Early in the hunt, I was going through the Beyond The Map’s Edge book looking for number patterns.
When I find something in one chapter, I try to corroborate the same logic throughout multiple chapters. This tactic helps me filter out nonsense. As a software engineer, I have had my fair share of problem solving, and patterns become a pleasant distraction in what can be chaos.
When you find a pattern, you cannot always be sure it means something, but you can usually be sure it is worth slowing down for.
This particular find came from the chapter “Mom’s House.”
The chapter tells the story of Justin’s childhood at his mother’s house. His parents had separated, which left him with two Christmases, two birthdays, and the kind of split childhood many people can probably relate to in some way unfortunately. During that time, he also gained a brother. The chapter covers other details about life at his mom’s house, but the topics that stuck out to me were the treasure hunts and hide-and-seek.
Naturally, I started looking closer.
At the time, I was looking at homophones and decided to focus on numbers to keep things simple. Going through the “Mom’s House” chapter, I started underlining every homophone I could find that represented a number.
By the end of the chapter, I had underlined twelve numbers.
“4 2 2 2 3 3 1 0 1 1 1 1”
It is important to note that I was only using homophones. When trying to find a pattern, consistent logic is key. If you start bending the rules every time something does not fit, you can make almost anything look intentional.
These numbers sat silently in my handwriting at the top of the page above the title for weeks.
During this time, the cipher was still unknown, so numbers played a big role in many of my cipher attempts. In “Mom’s House” there was a couple items that stuck out to me when I was reading.
Justin mentioned twelve clues on parchment paper when he is talking about the treasure hunts while at his mothers house. Justin also hammers home the fact that he would hide in plain sight during hide-and-seek sessions.
I had written in my notes “twelve clues, twelve numbers?”.
Interesting, but not enough to call it anything.
One evening, while I was burning some midnight oil for work, I stopped to take a break. I grabbed the BTME book to refresh my memory and go through the notes I had written in the margins. I like to do this when I am not looking to dig deep but want some form of stimulation.
In the margins was my list of twelve numbers. The sequence was interesting, but it still had no meaning to me. Other notes were scribbled around the edges, some of which only made sense in the exact moment they were written.
“42 = Interesting…”
“Double numbers…”
“Binary…?”
While reading the numbers and notes I had written weeks earlier, I thought about something Justin had mentioned in Dillon, Montana. He talked about how, if you can add two numbers, you can solve the cipher. There was more to the statement than that, but this is what I remembered at the time.
So I started with the most basic thing possible.
I added the numbers together.
4 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 3 + 1 + 0 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 21
Nothing stuck out, so I wrote the solution in the margin and kept staring at the page.
I remember looking at the string of numbers and randomly adding them together, almost like a brain game. Then my mind caught the faint scent of something.
If I took the first two numbers as a whole number, then added the third number to it, it revealed a familiar number.
Looking at it again, I realized the story itself was talking about two brothers plus another. Curious, but not yet sold on the idea, I tried the same logic on the next set of numbers.
42 + 2 = 44
23 + 3 = 26
“No way,” I said out loud.
I opened my notebook and flipped through my notes for the show. Once I found the right page, I started scanning through everything I had written about the lock combination. Skipping past the theories, I found the small section written sideways on the right side of the paper where I had written down the combination.
“44 26 11”
I looked back at the handwritten string of numbers in the book and did the next bit of mental math.
The next set produced 11.
The last set produced 12.
When I am alone, I pace and talk out loud. I started pacing on the porch to the point where my neighbors would have had every reasonable excuse to call the police and have me admitted.
“This is not a coincidence. It can’t be. There is no way this would work. I don’t understand. It has to be something. Why would he put this in the book when it is clearly in the show?”
I mumbled all of this to myself like a completely normal person who had definitely not spent too much time staring at numbers in the margins of a treasure hunt book.
As a software engineer who enjoys the challenge of breaking ciphers, I had checked one of the main boxes of reverse engineering: finding a repeatable pattern that produces a predictable outcome. That is often the name of the game when dealing with cryptographic or puzzle based logic. In basic discrete mathematics and computer science, repeatable patterns matter because they allow you to test whether an idea is structured or just noise.
The thing with Justin’s hunt is that I believe many things may be layered in ways that are not immediately apparent. If that is true, then AI and traditional scanning techniques may not easily find them. You would first need to ask the right question in order to find the proper starting point.
In cryptology and puzzle design, noise can be introduced to confuse anyone trying to determine where to begin. If you can cut through that noise by asking the right questions, you have a better chance of finding a useful attack vector.
Now, I want to be very clear.
I am not an expert in cryptology by any means. However, knowing the basics can get you pretty far. I like to say that I know just enough to break things.
With all of that said, I have absolutely no idea if this means anything.
- It could be intentional.
- It could be a clue.
- It could be a pattern hiding in plain sight.
Or it could simply be a strange collision of numbers, logic, and late night obsession. Statistically speaking, even the saying “when pigs fly” has some finite point in spacetime where the absurd becomes possible.
Whether this is one of those moments, I have no idea.
But I wrote it in the margins anyway.
If you are intrigued, you can keep reading, but reader beware.
If you made it this far, you already have everything I found regarding this string of numbers. If you continue, I may only be injecting more noise into the idea. I may also just sound absolutely insane.
You have been warned.
***
At some point in the hunt, it was unofficially mentioned that the lock combination was filmed but was not really meant to make the show (Justin did not really want it in the show). There is no proof either way, so take this bit of information as gossip.
But if it is true, why?
Justin has suggested that the book was secondary to the show. The idea, as I understood it, was that the show would provide the clues, while the book would follow up and make sure all desired clues were included. Also the book would help hunters to learn more about the creator.
Again, if that is true, then cleanly linking something from the book to the show gives you something more interesting than a random idea. It gives you a form of confirmation, or at least something worth investigating a little further.
I believe this pattern may be something, but I am not sure what it is.
I do, however, have a few notes I want to share. They may mean something. They may mean absolutely nothing. If this helps you find something, then congratulations. If it sends you spiraling into a rabbit hole, remember this:
Reality is often the less desired path, but it is your way out.
Notes:
Justin mentions there were twelve clues on blue parchment paper. The homophones in Mom’s House provides twelve numbers.
Justin hid in plain sight. The numbers are there.
The story is about two brothers, plus one, and what it was like growing up at his mom’s house with divorced parents.
The final fourth number could be a missing combination number. The safe model from the show appears to allow four-number combinations.
If it completes the combination and is used as a grid reference, it marks a spot near the border of Idaho and Wyoming.
Many people debate the exact combination numbers, but the reality is that mechanical combination locks have tolerances. They can often still open if the dial is close enough to the correct number rather than perfectly exact. +.9 to be exact.
There were other numbers associated with the combination in other scenes. I do not discredit them, but they do not fall into this particular pattern and appear in a separate scene all together.
This all comes from a single chapter.
Logic could be used in other places throughout the book but context would most likely be different.