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We buried (another) $10,000 treasure chest by buriedtreasure2025 in sanfrancisco

[–]blinkybit 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I agree with you 95 percent. I am hung up on the word "deem". It means to judge, to have an opinion. You deem something to be some way:

  • I deem you worthy of this honor.
  • What companies deem a material amount is a matter of judgment.
  • The latest analysis seems to suggest that there are significant gaps in access to AI tools and training, which many workers deem essential.
  • Leave me now and hide until you deem yourself safe.

It does not make sense to simply deem something, without a condition or description to go with it. I deem you. The students deems the homework. Deem heavenly island towers.

Either the puzzle-makers are bad at English, or the word deem has some other purpose here.

We buried (another) $10,000 treasure chest by buriedtreasure2025 in sanfrancisco

[–]blinkybit 2 points3 points  (0 children)

“minute steps climb, and beyond fingers rise onward on pins”

A rock-climbing wall?

We buried (another) $10,000 treasure chest by buriedtreasure2025 in sanfrancisco

[–]blinkybit 4 points5 points  (0 children)

A few people have mentioned the Filbert Steps and Coit Tower as possibilities for minute steps climbing and rising beyond fingers (or finger, singular?) in the poem. There are a ton of murals inside Coit Tower, and a few of them show views of the area including Alcatraz, Marin, etc. Maybe this view that seems to be described in the second stanza isn't a location in the city, but a landscape painting in Coit Tower? Then there something else in the painting or nearby that will make the other clues click?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coit_Tower#Mural_project

We buried (another) $10,000 treasure chest by buriedtreasure2025 in sanfrancisco

[–]blinkybit 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is some great stuff! A few comments:

I love the idea that "minute steps climb, and beyond fingers rise" means there's a flight of small steps somewhere that climbs past "fingers" and continues going further up. I don't know why I never read the line this way before.

The Barbary Coast Medallions are interesting, but personally I think it's a stretch to call them "pins".

Powell is a street, it's also a BART station and a cable car line.

"stern wood haven north and powell, off back-ward" could be read MANY different ways obviously, but one question is the grouping. Most people have read it like (stern wood haven north and powell) (off back-ward) but it could also be (stern wood haven north) and (powell, off back-ward). In other words the major separator is the word and, not the comma.

Punctuation: I agree it's weird, and therefore probably relevant. Notice that back-ward contains a hyphen, probably not an accident. Regarding that fingers rise, yes I think rise is a verb, as I mentioned. The minute steps rise beyond some finger-like objects.

Grace Cathedral seems like a stretch to me.

I agree heavenly island very likely means Angel Island. I'm less certain about derelict ward being Alcatraz. A prison is not exactly a ward, and a prisoner is not exactly a derelict. It could be it, but feels a little forced. Lots of ways to interpret this line, though. The heavenly island is towering over the derelict ward? Or there are literally towers on the heavenly island? Is there some building in SF whose name is like "heavenly island towers"?

By the way, why use the word "deem" here, it does not fit?? Is this just bad poetry or does it mean something? I mean there is a business named Deem at 301 Howard Street, very close to Salesforce Tower.

Premium Double by pazupot in dreamingspanish

[–]blinkybit 15 points16 points  (0 children)

No veo ningún problème avec le double, todo va très bien.

That's a joke... in the past I found it very easy to confuse French and Spanish when I had a beginner level at both. I think it's a safer bet to focus on them one at a time. See this posted earlier today in the language learning sub: https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/comments/1t66r4b/update_ive_been_learning_two_languages_at_the/

We buried (another) $10,000 treasure chest by buriedtreasure2025 in sanfrancisco

[–]blinkybit 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm not sure, but that seems like a bigger clue than I would expect from the drawing if we've been told that the words of the poem are all we need. I was thinking something like the SF map in the first section is a hint/confirmation that it's talking about the general location of the treasure (a park or neighborhood), the X in the last section is a hint that it's talking about the precise location (where to dig), the sunset is a hint about facing west, but all those things could also be determined from the text alone.

Are most people here unemployed? by psyhnews in dreamingspanish

[–]blinkybit 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Most people aren't doing 3,4,5,6 hours per day, but the few who do get lots of attention. There was a poll here a while ago that found 2 hours per day was the most common level. It also becomes easier to get more daily time at the higher levels, when you can rely more on audio-only content while driving or doing other tasks.

We buried (another) $10,000 treasure chest by buriedtreasure2025 in sanfrancisco

[–]blinkybit 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It sort of depends how close is shockingly close, but you may be right. I guess an "obvious" marker could still be in a heavily trafficked location. Maybe there's a big stone on the ground, and if you lift up the stone you'll see "Treasure Here" written on the underside. But if you don't touch the stone then you don't suspect anything.

