Complete Ideas
Every pack
can run a
treasure hunt
A loop of trail. Five medallions hidden along it, a riddle for each, and a treasure that stays locked until a family has found all five. Two hours outdoors, and every scout finishes with something in their hand.
You pick the park and write the riddles. Everything else — the map, the codes, the locked treasure page — comes ready to run.
How the day goes
One loop, walked at a seven-year-old's pace. Families set off together and come back together, and the whole thing runs itself once it starts.
- i
Everyone meets at one spot. Families open the trail map on a phone — no app, no account, no sign-up.
- ii
Five stops along the loop. Each one has a riddle, and the riddle tells them roughly where to look.
- iii
A medallion is hidden at each stop. Finding it is the bit they will talk about — under a bench, behind a post, low down where a grown-up would not think to look.
- iv
Every medallion carries a code. They write it down, and walk on to the next riddle.
- v
Five codes make the passcode. Nobody can skip ahead — you need all of them, so the whole loop gets walked.
- vi
The passcode opens the treasure map. One last riddle, and a box at the end of it that the pack opens together.
Scouts work in family groups at their own pace, so it suits a wide age range at once, and a parent who arrives late can still start and catch up.
You enter what you already know.
Dates, a meeting place, five riddles, five medallion codes. Stand where the marker goes and tap the map. That is the whole job — and one publish gives a pack everything it needs for the weekend.
The trail map
Numbered pins, the riddle in each one, and how far you are from it. Works on a phone in the woods.
The treasure map
Locked until the codes are found. Encrypted, so reading the page source gives nothing away.
The rules page
How the hunt works, who to call, what to bring. The link a pack shares first.
The answer sheet
Codes, hiding spots, the passcode and the box combination — worked out for you, so they cannot disagree.
Nothing broken gets published.
A pin with no coordinates sends families into open water. A passcode that does not match the medallions ends the hunt at the last step. Every check runs against the pages that are really live, not the draft — and the ones that matter refuse to let a hunt go out at all.
The passcode and the box combination are never typed. They are worked out from the codes on the medallions, so the rules page cannot tell families to use six codes when the route has five. That happened.
Where it stands
Under construction, honestly. The foundations and the hunt format are built and tested against the real 2026 hunt. Sign-in, the map generator and the locked treasure page are next. Nothing is published here yet — if you are looking for a hunt, its organizer has the link.
And the treasure stays where it belongs —
off the map, behind the riddle.