the impossible poem

[agnesdei]

I've searched Ben's special spot twice now but haven't found the Fenn flies. However, my ground game sucks! Is there anyone who wants to partner up who enjoys, and is good at, metal detecting?

Ben included a picture in his most recent scrapbook post which he wrote from his secret spot, expounding on that spot. (https://theimpossiblepoemscrapbooks.com/2023/06/22/a-river-runs-through-it/)

Here's an uncropped picture I took from the same spot:



My thinking was the poem leads to a shallow mine pit located directly below those trees. Pit is a reversed acrostic of the title, so fits "from the poem derived". The mine opening is the approximate dimensions he says the poem leads to, 12x12. The poem starts at "Thee Pitts", satisfying his double omega.

However...

1. You have to cross a creek which is still running extremely fast. Currently, it's pushing four times as much water as when he was there in 2020 and 2022. Usually, it's an easy walk across. Now, it requires experience in swift water crossings. With his regard for safety, I don't believe he would put searcher's lives at risk by hiding it across the creek.

2. Because of my experience, I did cross and search, but came up empty.

It doesn't seem many on MW are searching for this. Apparently, searchers are all on a Discord. Can someone post this link on there?

[agnesdei]

By the way, I have seen a number of searchers comment on videos that they think the Fenn flies are in the nook where Ben looked for the Forrest Fenn treasure on the Uncompahgre River. Below is a picture of that nook when he was there in 2020. He buried a few items there. 





Ben's poem doesn't lead you there. But, since I was in the area I wanted to see if the Fenn book, turquoise and other items were still there. I planned to add a couple items of my own. Below is a picture I took of Ben's Fenn nook (sans driftwood) in 2022. The items he buried were gone. That's not surprising as the nook would be completely submerged in fast-running water during the spring runoff.

[agnesdei]

In response to a couple of questions...

• The location is in the Silverton/Ouray area.
• I don't think the remaining flies should be split up. Since I'm neither a part of the Fenn community nor collector of things, if I found them solo, I planned to return them to the community. I did that with another hunt which included Fenn items. However, if someone teams up with me who the flies are important to, they can have them all. 

[agnesdei]

I didn't receive interest from anyone who wanted to search Ben's Secret Spot for the Fenn Flies. Since I'm not going to search the spot again, here is its location: 37.815853503200344, -107.73273896393951. This is where he camped in 2020 while searching his Fenn spot, and again a few weeks ago when he took the picture of the trees found in his most recent scrapbook post. 

Whether the flies are here and I missed them, or there's some twist in the poem that I didn't discover, is up for someone else to determine.

I imagine most searchers are somewhere along 585 but I have no idea if any found the proper peaks to put in between. Here they are:



This is the shallow mine pit located under the trees in Ben's picture, and within 100' of his campsite (pictured when the creek can safely be crossed):



Here it is with a raging creek from a couple weeks ago:



Would someone be so kind as to put a link to this post in the Discord where all of the impossible poem searchers convene. 

[agnesdei]

I solved the Impossible Poem and found the Fenn flies at the coordinates given earlier in this thread.



I was able to figure out most of the poem in a couple days but it took until the end of the first summer to find the campsite where they were hidden. I searched the campsite multiple times without success before finally figuring out the twist.

I left behind a couple small items (one Fenn related) just below the surface (detectable) to mark the former location of the chest.



This was a really fun hunt. It had a coherent logic with the twist giving it much of its difficulty. Its only failure was the impermanent blaze. Three of the four small rocks forming the tee box were easily moved (one was gone). The stick tee marking the exact spot was no longer in the ground or at the exact spot, and was just a piece of the original. Its remainder, as well as the buried golf ball, were no longer there.

While I was a Forrest Fenn searcher, I'm not part of its community nor a collector of things. Because of that, I told Ben early on that if I found the flies my plan was to return them to the community. I think they should stay together. Hopefully, I can ensure they do.

I was familiar with the Silverton/Ouray area due to the Forrest Fenn hunt but rediscovered it much more deeply thanks to Ben. I planned non-search hikes during each of my search visits and found some of the most beautiful places on earth. If any of you are hikers and have the opportunity, hikes like Ice Lake and Island Lake, Stairway of Heaven, Velocity Basin, Columbine Lake, Bear Creek, Blue Lakes, and 14ers Sneffels and Handies are not to be missed. Just stunning!!!

Thank you Ben!

[agnesdei]

Some of the spectacular sights found on the aforementioned hikes...

[Jenny]

CONGRATULATIONS! What spectacular views and location ..... and treasure! Way to go!

[makami]

Congratulations!! What a beautiful area also!

[lavender]

Congratulations! Why wait until now to announce it?

[bavetta]

Nice! I hadn't seen your thread and went to look if the chest was still around yesterday. I think I found one of the items you deposited - a jar with the Fenn chest clasp - thanks for that. I was wondering if it was a token Ben left to identify the finder but it makes more sense that someone else left it.

Did you find it this year or last year?

[packerjack]

Congratulations! Thank you for sharing your photos as well.

[agnesdei]

Jun 5, 2024 6:53:56 GMT -5 lavender said:

Congratulations! Why wait until now to announce it?

I had no proof. I'm waiting to see if Ben wants to tell the story behind why. 

[agnesdei]

Jun 5, 2024 7:30:35 GMT -5 bavetta said:

Nice! I hadn't seen your thread and went to look if the chest was still around yesterday. I think I found one of the items you deposited - a jar with the Fenn chest clasp - thanks for that. I was wondering if it was a token Ben left to identify the finder but it makes more sense that someone else left it.

Did you find it this year or last year?

Awesome you found it! There was another item with it. By the way, that may not have been the exact spot, as a large area was dug up, but it was within a couple feet. Did you find the items in the treemail hole?

Found last year, retrieved last week. 

[bavetta]

I didn't find another item, so presumably it's still there. I was already on my way when I saw your post describing it.

Yes, the jar wasn't *that* far away, my intention was to say it was far enough that someone may have missed it if they dug a medium-sized hole when looking for something. It's hard to find buried stuff!! I didn't use a metal detector which might have caught your thing because Ben said using one wouldn't help.

Did you end up using a metal detector? How did you find it without digging the whole place up? Especially if the stick wasn't in the right spot, and you only had 3 rocks. It doesn't seem like you could find it without a lot of digging - and that place looked pretty clean when MamaQ went looking for it 10 days later.

Thanks, Ryan

[agnesdei]

Jun 6, 2024 21:49:42 GMT -5 bavetta said:

I didn't find another item, so presumably it's still there. I was already on my way when I saw your post describing it.

Yes, the jar wasn't *that* far away, my intention was to say it was far enough that someone may have missed it if they dug a medium-sized hole when looking for something. It's hard to find buried stuff!! I didn't use a metal detector which might have caught your thing because Ben said using one wouldn't help.

Did you end up using a metal detector? How did you find it without digging the whole place up? Especially if the stick wasn't in the right spot, and you only had 3 rocks. It doesn't seem like you could find it without a lot of digging - and that place looked pretty clean when MamaQ went looking for it 10 days later.

Thanks, Ryan

Probe. You can see the marks in the lid. I worked from the stick toward the estimated center of the tee "box", which had I recreated with addition of the final corner. The stick was a few feet off exact.