances, I am only now reading about the solution to this hunt and everyone's thoughts. I don't know what to say! I have worked this puzzle almost daily since a few days from the beginning, and I have so many feelings and thoughts running through my brain right now, but feel sort of stunned. I feel angry, frustrated, sad, and at the same time, should not be feeling this way at all. I chose to work this puzzle and it was never for the prize. I love puzzles and love to solve them. The prize would have been a nice reward for hours of hard work and constant searching. Yes, I had many of the clues that Pel shows figured out years ago as did quite a few others...I knew to fold the first time I saw the camera page after I first bought my book, and even finding the red/yellow star pattern 3-4 years ago didn't really say much to me. But I can honestly say, I would have never found those ones!
So, right now, I can honestly say I am glad it's over so I don't waste anymore of my life on it, but agree with some others that there are some really good unsuccessful clues many have put together (including a couple of my own) that seem more likely than hidden for 13 years between two rocks only lightly covered. Just doesn't feel right.
Maybe I'll respond again after this all sinks in.
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stones
New Member
Arm Chair Treasure Hunter
Posts: 44
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Post by stones on Dec 4, 2020 5:22:55 GMT -5
You realize that's a quote from someone else's post, right? Not to say I don't think it's hilarious. I too had a meltdown when I first saw that lazy solution to what seemed a complicated puzzle, but I accept it as the solution. We all handle it differently I suppose. Speaks volumes of your character.
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theo
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Post by theo on Dec 4, 2020 9:28:42 GMT -5
Yes, I have confirmed the solution with Pel. It is the solution. Jenny, can you give us more information about how you confirmed the solution? Did you actually have a live conversation with Pel, via phone or zoom or whatever? The final words of the official rules on page 57 are "Visit the website for the hunt at www.followthefox.com." There's something kind of odd about posting a solution here, on a discussion board, but not posting anything at all on the specific website that the authors set up and told us to visit.
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Post by ronemund on Dec 4, 2020 10:03:58 GMT -5
God almighty, is there anything, anything no matter how small that the internet can't turn into a GRAND CONSPIRACY???
Sorry, folks, the hunt is over and the solution was posted. The solution makes sense, it was a little sloppily carried out, but it makes sense. It's over, there is no grand conspiracy.
Sit down, I have to tell you something, this may be hard to take. You're not as brilliant as you think. Your long-winded 'solve' involving a million clues all cobbled together tendentiously was just wrong. Nobody cares about your 'tale' and your 'solve that was actually right' despite what the guy who actually made the thing says. Maybe you imagined some grand solve that involved a thousand different parts all mapped out on a wall with threads tying them all together like a JFK assassination kook, that eventually led to a shining gold key on an altar deep inside a cave on MDI or something. Your solution is not 'more likely' than the real solution. The reality is it was a little treasure hunt a guy put together in his spare time for fun. If you can't accept that, go over to the Secret Facebook page and commiserate with all the other geniuses who have solved all the puzzles ten times over but still came up empty. Unfortunately, they won't be interested in your tale either because they're far more interested in their tale of how they solved the puzzle the correct way, as opposed to the real way.
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Post by thisjustin on Dec 4, 2020 11:55:07 GMT -5
One of the things I would like to have seen in this hunt would have been a confirmer or two that, if you did derive the GPS coordinates, would have provided confidence it was the correct solution.
I was skimming through my notes one last time before moving on from Fandango and ran across this from one of my many musings:
On p. 58 there is a string of numbers at the bottom of the page: 86 57 42 93 10 1
Use the first number as a page # and the second number to pick that word on that page you get the following: A, Nose, Names, Me, It. This anagrams to: To Maine’s Seamen
Take a similar approach with “read a second time” p. 11 clock time in seconds = 14,703 p.14, line 7 word 3 = “in”
p. 40 clock time in seconds = 75,958 There is no page 75, so add the first two numbers to get p.12 p.12, line 9, words 5 & 8 = “cove” and “a”
Put them together = “In a cove”
p. 11 - Aries is the first astrological sign suggesting we look at the right triangle first. This contains a POI symbol enclosed by two dotted lines. The left line points to the eye and the right to Orion. This equals "see Orion." The map section to the right of Orion is the location of Brown Mountain Gatehouse which is where the p.19 illustration takes place and instructs "an eye reflects," i.e. a second hint to "see Orion"
Combine these two elements and you get Orion in a cove = Hunter's Cove.
