Our local cross-country ski recreational program coordinated a treasure hunt for kids on the final day of the season last year and it was a blast. Groups of kids took a simple handmade map and went to various marked sites where they found bags filled with candy. Each child in the group that found a bag got to take a piece of candy and then moved on to find the next bag.
This game is at the very heart of a slew of new games being played all over the world. Whether it’s orienteering, Valley Quest, geocaching or letterboxing, both alpine and nordic areas can tap into these activities, in both winter and summer, and create another fun way to pass the time at a resort.
Here’s a look at each of the games:
Orienteering
Orienteering involves map reading, using a compass and decision making. People can walk, run, ski, paddle or mountain bike to a series of checkpoints set up around the woods. They use a map that shows the checkpoints and a compass to determine their direction. The orienteers choose routes that may be on or off the trail to find all the points and get back to the finish the fastest in the shortest amount of time. This can be set up as a competition between individuals or groups.
The orienteering checkpoints are each marked with an orange and white flag and have a control punch, which will provide distinct proof that a competitor or visitor (each of whom has a card to be punched) has been there. For more information or to find the closest club, look at www.us.orienteering.org.
Letterboxing
Dating back some 150 years, letterboxing was conceived in Dartmoor, England, as a mixture of orienteering, mystery solving, treasure hunting and outdoor adventure. It combines navigational skills and rubber-stamp artistry, where hunters try to find a waterproof box, which is hidden somewhere on the property.
The hider writes directions to the box, which may be straightforward, cryptic (a puzzle that needs to be deciphered) or some combination of the two. Map coordinates and compass bearings from landmarks are typical directions. The letterbox contains at least a logbook and a carved rubber stamp (and perhaps other goodies).
The hunters carry the map and clues, a pencil, a rubber stamp and personal logbook. When they find the letterbox, they sign into the logbook with their personal stamp and then stamp their own personal logbook with the box’s stamp. Hunters are also encouraged to write in the letterbox’s logbook information about the date they found it, difficulties encountered and so on, creating a record of all visitors. Likewise, each hunter keeps a record in their personal logbook of all the letterboxes they’ve found. There are probably over a thousand letterboxes in North America. To find out more, log on to www.letterboxing.org.
Valley Quest
Valley Quest is a series of 89 treasure hunts stretching across 31 towns in the Connecticut River Valley of Vermont and New Hampshire. David Sobel, an Antioch graduate school faculty member who discovered the tradition of letterboxing while on sabbatical in England, created this program. The quests incorporate hand-drawn maps and riddle-like clues, which are created by school and community groups. They lead to hidden places such as an old mill, waterfalls, old cellar holes, forgotten cemeteries and scenic mountaintops.
The Valley Quests are adventures that share and teach the natural and cultural history of the region and offer a great way to spend the day with family or friends. For more information about Valley Quest, contact the Vital Communities organization in Vermont at [email protected] or call (802) 291-9100.
Geocaching
Geocaching is an adventure game using a scavenger-hunt concept. Using the World Wide Web and global positioning systems (GPS), participants track caches in all sorts of locations.
Individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations (latitude and longitude coordinates) on the Internet. This all began in May of 2000 when the GPS degradation system known as Select Availability (SA), a scrambler put in place for national security purposes during the Cold War, was discontinued. The elimination of SA enabled civilian GPS units, which use more than 20 satellites, to be accurate to within six feet instead of the two-mile accuracy when SA was active.
The caches are left in small weatherproof containers and their locations are posted on the geocaching Website. Once found, a cache may provide the hunter with a wide variety of rewards (sometimes it’s valuable, other times it’s junk). If the visitor takes something from the cache, they are requested to leave something in return.
As one might imagine, the days of unfettered geocaching are numbered. Government employees have eliminated caches found on public lands such as state and national parks. Then there are environmental impact issues about reckless placements that require new trails and treading in sensitive areas (i.e., wildlife nesting or breeding sites). Or, some caches are placed on private land, violating landowner privacy laws. Some of these issues have been addressed with the Cache-In/Trash Out concept, which asks geocachers to bring a trash bag with them on their excursions for removing litter found along the way.
But geocaching offers exploration, exercise and wholesome family fun, and you can do it at your own pace. For more information, check out www.geocaching.com.
Whatever the game, ski area operators can very easily provide their guests with added entertainment. Taking it one step further, it might also add to the bottom line if resorts charge for the different activities. Happy hunting!
