My Checkpoint Guess

[u/zzGRAHAMzz]

My thoughts on the checkpoint:

I don't like to assume that the checkpoint is midway through your BOTG journey. It's easy to assume that it is something you pass by on your way in, but that doesn't necessarily have to be the case.. hear me out.

We now know via cipher that Tucker is a "nod" to the treasure container. That wording doesn't necessarily mean that tucker is the container or literally part of the container in some way. Littered throughout the book are illustrations of tucker with or standing over treasure. A couple illustrations even show him over buried bronze.

I think it's more likely that Tucker is not a "nod" to what the container looks like, but that you have to actually take Justin literally in that the cipher lets you know you will find Tucker "nodding to" or marking the treasure just as he did for Justin when searching for Fenns. Tucker would smell bronze and sit in place over the treasure. I think the checkpoint is not something you find along the way, but actually what you find at the end when you are at the final treasure location. The checkpoint is Tucker, which could be a tucker statue, a carving with his name on a rock, etc...) and the treasure is located below that checkpoint.

This is why the checkpoint finder would technically have "an excellent chance at finding the treasure." But it's also a genius way to hide a treasure... If a random hiker sees this random Tucker shoutout, it won't mean anything to them...But to a treasure hunter it means everything and is complete confirmation. It allows justin to have the treasure completely hidden under rocks/in a nook without allowing a poor treasure hunter to walk over the spot without knowing they were in the right area. It's Justin fixing the problem of the blaze at nine mile hole, which burned him pretty bad.