Of course we now know that the text didn't have any relation to the riddle, so this "confirmer" just goes into the very large bucket of random coincidences we all came up with along the way. But in my view, that's what made this so much fun - seeing all the creativity that everyone had in attempting to find the solution.
To those whom I interacted with directly, it was a pleasure meeting you! To those that actively contributed to the forum rather than just lurked, I say thanks, as this wouldn't have been nearly as much fun without you!
Be well everyone and stay safe!
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Post by kbellis on Dec 5, 2020 19:17:31 GMT -5
www.dropbox.com/s/q6z7gjve27jwqow/Hunters-Beach-Overview.jpgInteresting reveal. This is my first post here on the Mysterious Writings forum. I didn't know of its existence until today, but wish I had known of it sooner. I never would have guessed that you literally would have to tear the book apart in order to solve this puzzle. But even if we had solved for the geographic coordinate, it was only expressed to the nearest whole second in both latitude and longitude, which at this latitude means that the search area would be a circle of about 125 ft. in diameter covering an area of about 0.28 acres centered about the puzzle's position (Lat/Lon: 44° 17' 57" N, 68° 13' 02" W). How do you interpret Pel's remark: "Per a reader’s suggestion, I have placed a ‘visible’ painted ‘souvenir’ stone with key near the spot."? Given that this Solution.pdf document was apparently created by Pel on Tuesday December 1, 2020, I understood this to mean that the painted souvenir stone might still be visible post-reveal, and thus set out to find it on Wednesday. While I managed to navigate to the exact spot, all I found was disturbed soil. Major recent rain events have washed away some signs of ground disturbance, but you could still discern where the ground had been recently disturbed between these two boulders. Further digging in the area as described by Pel resulted in only loosening more soil. No souvenir was found, but a short stick stuck in the ground with orange survey ribbon, as well as a flat rock wrapped with more of the same ribbon was seen. For anybody else that lives near enough to attempt locating this spot, please note the following. Position lies within ANP boundaries, between the eastern shore of Hunters Cove and the westerly side of Park Loop Road ANP rules (https://www.nps.gov/acad/learn/management/sc.htm) apply - so if you're caught, it may cost you! Park Loop Road is closed for the season Hunters Beach Trail lies on the westerly side of Hunter's Brook and is accessed off of Cooksey Drive Nearly 6" of rain over the last few days has swollen Hunter's Brook making it difficult to ford Note to others out looking on the ground for where Pel had hidden Fandango's key, the GPS coordinates shown in Pel's Solution.pdf, a screen grab from Pel's phone, is well upland and southeasterly by about 50 ft of where my waypoint was recorded with a 16-sattelite fixed position, L1 only, after about five minutes of observation. My logged geographic waypoint from Wednesday's visit (TimeStamp=2020-12-02T19:38:24.000Z) for the point between the two boulders was: Point location: -68.2172850000 44.2991330000 (Lat/Lon: 44° 17' 56.8788" N, 68° 13' 02.2260" W), while noting that the referenced datum is Google Maps (sphere radius 6378137), on par with WGS84. I've many more photos, but don't see how on this forum facilitates sharing them.
