First treasure hunt, so lots of rookie mistakes made. Nothing I regret, nor anything that caused any dangerous situations. But without a doubt came to understand the power of anagrams with respect to completing a solution that had everything to do with me, and nothing to do with the location of the treasure. Should the recent cipher "solve" push you towards a poem solve based on anagrams, then just tread carefully. I do realize for most of you experts, my "advice" here is just common knowledge, so please shove any snarky comments immediately where hope doesn't surge.
Within 10 days of watching G&G, and a week before my book arrived, I had a search area of ~16 sq. miles that was determined from 3 lines that joined 3 location pairs in a triangle at the center.
Now the interesting thing here is that I was able to form phrases that indicated to connect these locations, by using anagrams of the letters from stanza 1. Stanza 1 being kind of like the introduction or the "invite" portion of the poem which could lead you to an area. The remainder describing particular features in more detail within that area perhaps. For example, I could create a phrase that indicated one should join the two capitals whose names could NOT be created from the letters contained within the poem lines. My notes are buried, so this is a paraphrase. Boom, Phoenix to Olympia is the answer. I called this my "pin" solve, since it was based on pins on a map.
Additionally, I was able to formulate phrases akin to driving directions that landed me to an area within that triangle. A portion of the Oregon outback near the Nevada state line that I had never been to. Access was via a very long (and smooth/nicely maintained) gravel road called Whitehorse Ranch Road. Imagine my thrill when the book arrived and the first chapter featured a photo with a white horse as the most prominent character. This area has fascinating geology, rich history in the forming of the American West, flowing streams, amenable weather (rain shadow with mild winters), a wide variety of abundant wildlife, and good roads when compared to a lot of remote areas that I have been to. Trout Creek Mountains. As far as the "rules" or statements from JP at the time, nothing short of "Oregon is eliminated" would tell me NOT to go there.
So now I had 2 different "methods" to arrive at the one location. So that felt confirmed. But they were both using anagrams as the particular tool of deciphering. I made a youtube video to document my folly, which in hindsight is very cringeworthy to watch. But I was high on the initial thrill of the chase and willing to believe anything my mind could create to confirm my bias. If you do watch it, then use 2X speed. https://youtu.be/b1uNGF51AGU?si=tR9Nh3nNuAkDUNdJ Very embarassing, but shows how anagrams can be used as a tool to convince yourself that whatever connection you had already made may have been the original intent of the hider. Like a ouija board, the words originate from you but it feels like they are coming from elsewhere.
I found all the physical things there that one feels like they are supposed to find from reading the poem. I could detail them out if anyone is interested. Continued to use anagrams from the corresponding poem lines to "confirm" those physical things as the answers. I did hunt it out pretty thoroughly and abandoned it by June. Glad he did rule Oregon out to solidify the ridiculousness of using anagrams from the poem letters as a way to "confirm" my biases.
And sorry to anyone (VariationNo1381) for the whole London Bridge/Granite Bold BS, although you also found answers there too, sans treasure. I'm not saying anagrams are out of play, just that it's very difficult to create anagram words/phrases from a letter pool such that the answer surprises you rather than spelling out something you already surmised.
