Back in the fall of 2008 I asked Doug Brandt if he would be interested in searching for the Purplehunt treasure with me.  Prior to me asking he had already heard about the hunt from some other “Geocaching” friends. He knew it was going to be a very difficult puzzle and wanted to wait until more clues were published.  After reading about the hide we found that there were only five hides prior to this one.  We put everything on the back burner until the fall of 2009.  One night Doug was on the original http://www.purplehunt.com site and he noticed that there was an additional link to a new blog site  http://purplehunt.wordpress.com. It had additional clues that we did not have. 

 We printed them out and the work began. We were way behind in the competition and we would have to work to get back in the forefront of this hunt. This was a puzzle that was of great magnitude with many riddles and problems to solve.  We had many hours of deciphering and brainstorming under our belts. The problem we had was that many of the clues had multitudes of answers, you never knew which one was right.

 Take for instance…clue #33: “State of mind, or a popular dance – one helps, one does not”.  Lots of dances, Bunny Hop, Chicken Dance, Cha Cha, Irish Jig, Jitterbug, Tango I could go on and on.  Ok, so now take the other side of the question; “state of mind,” there is twisted, outlook, positive, negative or how about “out of our mind”.  This treasure hunt has got to be way over my head. George and I were sure Valley of the Nile was Riverside Park. 

 Doug and Robin felt it was Egypt Valley Country Club.  We still don’t know the answer to that question, although we are now pretty sure it was Egypt Valley. December 1, 2009 we are now on our fifth trip to DNR Park. We went under the overpass and knew that was the Jewish holiday you were referring too. 

 We were driving at dark, traveling NW on West River Dr. There was a long wide curve in the road, you hardly notice it. Another car pulls up next to us, to pass. It is a four lane road (this gives us four headlights) we were not going very fast because we were the area over for clues. Up ahead of us on the left hand side of the road I see a road sign. It is as if it were illuminated. The four headlights made it look as if there were a spot light on it. BUTH DR. I will never forget it.  My brain clicked in the “on” position.   I look over at Doug and said “I just saw Buth Dr.” He says “so”. I say “that is the answer to clue #26”. He says “what do you mean.” I say ”Abe wouldn’t approve of this site, it is because that is who assassinated him, Booth.” 

 We knew then that the treasure was in this location. We were on our way to DNR Park and we still had two additional areas that needed to be checked.  We had to do this if we were to cross this location off of our list.  After 20 minutes we left DNR Park knowing the treasure was not at this vicinity, we were thorough and knew without a doubt, it was not there. Off we go back to the area near Buth Dr.  We park the car on Rouge River Dr and begin to walk the bike trail. We went west towards 5/3 Ball Park.  We knew it would be near the Grand River.

 We checked the entire bridge, for a steel bridge there is a lot of wood there. We checked all the sign posts, guard rails and telephone poles.  Looking around we saw all the answers - to a lot of the clues. We knew we were HOT. It had to be here, we just knew it. No luck here, we must move on. Next decision was to drive & walk the White Pine Trail from Whitecaps stadium to the bridge. Wonder how far that would be?  We should check the bike path, are there mile markers?  We go back to the van and drive near Whitecaps Stadium.

 Pulled onto Abrigador Tr. we park the car. I walk up the path, Humm… there are 6 x 6 posts with a 4” number routered in it, it was the # 1. We wondered could the entire trail be marked in this way?  We live near the bike trail in Grandville and I don’t remember any markings like this on our end of town.  Where does this trail begin? It can’t be one mile from 5/3^rd park to this post, could it? 

 Everything seemed a little distorted because it was dark out.  Wonder where the number 6 is? If there is a 6 what does it represent? Then I remembered the last clue that was posted, # 47. The monkey thought ‘twas all in fun” for .6 of a mile. Maybe we are looking for a post with the number six on it. We knew it was lyrics for “Pop Goes the Weasel” All Around the cobbler’s bench…  Shoe maker.  Wolverine… the # 6 was stuck in my mind.  I continue down the path.

 A car starts up (he needs a muffler). He backs out of his driveway and is driving very slowly, they are looking my way. I had to look suspicious with my flashlight in hand, standing still, waiting for them to continue.  They continue, but then duck into the gas station on the corner. Yep, they are waiting to see if we are burglars.  After a couple of minutes they come back to their residence and park their car. I am not sure if they got out of their car or not, I was on a mission and I was not waiting to find out if they were calling the cops. 

 I go to the next road West River Center Dr. Doug, he was to drive his vehicle up to this road (the next road) and pick me up so we could strategize our next move. When I arrive Doug is not there so I continued up the trail a way.  This time a white pickup drives by very slowly looking my way.  I am getting a little nervous.  Where is Doug?  The truck continues slowly around the curved road into a commercial business area. He is out of site, behind some buildings. Whew… I feel better already.  Now I continue up a little bit and find another 6 x 6 post with the number 2 routered in it. 

 I wait for Doug to pull up and move to the truck with rapid steps. I am glad to see him and I jump in the Van.  I am feeling nervous checking for this thing in the dark.  Cars are making me nervous. Geesh I have to quit watching CSI. I have mixed feelings about searching for this thing in the dark. I tell Doug about my findings, we are not sure what to do next. We both decide that it is in this area and we need to stay and find it.  We decide to go up by the bridge again and turn around. We turned into Champion Tool & Die (We have used this driveway three times tonight to turn around).

It is getting late, nearly 9:30PM. We decide to bush whack in to the bike trail and walk from this area.  There were two yellowish lights on the back of the building. We took note so we knew where to find our vehicle. We got on the trail and we decided that I would travel west and Doug east. He had all the “tools” and we were pretty sure the treasure would be east.  We walk for a long time. I am not sure how far I went but I could no longer see the lights on the buildings and nothing looked familiar.

 I would say I walked about ½ to ¾ of a mile.  I decide that I am sure it is not my direction (would feel better if I had daylight) and I turn around.  I see a flashlight bobbing in the dark.  I am thinking... what the heck; does he think I know Morse Code or something? I pull out my cell phone and call him.  No answer (I find out later that he wasn’t carrying his cell phone). I continue to forge towards the light.  I hear a faint voice in the deepest bowels of the trail. Weeeee fffffooooouuuuunnnnnddddd iiiiittttt.  

 I am thinking, what is he saying?   A little bit later I hear, a little louder Wee fooouuunnnddd iiitt.  I think he said “we found it”. I begin to run towards my friend. We meet on the trail, both a little out of breath and smiles as big as the full moon.  I say “well… where is it” Doug says” it is still there, I wasn’t going to touch it until you joined me – we are doing this together – we are a team”. What a friend! We walk until we see the yellow lights where the van is parked and I ask him if he has the camera.  No, but I will have it in a minute, he runs to get it. He retrieves the camera and we continue east on the trail until we get to the “Rock of Ages.”

 We knew we had just succeeded in one of the greatest treasure hunts that we will ever be involved. We stood there taking in the scenery… It was dark, but with the full moon, if you waited for your eyes to adjust you could see just fine.  We didn’t pull the nail out of it’s hiding place until we reached our families on the phone. We wanted to share it with them too.  We snapped photos prior to the “pull”. We were shaking with joy, unspeakable joy.  Thank you. We had the time of our lives.         

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