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stones
New Member
Arm Chair Treasure Hunter
Posts: 44
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Post by stones on Dec 5, 2020 21:18:02 GMT -5
There's a video on the fandango Facebook page of a couple finding the location. Someone had beat them to it and had taken the souvenir rock and in its placed they put a tiny Tupperware with some pieces of shells and a note that said Curse you Pel! With love from The Parting Glass So from what you're saying, someone has even taken that. So much for a marker for all hunters to be able to find and curse about 😁 www.dropbox.com/s/q6z7gjve27jwqow/Hunters-Beach-Overview.jpgInteresting reveal. This is my first post here on the Mysterious Writings forum. I didn't know of its existence until today, but wish I had known of it sooner. I never would have guessed that you literally would have to tear the book apart in order to solve this puzzle. But even if we had solved for the geographic coordinate, it was only expressed to the nearest whole second in both latitude and longitude, which at this latitude means that the search area would be a circle of about 125 ft. in diameter covering an area of about 0.28 acres centered about the puzzle's position (Lat/Lon: 44° 17' 57" N, 68° 13' 02" W). How do you interpret Pel's remark: "Per a reader’s suggestion, I have placed a ‘visible’ painted ‘souvenir’ stone with key near the spot."? Given that this Solution.pdf document was apparently created by Pel on Tuesday December 1, 2020, I understood this to mean that the painted souvenir stone might still be visible post-reveal, and thus set out to find it on Wednesday. While I managed to navigate to the exact spot, all I found was disturbed soil. Major recent rain events have washed away some signs of ground disturbance, but you could still discern where the ground had been recently disturbed between these two boulders. Further digging in the area as described by Pel resulted in only loosening more soil. No souvenir was found, but a short stick stuck in the ground with orange survey ribbon, as well as a flat rock wrapped with more of the same ribbon was seen. For anybody else that lives near enough to attempt locating this spot, please note the following. Position lies within ANP boundaries, between the eastern shore of Hunters Cove and the westerly side of Park Loop Road ANP rules (https://www.nps.gov/acad/learn/management/sc.htm) apply - so if you're caught, it may cost you! Park Loop Road is closed for the season Hunters Beach Trail lies on the westerly side of Hunter's Brook and is accessed off of Cooksey Drive Nearly 6" of rain over the last few days has swollen Hunter's Brook making it difficult to ford Note to others out looking on the ground for where Pel had hidden Fandango's key, the GPS coordinates shown in Pel's Solution.pdf, a screen grab from Pel's phone, is well upland and southeasterly by about 50 ft of where my waypoint was recorded with a 16-sattelite fixed position, L1 only, after about five minutes of observation. My logged geographic waypoint from Wednesday's visit (TimeStamp=2020-12-02T19:38:24.000Z) for the point between the two boulders was: Point location: -68.2172850000 44.2991330000 (Lat/Lon: 44° 17' 56.8788" N, 68° 13' 02.2260" W), while noting that the referenced datum is Google Maps (sphere radius 6378137), on par with WGS84. I've many more photos, but don't see how on this forum facilitates sharing them.
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Post by kbellis on Dec 6, 2020 11:00:21 GMT -5
stones - I don't do Facebook; however, I did try doing a search "fandango Facebook". From those search results and then going to Facebook, only saw hype for movie tickets. Next, searching with "fandango key to the wind Facebook" and then specifically for anything within the past week: still, no dice.
Could you please post the URL to the referenced video on the fandango Facebook page of the couple finding the location? I'd love to see if they were in the same spot, and also exactly when they were there.
You mentioned that someone had beat them to it, had taken the souvenir rock, and in its place they had put a tiny Tupperware container with pieces of shells and a note. That's pretty interesting, as I failed to see it, or any physical artifact left from a human, other than the orange surveyors ribbon. That was on Wednesday December 2, 2020, less than 24 hours after the timestamp on Pel's reveal in Solution.pdf; i.e., 12/1/2020 1:41:49 PM
These rules are pretty clear. Back in January 2010 when I was first starting out trying to find the elusive golden key, I contacted park headquarters under freedom of information laws, formally requesting any and all information associated with this hunt. They indicated they had no such knowledge and impressed upon me both the physical and legal jeopardy of a treasure hunt inside of park boundaries.
I'm still baffled how anybody could be expected to find a concealed key in a wooded area minimally covering 0.28 of an acre without benefit of a meaningful verbal clue. I say minimally covering 0.28 of an acre because a geographic position expressed to the nearest second of arc in and of itself doesn't account for the inherent positional error of consumer grade receivers. Such errors, particularly in high multipath areas under canopy like dense spruce and fir, frequently can be off up to 10 meters. A more realistic search area would be closer to a 100 ft. radius (rather than 63 ft.) from a geographic position expressed to the nearest second of arc. Add onto this from the official rules followthefox.com/official_rules.php, "To discover the key, the reader must obey all laws.", and "The reader does need to be present on Mount Desert Island to recover the Golden Key.", so you would have needed to covertly search a goodly bit of the grounds of ANP east of Hunters Brook in order to recover the key.
The most interesting aspect of this entire hunt has been the imparted false meanings onto imagery chock-full of intentional misdirection, by those countless participants, myself included, filtered by personal experience through our own imaginings. I think we were all expecting a riddle, rather than only a single phrase: "NUMBERS OPEN HIDDEN TREASURE RIDDLE" and a vague geographic coordinate as its answer.
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Post by kbellis on Dec 6, 2020 12:06:52 GMT -5
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Post by ronemund on Dec 6, 2020 12:57:54 GMT -5
I'm still baffled how anybody could be expected to find a concealed key in a wooded area minimally covering 0.28 of an acre without benefit of a meaningful verbal clue.
