Treasure Hunt 2011

Yes! It is almost that time. The Saint Paul winter carnival and the annual medallion hunt. I am not much of an outdoor person in the winter except when it comes to the medallion hunt. About 6 years ago when I was still working downtown and had been following the daily clues in the newspaper just for fun, I had the itch
 to actually get out and look for it, so after work late that night,I decided to go to the park I thought it may be in and climb a tree (that's where I thought for sure it was lol). Well that was the beginning of my addiction to the yearly hunt. For the first few years I went alone and a few years ago my mother started joining in then her friend Lou started coming as well. I deemed this "My hunting season" to my husband. He stays home and watches the children and does pretty much everything during the 12 days ( take a few if its found before clue 12) that I live in medallion world and neglect everything and everyone!

Those 12 days consist of, staying up every night waiting for the next clue to come out at midnight online via Twin Cities.com. or going and waiting down at the pioneer press for the paper which comes out before that (this is especially important after the first few clues because the minute a new clue comes out you are sure you know where it is and must get to it before someone else does God forbid.Then researching your butt off to figure out what the heck they are talking about, calling every smart person you know and picking their brain for ideas. Then you pull out maps of all the parks in the city and look at the Ariel views via google maps trying to find something that fits the clues. If you really are stuck there are online discussion boards that can either hurt you or help you and sometimes you end up on those for hours at a time.

Once a day at least (mostly at midnight)you go racing out the door dressed like you are going to Antarctica with shovels and flashlights and the adrenaline that YOU are going to be the one to find it and get the prize of 10,000 dollars and the fame of finding a needle in a haystack that thousands of others are looking for, only to come home empty handed, frozen and exhausted hours later. Sounds terrible but it is such a good time!

 I got my button the other day and sent off the registration card today. (Got to have that to get the full prize and not get a beatdown by the die hards if you were to find it and not have a registered button)

 To learn more about The medallion hunt and the winter carnival you can check out these sites: http://www.coolercrew.com/ or http://www.winter-carnival.com/

Here are some pictures from previous years hunts

Something cool we stumbled upon while searching at battle creek

Some guy taking a break from digging at Swede Hollow

Swede Hollow 2009 hunt, was awesome!

We called this the hill of death, it was pure ice, even the stairs. It was hilarious to watch people come down it, slide down it rather