Note: In celebration of the 30th anniversary of the theatrical release of The Goonies, I will be sharing my own true "Goonies" story throughout the month of June. Thanks for reading, and remember: "Goonies never say die!"
I got an early start, riding
north on Highway 101, its winding blacktop carved into the side of Neahkahnie
Mountain. After turning off into Oswald West State Park, I descended down to
the beach at Smuggler’s Cove where about two dozen surfers were riding waves
that climbed no higher than three feet. I walked around the rocky shore
searching the ground for chunks of beeswax, but found nothing. As I sat on the
trunk of a fallen tree and watched as the waves crashed in, a beautiful woman
walked by with a baseball-sized rock in her hand. “Did you find a good one?” I
asked.
“I like it,” she said as she held it out for me to see.
“It’s got all these speckles of blue in it.”
“Neat,” I replied. “Do you come down here often?”
“As much as I can.”
“Do you ever find any chunks of beeswax?”
“No,” she giggled with a puzzled expression on her face.
“A few hundred years ago a ship crashed around here,
spilling a load of beeswax,” I explained.
“Well, I’ve never seen any.”
“There’s supposed to be a treasure buried around here
too,” I added.
She smiled as she started to walk away, “Look around,”
she said, “this is the treasure.”
And maybe she was right. Maybe the beauty wrapped in the
waves that crashed against the beach of that secluded cove was richer than any
chest full of gold. But then again, that doesn’t mean a man can’t dream.
Staring back up at the mountain I thought about the clue, “Travel one mile east
of the beach at Neahkahnie to an enormous fir tree…” All I could see were
enormous fir trees. They were everywhere, their trunks climbing high into the
air, their branches stretching in all directions, darkening the forest below.
And then I thought back to a picture that was on display at the Tillamook
History Museum. It was black and white, and featured the whole mountain, but
there were no trees; the ground was almost entirely clear cut. In the long
scheme of things the photograph is a rather modern invention and so if the
treasure was buried over 300 years ago, then that means none of the trees were
even here at the time. So not only is the “enormous fir tree” from the clue
most definitely history, but there’s a good chance that the treasure is now
buried under a few thousand pounds of still growing hardwood.
Leaving the cove, I spotted a rock lying in the middle of
the trail. It was size of a baseball, and had speckles of blue littered
throughout. The woman had left it behind, perhaps for me to notice, telling me
to let it be, that the treasure is better left unfound. I decided to hike to
the top of the mountain, to get a better perspective on things. The higher I
climbed, the more I realized how absurd it was to ever believe that a pirate’s
treasure could possibly be discovered buried in this land. Hundreds of acres of
dirt and trees, houses and roads, and the riches could be anywhere. Sure, there
were the clues, the stories, and the carvings in the rocks. But any of those
things could be deciphered a thousand different ways. It would be like finding
a needle in a haystack, but at least in that situation there is actually a
needle to be found.
By the time I reached the summit any idea of finding the
Neahkahnie treasure had just about evaporated from my mind. The sure vastness
of the mountain alone is enough to derail even the biggest dreamers. And then
there is always the million dollar question: why would anybody bury a load of
riches? Seriously, think about it. There are plenty of things to do with a treasure
rather than burying it; like spending it, for instance. And let’s say that the
treasure was indeed buried somewhere on Neahkahnie Mountain, who’s to say that
it wasn’t already found, it’s discoverer keeping the secret to himself, as not
to have to share the loot with anybody else. So as I sat in the sunshine, on a
rock at the very peak of the mountain, I gave up on the Neahkahnie treasure and
stared out across the Pacific Coast, watching as miles of blue water rolled
into its sandy beaches.
I traveled back down to Nehalem to have lunch, and just
as I was about to enter a local tavern a voice came from behind, “Did you find
the beeswax you were looking for?”
I turned around to see the beautiful woman from the cove.
“No,” I said, “but I saw that you left your rock laying in the trail.”
“It was too pretty to take,” she said with a smile. “I
decided to leave it for somebody else to find.”
I don’t exactly know why, but for some reason, that was
the answer I was looking for. In just a few words she had summed up my treasure
hunting experience. “Leave it for somebody else to find.” Yes, that’s what I
would do.
To be continued...
No comments:
Post a Comment