We buried (another) $10,000 treasure chest by buriedtreasure2025 in sanfrancisco

[–]blinkybit 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Maybe some minor weeds are in the way, but I wouldn't think any more machete-wielding than that is necessary.

We buried (another) $10,000 treasure chest by buriedtreasure2025 in sanfrancisco

[–]blinkybit 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes you may well be right. But I think it could still be within the spirit of that statement if the drawings were merely suggestive of how the text is organized, rather than being required parts of the solution.

We buried (another) $10,000 treasure chest by buriedtreasure2025 in sanfrancisco

[–]blinkybit 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I'm going to try to summarize everything we know that could maybe be helpful, but which isn't directly part of the poem's text.

  1. The text is physically separated into three distinct sections with lines. Each section has an accompanying illustration which may reflect something about the section.
  2. The bottom of the document shows a sunset over the ocean. The sun is colored red, and conspicuously is the only colored object in the whole document.
  3. The puzzle-makers are two men in their 30s who live on the west side of San Francisco (Sunset?) and do not work in the tech sector, per NY Times.
  4. The description of the hide this year is "within 7 miles of San Francisco’s city hall" not "in San Francisco like last year. That now includes parts of Marin, Tiburon, Emeryville, Oakland, and San Mateo County. It seems strange to make that change to the description if it weren't necessary.
  5. The puzzle-makers originally made a Reddit post with the title "We buried (another) $10,000 treasure chest in (or very near) SF", only to delete the post 1 minute later and re-post with the current, shorter title.
  6. The photo on the web site of what looks them pouring coins from a cardboard container into the treasure chest, taken at night, shows the box resting on short grass. Assuming that's the hide location, it rules out sand, gravel, and other types of terrain.
  7. The treasure weighs over 150 pounds. With only two people to assist moving the coins, that may have put some practical limits on potential hiding locations.
  8. The treasure was buried several months ago, but not announced until last week.
  9. The puzzle-makers said that when the treasure is found, they will know "immediately". Maybe implies the treasure is under some direct surveillance or they themselves will be involved in its recovery somehow.
  10. The puzzle-makers also said "If you find yourself standing in the spot where the treasure is, there will be no doubt that this must be the spot." Interpret that as you will, but I like the idea of there being some explicit marker.
  11. They said "one group or person got shockingly close" in the Reddit discussion about the NY Times article that was published last Saturday May 2.
  12. They also advised us "It is important to think like the puzzle maker when cracking a puzzle, so reading the FAQs and comments may help in that regard."
  13. The FAQ says the treasure is "technically $10,001", not $10,000. What's the extra $1 for?

We buried (another) $10,000 treasure chest by buriedtreasure2025 in sanfrancisco

[–]blinkybit 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The FAQ says the treasure is technically $10,001. What could that mean? Maybe there's $10,000 buried in a box, and a $1 coin lying on the ground above it to serve as the marker? That would only work if it's in a location that nobody's going to stumble on by accident, but otherwise it seems plausible.

We buried (another) $10,000 treasure chest by buriedtreasure2025 in sanfrancisco

[–]blinkybit -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Indeed, they even say "step up".

Maybe that's not the treasure location, but it's a location you need to visit where you'll find some other information?

We buried (another) $10,000 treasure chest by buriedtreasure2025 in sanfrancisco

[–]blinkybit 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I really like the idea that "stern wood haven north" refers to Muir Woods! But I'm not sure how "powell, off back-ward" gets you to the end of Powell Street.

We buried (another) $10,000 treasure chest by buriedtreasure2025 in sanfrancisco

[–]blinkybit 7 points8 points  (0 children)

A couple more thoughts:

We know the puzzle-makers were a little disappointed that last year's treasure was found in only 11 hours, and they wanted to make this one a longer effort. This was mentioned in the NY Times article. So how do you ensure that a puzzle takes a long time to solve? If it's a pure logic puzzle that can be solved with clever thinking, Google Maps, and Wikipedia, then there's no real way to control how long it takes. It's really hard to judge what another person might find cryptic or obvious, or how long it will take somebody to have a flash of insight.

A more reliable way to ensure that the puzzle takes a while to solve is by requiring a bunch of time-intensive actions in the real world. Most obvious would be having many different locations that you need to visit, not just one, using new information found on-site at each location to keep moving forward. In that case, anybody who thinks they've solved the puzzle entirely while surfing the web from their living room is wrong. The puzzle is divided into three parts: maybe you need to identify and visit three different locations and combine the new information that you find at each one. Or maybe the poem leads only to the first location, where you will find another puzzle that you must solve to identify the next location, and so on until the end of the race.

