Aye matey,
are ye brave enough to seek out The Treasure of Skeleton
Swamp?
Well, It's not here on the island. But I'll give you a little
navigational tip. If you subtract .065 minutes from your north
coordinate and .020 minutes from your west coordinate, you will
find yourself in a good position to find the treasure. Ahh here,
you will need this too, the treasure map. Don't tell anyone I gave
it to you, or all the booty hunters will be out here looking for
the treasure.
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I must give you a little warning. You will have to always be
aware for pirates in the area. Yes, there are still pirates around
here (sometimes referred to as muggles). Some might be seen walking
their sea dogs, others riding their buccaneer bikes along Dead
Man's Trail. There are a few bands of pirates that might have their
hideouts father down the trail along Crocodile Creek. They are
young and bold and fast, much like high school kids. At any time
there could be a pirate lurking behind any given tree.
As the legend goes, several years ago there was a treasure
buried near Skeleton Swamp in the base of a tree. You are now in
posession of the long lost treasure map that can lead you
there.
But you will have to make a couple of adjustments. The big dead
fallen tree has since been cut into several pieces, but you will
know it when you see it. You can begin pacing your distance south
from the base of the tree right by the trail. Don't forget your
compass.
The tree that once held the treasure was not real large and it
was somewhat bent. It has recently snapped and fallen. You will
know which tree it is because you can still see the small oval
shaped hole near the base of the tree.
Of course the treasure is no longer there. It is believed that
the notorious and legendary pirate Whitebeard found it lying there,
added some of his own treasure to it, and rehid it somewhere
nearby.
You will notice several depressions in the ground around the
area. (watch where you're walking, don't fall in) This is where
pirates have come and dug in search of the treasure. Little did
they know that Whitebeard did not bury the treasure, but instead
hid it in a tree, at about waist level in fact, to keep it from
being washed away during the monsoon season. The good thing about
using the treasure map is that it gets you to the treasure by the
best approach, albeit a bit longer of a walk. Whitebeard and all
the other pirates know this land well, and they know of the
legendary dangers of Skeleton Swamp. What lurks there beneath the
mud and muck strikes fear into the hearts of even the most fearless
of pirates. Be warned, ye don't want to go there!
Be it
known, every bit of this story is true...or my name is not
Whitebeard the Pirate!
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You can read the footnotes below if you want, but don't believe
any of it. It's all a fabrication, a cover-up to hide what really
happened.
A little over two years ago I began geocaching. I started close
to home, doing the GeoGolf series along Salt Creek hidden by the
Lone Ranger. I was hooked on the hobby as soon as I started.
The last "hole" I did before the final was
"GeoGolf: The 6th Hole" . I saved it for last partly because
the terrain was rather wet for most of that late March, but also
because this neck of the woods had always been my favorite place to
go whenever I needed a quick and quiet escape from
"civilization".
I wanted to make the cache especially fun for my grandchildren,
who accompanied me for a good part of the series. So I made a
scaled "treasure map" of the area. They put on pirate bandanas and
each took a copy of the map. My wife and son also came along for
the adventure. Needless to say, it was great fun.
(see log from Friday, March 30, 2007)
Just last March I had planned on hiding a "pirate treasure"
cache somewhere along the Costa Maya in Mexico. It was all ready to
go, along with a new "Pirates
of the Caribbean" travelbug. I wasn't able to hide the cache,
though I did start the TB in a geocache on Cozumel Island. But I
digress.
The GeoGolf series has recently been archived, so I'm bringing
back "# 6" in a letterboxish style, with the same map we used in
2007. Print it out and bring the kids, or relive your own
childhood. Remember the days when you could go out your back door
and your imagination could take you hundreds of years and thousands
of miles away?