More Adventures of the Detective with a Brand new Camera

My dad informed me on Sunday that he was not satisfied with the ending to my "Secret of Locust Lane" picture mystery post. Apparently, some people actually like their mysteries to be solved.

Fortunately for my dad, and any other dissatisfied readers, I think I stumbled across the solution.

Actually, it was really Jin who stumbled across the solution. I had taken him out for a walk as usual, and just south of the mysterious car park Jin started sniffing something at the side of the road. I looked to see what he was sniffing, and this is what I saw:

I've walked past this spot dozens of times, but with all the trees and shrubs (remember that "shrub science research station"?) at the side of the road, I'd never noticed the trail.

Today I tried to get Jin to reenact the moment of discovery. If he had been cooperating, at least one of the following pictures would show Jin sniffing the ground, hound-like, hot on the trail of, um, the trail. But Jin the Unphotogenic Dog was not cooperating. He had, after all, already discovered the trail and by the time we got to photographing it, it was old news.

But way back on the day of the discovery it was not old news. Of course we had to explore. Up the trail we went...

...past the ruins...

...and over the ridge, where we encountered this:

Let me get a little closer, in case you can't tell what that is:

Thanks to the 2009 Jeppsen Family Reunion, I was able to immediately identify this contraption as a Frisbee Golf basket.

YMCA of the Rockies Frisbee Golf Course, circa 2009.

Do you realize what this means? I did. I had inadvertently stumbled across Provo's Underground Frisbee Golf Society. So far this is the only Frisbee Golf basket that I've been able to find, but I imagine there are dozens of them secreted away in the foothills here below the Y. I also imagine that there were dozens of students (in workout clothes) lurking in the "shrubs," waiting for me and my dog to leave so they could resume their stealth disc-tossing.

I imagine they weren't too happy to see us there.

Provo has a long history of secret societies, including the infamous Provo Fight Club and the even more infamous NCMO website, both of which spurred headlines and heated editorials during my undergraduate years, and both of which utilized the unofficial slogan "It's not against the Honor Code!" The PUFGS (or "puffs with a silent g," as I'll call them until I learn the official name) engage in a far less insidious activity, however, and so I'll limit the reach of my exposé to this blog and allow them to continue their covert frisbeeing in peace.

Shrubs.