The Making of a Mock Hunt

by Artemis the Huntress

1st day-7/30/02

As soon as it was decided we would do the hunt, Marley started planning- coming up with clue ideas and bringing home different things to hide the coin in. We made a list of 12 parks that we liked, to check out the next night, and he made the coin.

2nd day-7/31/02

I got called in to work for a few hours, so Marley, Scot, and their dad Ed went to check out the parks. They started at Swede Hollow, which they said looked good, lots of possibilities. Next they went to Mears, Scot said "this is it" and Marley said, "no its way too small". But then a light bulb went off -if he thought that so would other hunters, so he said "yea, this is it". It was just after dark so they decided to only stop at one more park and head home. They stopped at Cass Gilbert Overlook, and ruled it out immediately.

Later that night they told me about where they went, and what they came up with, liking the Mears idea, but not ruling Swede out yet. We decided to go back the next night and see if it was feasible , if there would be enough hiding spots or things to work with for clues.

3rd day-8/01/02

The four of us went back to Mears the next night, armed with camera, notebook, and the coin ready to be hidden in case we found a hiding spot we liked. After walking around the park, taking pics and notes, finding several possible hiding places, we were walking back to the car and I pointed at the clock and asked if it could be hidden in or under it. Marley investigated first and found the hole in one corner. We checked it out and agreed it would be OK there, it was a little hard to get out, but doable. So we left it there, took a few more pics and notes and left. We started tossing around ideas for clues on the way home, and doing research and writing them in earnest that night.

4th day-8/02/02

Marley went to Marthaler that morning to get the pink brush, the Nascar Hat, and the Pooh shoe, but only found the pink brush. We met everyone at Marthaler that evening, and then went to Buggs to celebrate the Medallionator hunt.

5th day-8/03/02

Marley made a second coin to take pictures of and wrapped it up like the first. We went up north, brought all our clue-in resources and worked on the clues. Finished some thoughts/ideas, changed wordings, and messed with the layout of the clues.

6th day-8/04/02

Came home in the early evening and decided we needed to check on the coin, make sure it was still there and hadn't been affected by the rain. The three of us walked around the park, and Marley put the little pink brush up in a pine tree(we had planned on using it in a clue but didn't), then sat on a rock until we got kicked out by the park police. The coin was still there and had been unaffected, so we decided we were OK to leave it there (we were still considering moving it to Swede Hollow).

7th - 10th days- 8/05/02 to 8/08/02

We continued to write new alternate clues, tweak the clues, and work on the order. We'd each take them to work and work on them, then talk about it later. Steve would (with my final approval) change, add, and subtract words, or rearrange phrases, to make them hopefully less obvious or misleading. And we must have changed the order a dozen times, trying out different combinations with alternate clues.

11th day- 8/09/02

We made a last change to the clue order after Me2 said on the board that she hoped the first clue wouldn't be the same ol park in St Paul clue. We took the 2nd part off the 3rd clue and added it to the bottom of the 1st clue, and at 9pm, with hands shaking from adrenaline, I typed in the first clue and hit post.

The rollercoaster ride started,

and what a ride it was! I thought the most challenging parts about writing the clues were the ordering of the clues- trying not to give away too much too early, while still giving out enough to get people out looking, and trying to figure out what people will think and read into the clues-what will get them where. There were many thoughts, twists and turns we didn't anticipate -such as Jake going to COMO on CLUE 10 : )

But I have to say I don't think it would have worked for a hunt as large as the PP, and if it had been just me writing the clues it probably would have been easier and not lasted as long as it did. In our case 2 (or 3) heads was definitely better than 1.