It is the season for finding treasures! Beth H. (aka GeneticBlend) took up one of the challenges on the new website, The Cache Game by Joel Hunt, and solved clues to a hidden treasure! With the help of some other clever sleuths, who lived closer to the area (Cory and Kirsten), they all enjoyed the incredible feeling of bringing home the prize for one of The Cache Game hunts!

Let’s learn more about these exciting hunts! Will you be the next one to find a treasure in The Cache Game?! You could be….. Play today!

Six Questions with Beth H. (aka GeneticBlend):

  • 1Q) What Treasure were you searching for, and Found (via some helpers)! Congrats!

Thank you! I had heard about the new treasure hunts called, The Cache Game, that are in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. I am in Pennsylvania. Even though I am not in one of those three states, I thought I would take a look at the these hunts. Ohio is my neighboring state, and it couldn’t hurt to look at the hunts. You can always learn something. The hunt that I tried was titled, Cache-ious Play.

  • 2Q) What inspired you to search for that treasure?

I am inspired by almost every treasure hunt! But as soon as I read the hints for Cache-ious Play, I knew the location! The cache was in Cherokee Park, Louisville, Kentucky. If anyone is familiar with “The Tribute Hunt“, you too would have recognized the clues to Cherokee Park.

Can you share a bit about The Cache Game hunts?

Sure. The Cache Game was created by Joel Hunt. As I said above, his hunts are only in three states, Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. You are shown a photograph of where the treasure is, but usually there is something that might be obstructing things in the photo that would give the location away completely. You are also given a map with a circled area. The treasure is somewhere in that circle.

You are also given what Joel calls a “Quat”, or quatrain. A quatrain is a stanza of four lines. So it is a poem that contains clues or riddles to the location of a proxy item. The proxy item is a coin in a small container with a code that you are to report when you find it. All of the locations are in public parks. The Cache Game has both free hunts, and hunts that you have to pay for. Once you turn in the code, you are awarded cash. If you solve a free hunt, the prize is $50 to $100, I believe. And the paid hunts are $150-200. To purchase a paid hunt, it cost $5.99, or you can buy an “all access” plan and pay $9.99 per month. If you do this, you get 2 – 4 hunts a month. The Cache Game’s website explains everything.

  • 3Q) How did you go about solving the clues to discover an exact location to search?

As directed, you match the clues in the quat to the photo that is provided. The clues for Cache-ious Play described some sights you would see in Cherokee Park. For example, the quat stated that the place was, “guarded by a Daniel Statue”. That would be the statue of Daniel Boone at the entrance to the park. The poem mentioned the people of the First Nations. It mentioned that you would be walking or riding in a “hoop”, which was the Loop Road. It also described “the Lily flower tucked in at the feet”.

I took this to mean the the the Lily under the feet of the Pan statue. The photo that was provided showed a tiny bit of a structure. It was the Hogan’s Fountain Pavilion. And the clue said that you would be able to see this from the treasure’s vantage point. The Pan statue is just across the road from Hogan’s Fountain Pavilion. I thought for sure I had the correct location. This was a pay hunt, and the prize was $150. However, it would take me 6 hours to drive there, one way. So I tried to find someone in or near Louisville who would be willing to go boots on the ground for me.

A friend of a friend’s daughter was supposed to contact me, but never did. In the meantime, I had posted on “The Tribute Hunt” facebook page asking if there was someone who would go BOTG for me in Louisville. A total stranger named Cory answered. At first I had to put him off because I was still waiting to hear back from this friend of a friend’s daughter. But after a few days went by, and she still never replied, I decided to give Cory a try. He went looking right away with his wife, Kirsten, and to my surprise, he could not find anything under Pan’s foot!

But I gave him the clues, and he and his wife figured it out, and the proxy item was at the foot of a tree. I was glad that I had a fellow treasure hunter do the searching! I reported the find and we were paid by Joel of The Cache Game almost immediately. We split the prize money. Cory took photos and made a video while he was there, and it is posted on The Cache Game’s “Hall of Game”

  • 4Q) What did you enjoy most about the treasure hunt?

I was glad to give Cory a chance to go look for the treasure. My final location was incorrect, and Cory and Kirsten were able to determine from the clues, and being there in person, where the cache was hidden. They were very excited, and I was happy that I could share this experience with two total strangers!

  • 5Q) What did you enjoy least about the hunt?

I wish that these hunts were not just limited to Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. It would be fun to see these hunts spread to other states. But Joel is just one guy, doing this on his own, so I understand that he is limited in what he can do.

  • 6Q) Do you have any advice for someone getting involved in the Cache Game, or is there something more you would like to say?

The Cache Game is a great introductory way to get involved in treasure hunts. So if you are new to treasure hunts, I recommend taking a look at these. And even if you have been doing treasure hunts for years, it is still a lot of fun, and you can always learn something. If you don’t see a free hunt that appeals to you, try one of the paid hunts. They cost only $5.99. And even if you don’t solve it, you do get a lot of entertainment and education out of it. And if you are not in Ohio, Kentucky or Illinois, you can do what I did, find someone else and pay them a finder’s fee.

Good luck everyone!

And thanks to Joel Hunt of The Cache Game, Cory and his wife Kirsten, and to you Jenny for all you do for the treasure hunting community!