Cluebonic Plague

The best-kept secret in San Francisco? The Chinese New Year Treasure Hunt.

Every year, a guy named Jayson Wechter organizes a treasure hunt to take place the night of the Chinese New Year parade. It is completely unsponsored, all the proceeds go to charity, and it is the best bang-for-your-buck around.

Teams spend 4.5 hours running around the city solving clues and searching for "the 4 numbers next to the word 'Sydney'" or something similar, on some random plaque somewhere in the city. While this is happening, the parade begins. Lights, fireworks, costumes, crowds, it's mayhem!

My old housemates, G and Mike invited me to join them again this year for the hunt. It's the year of the rat, and all of the team names strive for a punny, cluey name. We were the Cluebonic Plague. Last year (year of the pig) we were Boar is Not the Answer. The winning name last year was I Never Sausage a Team. Oh man, I love it.

We didn't win, and we had no hope to. There are three categories, and the "Beginner" level is so hard, I can't even fathom the others. Last year we got about two-thirds of the clues, but this year we only missed 2 (out of 17). We were quite proud of ourselves, and we can't wait for next year.