The verbal clue was TWO TOGETHER FOREVER HELD
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stones
New Member
Arm Chair Treasure Hunter
Posts: 44
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Post by stones on Dec 6, 2020 14:28:25 GMT -5
photos.app.goo.gl/Hvgjn4B3piNMvHma6I hope that pic comes out. Heres the Facebook link, the page is private for some reason, so you have to join. www.facebook.com/groups/2158921464427929/?ref=shareYes I mentioned that from what you said the Tupperware was gone as well, so that leaves nothing for hunters to find in the future. That really stinks.
stones - I don't do Facebook; however, I did try doing a search "fandango Facebook". From those search results and then going to Facebook, only saw hype for movie tickets. Next, searching with "fandango key to the wind Facebook" and then specifically for anything within the past week: still, no dice.
Could you please post the URL to the referenced video on the fandango Facebook page of the couple finding the location? I'd love to see if they were in the same spot, and also exactly when they were there.
You mentioned that someone had beat them to it, had taken the souvenir rock, and in its place they had put a tiny Tupperware container with pieces of shells and a note. That's pretty interesting, as I failed to see it, or any physical artifact left from a human, other than the orange surveyors ribbon. That was on Wednesday December 2, 2020, less than 24 hours after the timestamp on Pel's reveal in Solution.pdf; i.e., 12/1/2020 1:41:49 PM
These rules are pretty clear. Back in January 2010 when I was first starting out trying to find the elusive golden key, I contacted park headquarters under freedom of information laws, formally requesting any and all information associated with this hunt. They indicated they had no such knowledge and impressed upon me both the physical and legal jeopardy of a treasure hunt inside of park boundaries.
I'm still baffled how anybody could be expected to find a concealed key in a wooded area minimally covering 0.28 of an acre without benefit of a meaningful verbal clue. I say minimally covering 0.28 of an acre because a geographic position expressed to the nearest second of arc in and of itself doesn't account for the inherent positional error of consumer grade receivers. Such errors, particularly in high multipath areas under canopy like dense spruce and fir, frequently can be off up to 10 meters. A more realistic search area would be closer to a 100 ft. radius (rather than 63 ft.) from a geographic position expressed to the nearest second of arc. Add onto this from the official rules followthefox.com/official_rules.php, "To discover the key, the reader must obey all laws.", and "The reader does need to be present on Mount Desert Island to recover the Golden Key.", so you would have needed to covertly search a goodly bit of the grounds of ANP east of Hunters Brook in order to recover the key.
The most interesting aspect of this entire hunt has been the imparted false meanings onto imagery chock-full of intentional misdirection, by those countless participants, myself included, filtered by personal experience through our own imaginings. I think we were all expecting a riddle, rather than only a single phrase: "NUMBERS OPEN HIDDEN TREASURE RIDDLE" and a vague geographic coordinate as its answer.
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Post by susb8383 on Dec 6, 2020 18:11:07 GMT -5
Refresh my memory....I thought this one WAS NOT supposed to be buried. Maybe I am remembering that incorrectly...Does anyone know for sure? In the letterboxing world at least, 'buried' is considered to be under dirt that you need a shovel or trowel to dig to. But hidden under a pile of leaves isn't considered buried.
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Post by susb8383 on Dec 6, 2020 18:17:14 GMT -5
Sorry if this was mentioned above already (there are a LOT of posts) but the book specifically said that the answer to the puzzle was "both visual and verbal." So how could the text not be involved at all if it was supposed to be "verbal?"
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Post by susb8383 on Dec 6, 2020 18:23:13 GMT -5
How is one supposed to ever think that 1927614 is not going to be relevant? I wouldn't say that was totally irrelevant. It's one of the coordinates for the unlabeled POI spot on the map (can't remember exactly if it was long or lat). So in hindsight, I think this was hinting that we're looking for GPS coordinates.
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Post by susb8383 on Dec 7, 2020 7:47:56 GMT -5
Sorry if this was mentioned above already (there are a LOT of posts) but the book specifically said that the answer to the puzzle was "both visual and verbal." So how could the text not be involved at all if it was supposed to be "verbal?" Also in the Rick’s Treasure World interview, he specifically said “You have to look at everything in the text.” And he said you don’t need to break any laws but it’s against the law to hide anything in Acadia.
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