SALT LAKE CITY — Put on your thinking caps and lace up your hiking boots: A $25,000 scavenger hunt is underway once again in Utah.
Real estate investors David Cline and John Maxim on Saturday unveiled the first clue in their fifth annual treasure hunt. But this time, even deciphering the clues requires extra effort for most participants.
Cline and Maxim have been hiding treasure chests with thousands of dollars inside since 2020. And since 2021, they’ve done two each year: a “poem hunt” and a “QR hunt.”
LOOK: $25,000 Utah Scavenger Hunt Prize Found by Out-of-State Visitor
The two men provide clues on their Instagram pages, as well as by email to those who subscribe to the “Utah Treasure Hunt” website.
The first clue was a poem written in Spanish.
David Cline and John Maxim
The poem says:
If you suffer pain that is cured with gold
Find the shortcut where the choir sings
Find the place it is named after
Turn around and follow the shadow.
Where do you learn to smell ice cream?
Or did we eat lobsters in the past?
When you look at the sunrise again
Go straight, you can do it
Look at the numbers like you’re a crow
The age when he arrived is what he observes
Now you’re close, one last clue
Move to the place with the best view
The following is the translation using Google Translate:
If you suffer pain that is cured with gold
Find the shortcut where the choir sings.
Find the place named after him.
Turn around and follow the shadow.
Where do you learn to smell ice cream?
Or did we eat lobsters in the past?
When you look at the sunrise again
Go straight, you can do it.
Look at the numbers like you’re a crow
The age when he arrived is what I observe.
Now you’re close, one last clue.
Move to the place with the best view
Some Instagram commenters have said that “Sigue Derecho” means “Stay Right,” but others pointed out that the Spanish word for “right” (the direction) is “derecha,” not “derecho.”
Organizers said entrants must follow them both on Instagram (@the.cline.fam and @onthejohn) to be eligible. They will share additional tracks there, as well as via email every Friday.
Maxim and Cline also urged participants to stay safe and keep Utah’s beauty unscathed. They said it won’t take “rock climbing, mountain goat riding, bush walking or digging” to find the treasure, and that it’s not on private property, so they’re warning everyone not to trespass “anywhere.”
“The shortest hunt lasted 4 days, the longest hunt lasted two months… how long will it take you to find this one?” they wrote in their Instagram post.
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