cloaked treasure 2026

Cloaked Treasure 2026!

Another year of hunts is in progress for Cloaked Treasure! In 2025, approximately $30,000 was hidden throughout Michigan for searchers to claim! This year numerous smaller hunts (both BOTG and Armchair) and then a main hunt valued at around $5000 in treasure is on the schedule! Sure to be a blast…

Quick Overview:

  • Series of smaller hunts release May thru August
  • MAIN HUNT release 8/1/26 – BOTG Michigan – Treasure $5000

(Join discussions on the MW Discord or Facebook group page) Treasures are out there to find!

Let’s learn more!

Six Questions with Greg:

  • 1Q) Congrats on launching another year of puzzle hunts! Please share how many hunts you have planned for Cloaked Treasure 2026 – and how searchers can get involved!

We are trying a number of different things for 2026.  Our main hunt, with $5000 in prizes, will kick off Aug 1st.  It centers around a single storyline, but there are four BOTG locations that need to be discovered to find the fifth and final location where the main prize awaits.  In a sense, we have five different hunts all rolled into one.

In addition to that, we have five hunts we are running as a lead in to get people excited.  These are free to play and have small $200 prizes associated with them.  The 1st and 5th are armchair hunts (so anyone from anywhere can play).  The 2nd and 4th are true BOTG in Michigan.  The 3rd one, which will release May 29th, has a small armchair prize to go along with the BOTG solve.   We really just want to get the word out.

Finally, we have a few ideas cooked up for sponsored or event hunts.  The first of these, The Quest for Providence, is finalized and will occur in Kent County, MI starting June 5th.  This is sponsored by Bill and Paul’s Sporthaus, which is an iconic outdoor gear and ski shop that has been around since the 1960’s.  We are really looking forward to kicking that off, and we have a few other ideas and dates that aren’t quite ready to share yet.

To play any and all of these, you can check out our website for more information and to register.  www.CloakedTreasure.com

  • 2Q) What lessons from last year’s puzzle hunts most influenced how you designed this year’s hunts? Do you think these hunts will feel noticeably different to returning players?

I think the big difference for 2026 is that we are better defining our hunts.  In 2025’s ten stage adventure, each stage was a mystery that could take you to almost anywhere in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan and started whenever the prior stage completed.  While that made for some epic adventures for some of our Seekers, it also made some of the hunts inaccessible for those without time off or the ability to travel as soon as a hint was dropped.

For 2026, our free and event hunts are more geographically defined.  For example, our 2nd free hunt starts May 15th and the location is limited to within 3 counties near Detroit.  Similarly, The Quest for Providence starts June 5th and will occur entirely in Kent County.  This may lead to some overlap of our hunts, but it will give our Seekers a better idea of which hunts they can/want to participate in.

  • 3Q) With having both Armchair and BOTG puzzle hunts involved in 2026 – which do you find easiest or enjoy creating most?  Is there much difference between how you approach them?

I personally prefer BOTG.  I got into this because of my love for backpacking and the intersection of that hobby with Forrest Fenn’s treasure.  There is something special about putting in the time and effort solving a puzzle, committing to the travel, and then laying actual eyes on the treasure that I think gets missed when creating/solving armchair hunts.  Let’s face it, Indiana Jones wasn’t in his study swapping a bag of sand for a golden monkey head now was he???  You can also craft a BOTG hunt to be part puzzle, and part search, which allows more possibilities.  Finally, I feel like adding an element of BOTG is something that A/I struggles with, which makes it a more rewarding experience for the solver.

All that said, it makes for a fun design challenge to create an A/I proof armchair puzzle.  I enjoy that aspect of the armchair design which is part of the reason we sprinkled a few of those in this year.   

  • 4Q) For the BOTG hunts, how do you decide how much BOTG is required vs. armchair solving? While you have to physically retrieve the treasure in the BOTG hunts – can all the clues be solved from home for the location (before you go)?

We think the answer to that is all in the Seeker’s confidence and bias.  We certainly don’t design hunts expecting someone to bushwack through 5 acres to find something hidden in the grass.  In our view, the right designs are specific enough to point to a location IF all the clues are lined up, but ambiguous enough that several clues could have more than one meaning or location.

For example, in last year’s final hunt, our clues pointed to a cemetery near a specific river and railroad tracks.  There were several cemeteries that fit the bill along the 200-mile-long river we selected.  We added some other clues to help narrow it down, but if you missed those and just felt like hitting the road, you had enough information to test a hunch early on.  We think that is a lot of the fun.

  • 5Q) From your past hunt, please share a few of your most surprising moments during the hunt? What made them stand out to you as creators?

The biggest surprise for me was how invested I became in the Seeker’s success.  I got such a kick out of hearing from one of our earlier stage winners about how they had their son and father-in-law involved and were looking over their shoulders in the Detroit Public Library while they scanned the pages of a book with a black light.  We also had a few stages where we had multiple Seekers in the same place at the same time, which became a little game of cloak and dagger.  And of course hearing in almost real time from our Grand Prize winner as his hands were shaking trying to put in the final mailbox combination was really joyous.

I think as creators, the goal for us is to make something that becomes a vivid memory for both the Seekers and us.

  • 6Q) What are you most excited about this year?! With just a week or so in  – and lots more fun ahead – how is it going? How can we all help make this the best event yet?!

I really like our final hunt design this year.  Using a single storyline makes it a bit more like a movie and should tie things together for the Seekers, so we are eager to see how that is received when it rolls out in August.

The free hunts are also really interesting for us.  We hope to maximize participants in those early hunts just to grow the discussion and to get people hooked on exploring. We had a lot of registrations in the first few days, including some from far away as the UK and Saskatchewan, so that was really exciting to see and we want to build on that.

As far as our goals for this year, it is really all about community engagement.  When there is chatter on our Discord server or new registrations going on, we know we have created something that is worth people’s time and energy.

So all we can ask from your community is to play the game, have some fun, share your stories, and share the experience with your friends and family.

Thank you again to Mysterious Writings for having us and for all you do to support the community