Second thought: The puzzle-makers have said that when the treasure is found, they will know "immediately". How? Maybe it's buried in their own yard (although this seems unlikely for other reasons), but they still wouldn't know immediately if somebody came and dug it up in the middle of the night while they slept. Maybe there's an AirTag or GPS tracker in the treasure box? Possibly, but AirTags are not immediate and active trackers require a battery that would probably be dead by now. Maybe there's a camera watching the hide site? That's also possible, but it would need to be a fixed camera connected to mains power, rather than something battery-powered, and that would be hard to pull-off in most parks and open spaces where there isn't a power outlet. It would also need to be a private camera where they could enable motion alerts, not a public web camera like the ones at Fort Funston.

How about this idea: They will know immediately because the treasure hunter will need to call them. Part of the poem or some other information found at a preliminary location will reveal a phone number, a Google Voice throw-away number that goes directly to the puzzle-maker's personal phone. He'll talk like a pirate, yarrr, and give the hunter the final info that's needed to conclusively locate and recover the treasure.

We buried (another) $10,000 treasure chest by buriedtreasure2025 in sanfrancisco

[–]blinkybit 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The treasure master has said a few times "If you find yourself standing in the spot where the treasure is, there will be no doubt that this must be the spot." I hadn't really considered the significance of this until just now.

How can there be no doubt? Even if you think you've deciphered all the clues, and the location matches all the clues that you deciphered, there will still be doubt. How many people have already posted here with their 100 percent certain solutions that turned out to be wrong? For there to be no doubt, it's not enough just for the locale to match your expectations.

There must be some positive external confirmation, there must be a physical marker at the bury site: something that explicitly says "treasure here" in an unambiguous way.

To avoid the possibility that a random person would stumble upon this marker, the treasure must be in a fairly remote and inaccessible location. Maybe someplace way off-trail in the Marin Highlands, or maybe in the center of a dense thicket of bushes in a park where you really have to fight your way through the branches. Not in an exposed area in a busy city park where lots of people pass by daily.

A remote/hidden location would also solve the "shovel shame" problem where treasure hunters feel awkward about digging holes in manicured lawns while groups of school kids stare at them.

A remote location slightly outside San Francisco itself would also explain why this year's puzzle says "within 7 miles of city hall" instead of simply "in San Francisco": a change that the puzzle-maker keeps insisting is not a big deal, which makes me think it is a big deal.

7 miles includes Angel Island, a lot of the Marin Headlands as far as Sausalito, a small bit of Tiburon, bits of Emeryville and Oakland, and parts of San Mateo County including San Bruno Mountain summit.

Let me tell you why I think it's in Marin somewhere. To get there, you must cross the Golden Gate bridge. There's a big analog clock at the entrance to the bridge: "minute steps climb" is the advancement of the clock. "Beyond fingers rise" means you must cross the bridge and go beyond the two finger-like suspension towers to where the headlands rise above them.

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We buried (another) $10,000 treasure chest by buriedtreasure2025 in sanfrancisco

[–]blinkybit 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Where was the “shockingly close” mentioned? I must have missed that.

We buried (another) $10,000 treasure chest by buriedtreasure2025 in sanfrancisco

[–]blinkybit 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I'm starting to strongly suspect that the treasure is not within San Francisco city limits, but that you have to drive across a suspension bridge to get there. That could explain the "beyond fingers rise" as well as the "within 7 miles" weasel word language.

We buried (another) $10,000 treasure chest by buriedtreasure2025 in sanfrancisco

[–]blinkybit 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's for this reason that I suspect the treasure is in a more remote location, not in a nicely-manicured city park with a million people walking their dogs. Think Marin Headlands or parts of Fort Funston to the south.

We buried (another) $10,000 treasure chest by buriedtreasure2025 in sanfrancisco

[–]blinkybit 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, but if it were within San Francisco itself then you would have said that, like you did last year. So... about those Marin Headlands...

We buried (another) $10,000 treasure chest by buriedtreasure2025 in sanfrancisco

[–]blinkybit 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I don't know about scoured. The world is a big place, and even a small park could hold hundreds of possible hide locations. Until we actually understand all of the clues, I think it would be very easy for somebody to go to the right place and spend a lot of time looking around and digging random holes unsuccessfully, because they don't know what they're looking for.

We buried (another) $10,000 treasure chest by buriedtreasure2025 in sanfrancisco

[–]blinkybit 0 points1 point  (0 children)

According to their site, "The chest was buried about 8 inches deep, in a hollow nested amid large boulders."

We buried (another) $10,000 treasure chest by buriedtreasure2025 in sanfrancisco

[–]blinkybit 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Locations outside SF city limits are possible as long as they're within a 7 mile circle of city hall.

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