No Paddle Up Her Creek

Posted on June 26, 2013 by waterhigh

Water high!

Even though it was only six feet deep, this unfortunate canoeist got trapped by the power of the Jefferson River. She was pinned against a bridge in the frigid water for four and a half hours.

http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/woman-rescued-after-being-pinned-against-jefferson-river-bridge-for/article_f7f50241-1f31-5fde-a073-b1b7be87b2c6.html#.UcrYz3CpJVM.gmail

Rivers in Montana generated by National Atlas, a United States government agency and then annotated by poster in March 2007. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Thankfully, she had quick thinking partners and teams of emergency responders who rescued her.

Not that she was a Chaser, but, as others have cautioned, be prepared and respect the power of nature if you’re out there, water high or not.

(Re–(Updated) Clues Blues

Posted on June 19, 2013 by waterhigh

Forrest Fenn’s Treasure Ches

{Now scheduled for Friday, June 28th at 0505 Fenn Time}

For those of you not familiar with the Chase, Forrest Fenn has been giving out one new clue a month on the Today Show. It was scheduled for June 17th but got postponed. Not for the first time. Last month they made him get up at 3 something in the morning two days in a row. “Truck trouble,” they claimed. (Although I suspect the crew was out searching for the treasure on the extra day.) ~~It’s now scheduled for June~~ ~~27th~~ ~~(Not~~ the 28th)according to Stephanie (What’s A Blaze) at Chasechat.

So far the clues have been:

helpful. Like don’t dig up old outhouses (people apparently thought that’s what “putting in below the home of Brown” meant. Not what came to my mind.
common sense. Like, don’t dig up a cemetery. Again, not something that crossed my mind.
vague/general. Like, it’s above 5000 feet. Not a surprise since he said it was in the Rocky Mountains.

Actually, I don’t mind the generality of the extra hints. I don’t want to hear that it’s been found already. I still plan to head West as soon as we get the chance. I say we. I’m waiting on my husband to clear his schedule. He’s mildly amused by my new hobby. Also, I haven’t exactly figured out the poem yet….

Forrest Fenn says all one needs is the poem, which is in the book.

Meanwhile, enjoy the Thrill of the Chase as you search/seek/solve/obsess …..

“If Robert Redford had ever written anything….” Forrest Fenn

Posted on May 30, 2013 by waterhigh

Robert Redford in 2009. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) ( Sorry I missed this event. I love Madison.)

When I returned my armload of TheThrill of the Chase-related library books yesterday, I thought I’d check the history section again. It’s about 4 1/2 feet long, but has had an amazing amount of titles I could use in the chase.

After a minor delay (they’d rearranged their shelves), I found 5 more books to check out that I hadn’t seen before. I suspect someone else in this county is also on the TOTC hunt and had just returned them.

I couldn’t believe my eyes when they landed on a young Robert Redford. Serendipity strikes again. Important Literature. I won’t mention the title, but it was sub-titled A Journey Through Time. Does that not resonate, fellow Fennsters?

The book is full of photos of a trip on horseback that Redford took in the Rocky Mountains (more than 300 miles west of Toledo) and some fascinating anecdotes, historical and otherwise.

English: U.S. Postage: Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1954 Issue-3c. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Currently, I’m thumbing through a book, a 1979 publication by the National Geographic Society, and taking copious notes. And then there’s one on Lewis and Clark.

Another of the books on that same history shelf is on fly fishing. I should probably study that before I head west.

My husband/fiance/boyfriend at the time tried to teach me how to fly fish.

Putting In

One of the problems was that we were in a canoe on a lake in Wisconsin. (A friend dubbed the plastic orange-ish Coleman “a barge with points.” It did have stability in its favor.)

We’ve since bought fly rods. I’ve got waders, needed for another purpose. I picked up an assortment of flies. I watched my Dad fly fish. Am I ready for a chalk stream in the Rockies? I just hope no one will be video-taping.

Serendipity

Posted on May 21, 2013 by waterhigh

The morels and asparagas already gone, I wandered a washed field on Mother’s Day afternoon and found a trove of arrowheads, mostly pieces. Like gold and fish, they are where you find them. I think luck plays a part, but also some logic and imagination. To find Forrest Fenn’s The Thrill of the Chase treasure, it will take all of the above. And research. He says the lucky finder will be able to walk right to it, deliberately.

And so, we seekers continue our research and refine our plans. A simple Venn diagram (see Wikipedia) is a series of overlapping circles yielding useful data. A Fenn diagram is going to look more like a flow chart

Flowchart (Photo credit: BWJones)

branching off each time a clue has more than one solution. There are so many diagrams because no one knows where to begin. Well, we might think we do.

I thought at first it would be a simple fill-in-the-blank game. Decide where the warm waters halt, where to put in, and what the blaze is. Okay. But ‘halt’ has many meanings, likewise ‘warm waters’, even ‘warm’. And then you start to wonder, what does ‘it’ even mean!

A couple weeks ago, I came up with an utterly unique answer for “where warm waters halt”. This week, I even found a butterfly connection.

So, maybe the Chase isn’t keeping me away from the internet, but it has gotten me into the library, especially the history section. Here’s to all your discoveries made along the way. Enjoy.