2024 Poem Treasure Hunt

On the 10th line "el llegó" should have been "él llegó" we missed the accent. All other capitalizations, punctuation and grammar are intentional. Take a special look at the only first letter of a line that isn't capitalized.

We didn't measure it exactly but the chest is hidden approximately 30-50 feet off the trail.

The chest is hidden east of i15

The poem refers to lobsters not locusts. Also, the lobster line has nothing to do with any restaurant or business.

Maybe one day we will do an urban treasure hunt but it's not this hunt. The chest is hidden somewhere along one of the many beautiful trails in the mountains.

We can't reveal who "he" is just yet. When we wrote the poem, we added one extra layer of complexity. We were referring to the year of his age. For example, the day after your 18th birthday would be the first day of your 19th year. So take his age and add 1.

At an average pace, the treasure chest is between a 0-90 minute hike from where you leave the car. There is no need to venture too far.

The only pop culture reference in the poem is to The Goonies.

Captain Sparrow, Long John Silver and Indiana Jones all needed ways to measure distance. In order to know exactly where to step off the trail, you will need to measure distance too. And although you could pace it off, we recommend something more modern. Google Maps has one built into the app (It's the one we used when we hid it) Remember line 9 in the poem about the crow. The photo below is just an example of what it looks like.

If you didn't catch us on the Cache Me Outside Podcast, here is a quick summary of some of the hints we discussed. If you want to listen to the episode, click here.

The word sombra in the poem is referring to the shadow of something on Google Maps Satellite view. We've had some questions about this. We used the most recent satellite view and whether you are on the mobile app, or desktop, or using multiple browsers, the shadow should be the same. Also, you just need a general direction from the shadow, not an exact heading.

You are still in the car at this point in the poem.

The font we use in the poem has nothing to do with the solve. The font we always use didn't have Spanish accents so we had to substitute with another font. But that has nothing to do with the solve.

There have been a lot of questions regarding measuring the distance you need on the trail in meters. The reason we used the metric system is because once you measure more than 500 feet, it switches to .1 mile and you need a more exact unit of measurement than tenth miles. So the distance you need is more than 500 feet and less than 1000 meters.

This week, we thought it would be fun to switch it up a little bit and release a clue in a more theatrical manner. There may be a clue or two. Watch the video here.

The lobster and ice cream lines do not refer to any kind of shape in the trail. In fact, this may be the first poem we have written where no lines refer to any shape of the trail.

The only throw away line in the poem is "lo puede hacer." This was used only for the rhyme and has no special importance.

The first four lines get you into the correct county and gives you a general idea where to look for the right trail.

The next two lines identifies the correct trail.

Start your measurement here.

Final instructions to locate the chest.

The distance you need to measure on the trail can be found in a book. A book that Escalante and Domínguez probably had with them.

American colonists called British soldiers "lobsterbacks" during the American Revolution because of their bright red military uniforms.

What year did the Domínguez–Escalante Expedition happen?