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The hunt has been over for nearly two weeks now. Rob scored his third Winter Carnival Medalllion find just after the 12th clue came out.

I was destined to be a weekender this year. With schedule changes at work I just couldn't get the time off. So, settling for nightly meetups in the bar and Friday night, Saturday and Sunday afternoon digging was the plan.

As they always do, however, plans changed.

December. Its that time of year when we all start thinking about the holidays:

• Hanukkah
• Festivus
• Christmas
• New Year's
• Medallion Hunt
• Winter Carnival
• Super Bowl

You get the idea. For me that means trying to spend some time doing stuff for this web site, always frantically hoping I can get something new added before the hunt and the Carnival, knowing full well that if I don't, it'll be there waiting for me next December (although I am going to commit to getting the Able Minds archive into this site before the hunt). It always does, and I don't mind. But as I get myself into that particular mindset, I find myself poring over the site statistics. This year, I've come across several interesting landmarks and milestones that we've hit this year.

As February begins, and the 2017 Winter Carnival and Treasure Hunt are behind us, I think it an appropriate time to reflect on the past hunt, the fact that the Cooler Crew has been around for 20 years now (in person versus just online), and what's in store for the future.

The 2017 Hunt

Wow. Just wow. After back to back years outside of the city, there was a lot of speculation that the medallion would have to be back in St. Paul this year. The masses on the Pioneer Press boards were visibly agitated after Snail Lake was followed up by Bald Eagle/Otter Lake, which came on the heels of Tony Schmidt only 3 years earlier, since it is after all the St. Paul Winter Carnival, not the Ramsey County Winter Carnival. If 2015-2016 were unprecendented, 2017 was one for the books. Ma Press hid the puck in Keller Park, leaving the city for three consecutive years, and when including Tony Schmidt, leaving it four out of the last six years. As of this moment, a full half of the hunts in the 2010's have been outside of the city.

When you think about it though, it is rather necessary. With thousands of people searching the clues would have to be spectacularly (and disappointingly) vague in order to have a longer hunt in a smaller park, since we all know far too much about the parks in St. Paul. We'd have nine clues of obscure references around the park, one clue of street names, one clue saying this is the park, and finally the x marks the spot. That's not the makings of a fun hunt. At the same time, we know way too much about the "prime" hunt parks (Highland, Como, Hidden Falls, Crosby, Cherokee, Phalen, Indian Mounds, and Battle Creek) to have an effective hunt in one of them either. And if one of them were used, hunters would be complaining about how Como is overused. Yes, Highland is overdue, but so are Phalen, Crosby, and Beaver Lake for that matter.

It isn't often that I break character as the webmaster of this site, and my stolen persona of Joe Medallion and write as myself, but since there's a wide variety of opinions on the subject, and I'm not presuming to speak for the Cooler Crew, for this I am breaking character.

Ode to Hunt

The hunt is over and I guess, 
I’ll clean my house, for it’s a mess. 
Through sleet and snow and low wind chill, 
We’re like mailmen but mentally ill. 

It ended Monday, blessed is he, 
To find a puck that looks like pee. 
I must admit the kid has class, 
Has anyone seen my frozen ass? 

At Como Park the hunt was bold, 
The polar bears said, “Damn its cold!” 
Hid was treasure for us to find, 
Some looked up a frog’s behind.