The Big Dig recap (or, How Far Will You Go?)

Is it the Hunting, or the Winning? 

My wife asked me that question, during the first phase of Cedar Grove Compost's Big Dig contest, after a particularly frustrating and unsuccessful attempt to find one of the Coreys that were hidden about town.  I claimed it was the hunting, not totally believing it myself, until I went back later in the day, found what I was looking for, and got a little rush of adrenaline.  Maybe it was the hunting after all.

I finally cornered Corey down in Rainier Beach

Maybe it's different for you, but one key to having a good time in PuzzleHuntContests is knowing which is more important to you, hunting or winning, and using that to help decide how much of your time and effort you're willing to commit to a contest.  The Big Dig is a good illustration, particularly because it had two different phases with two different equations to consider (assuming you made it to phase 2).

Phase 1:  Find Coreys, get to Phase 2

Briefly, there were 30 Coreys (mini posters with a picture of the cartoon apple core, above) hidden around the Seattle area.  To find them, you had to solve (for the most part not very hard) clues to their locations, go to the locations, note  the 4-digit code on the poster, then tell Cedar Grove you found the Corey.  Finding at least one Corey got you a coupon for a free bag of compost (whee!), but each Corey you found also put your name in the pool for a chance to compete in Phase 2, where you got to dig in a big pile of compost for the chance to win a share of $6000 in prizes.  The largest prize was a $3000 yard makeover, so you could safely assume there were other prizes to be won as well.  Twenty people in all would be entered in phase 2.

So, assuming you found out about this contest (and hey, I told you about it, so let's assume you did), the first question is, do you even bother doing the bare minimum:  find 1 Corey, get a free bag of compost?  One of the clues was clearly 1 block away from my workplace, and I could always use compost, so, that answer was easy for me.  Let's move on.

Phase 2, in a nutshell

Next question:  Do you want to dig in compost to win a prize?  Well, for me, the grand prize sounded good, but I know I'm actually not very good at finding hidden things (yes, I found a Canlis menu, but I  stumbled around the location where I knew the menu was for a good ten minutes before noticing it sitting there in plain sight).  If you're unsure at a time like this, it's good to do a little more research.  Luckily, Cedar Grove kindly supplied us with the rules for the contest which clearly indicated that more than one prize would be hidden in the big pile of compost.  Given that the only prize mentioned only covers half the total prize value, you can probably safely assume there are at least 5-10 prizes, at which case you might go out on a limb and assume everyone who digs gets a prize.  This did indeed turn out to be the case, but even if it didn't, it was clear you had a better than a one in 20 chance of winning something.

So, assuming you think this is worth your time, what was the best way to insure you moved on to phase 2?  The clues were released on March 26, and drawings for spots in Phase 2 started on April 2, so the best strategy was to find as many Coreys as possible before April 2, since (a) that would give you more chances for your name to be drawn (b) that would insure all those chances were there for every drawing and (c) maybe early on there would be fewer people participating, so your chances would be even higher.  For the most part, the clues weren't that hard, and there was a weekend to drive/bike around looking for clues, so I ended up finding 28 of the 30 Coreys before April 2nd.  I also knew where the 29th Corey was, but it was in a business that was closed on the weekends.  I went there bright and early on April 2nd, but it turned out I needn't have bothered, since they drew my name as I was in the process of finding it.

Yeah, this behavior seems somewhat fanatical, but, like I said at the top, I like the hunt, and finding the Coreys was pretty fun.  Some were so easy you could just slow down and read them from your car.  Some you had to go inside a business and ask (one place downtown made me ask 3 times).  A couple required some detective work, including the one I was frustrated about (they wanted you to go to the children's garden in Judkins Park, but there is no such thing.  But a Google search mentioned a children's garden somewhere near the nearby Northwest African American Museum, and it was a little thrill when my kids and I found the garden and the Corey).  In short, I had a good time.  But perhaps if you like winning more than hunting, maybe you should just have found 5 or 6 Coreys  and let it go at that.

Phase 2:  Keep the box, or Dig Some More

A few days before Phase 2 and the digging, they sent the diggers some more rules, which made it clear that, indeed, everyone would win a prize and, for that matter, you didn't even have to dig (they had teenagers standing by as 'designated diggers').  At the actual event, they disclosed another wrinkle:  if you found a box in the compost (you were actually digging for little metal chests with the name of your prize inside), you could throw the box back on the pile if you didn't like the prize.

This made the digging very interesting, as now you had a number of choices to make on the fly:  Do you take a prize someone else rejected?  If you find a prize on your own, do you take it, or throw it back?  They had five of us digging at a time, initially in 1-minute long rounds, so by the time your second turn came around, there were a few prizes sitting on the pile that others had rejected.

There was a list of the prizes available when you registered, and some of them were clearly more desirable than others.  I looked them over, and decided there was no way I needed a push mower or a garden decoration (I have forgotten the exact garden decoration, but this was one of the first prizes found and it was unclaimed to the end).  There were also 4 prizes that were 2 cubic yards of compost, which clearly is a mixed blessing for most people; these were also unclaimed until the end.

Some people were happy with what they got; I believe the first prize found was a gift certificate for a restaurant, which the woman who found it gladly kept.  On my third round of digging, I was considering taking a gift card at City People's Hardware, which someone else had rejected, but decided to wait until the end of my digging time in case I found something better.  Luckily, I found the first of the special gold boxes, which held one of the top 4 prizes.  After getting an okay from my wife, I kept it and bowed out. Roll the tape:  

After colliding with my shovel, this box is destined for the scrap heap

Once I was done, I watched to see what others would do.  Some people found a prize they liked, although I don't remember anyone taking a prize someone else rejected.  Some people were clearly hoping to win the grand prize, and stayed in it to the end.  Not surprisingly, the grand prize was buried the deepest, so it was one of the last ones found, and those who stayed in could reasonably assume that as more people took a prize and stopped digging, their chances of winning the big prize went up.  After the big prize was found, the digging was cut short and the remaining prizes were assigned at random to whoever remained, so it was a calculated gamble that paid off for one person.  As for the rest of them: several somebodies had to end up with 2 yards of compost.

There was obviously a lot of luck involved, but I think it helps to come in to a contest like this knowing what you want to do:  have fun digging up a prize, or have fun winning a prize you like.  If the prize you get is important, know what's acceptable to you and what isn't.  If I hadn't found the golden box, I probably would have taken that City People's gift card.  I met a digger who lives on a houseboat and won two hanging baskets and a bag of potting soil.  I probably would have thrown that one back on the pile if I had found it, but she told me it was perfect for her.

More coverage of The Big Dig at the Seattle Times, plus a bonus video:

Upcoming events, lazy edition.  I'm going to Disneyland tomorrow, so cut me some slack

(I omit explanations for events I've mentioned in the past; see previous blog postings if you want more details).

• April 20: The 420 Alleycat - Pier 62.  
• April 20-22: Orienteering A-Meet - Whidbey Island and Snohomish
• April 21: Emerald City Search, Scramble Edition - Seattle Center, 2pm.  Solve 10 clues, run around Seattle Center (in 1 hour, so the clues can't be that hard).  First prize:  2 Platinum Passes at Bumbershoot.  Second prize:  a set of steak knives (not really).  I'm out of town, but if I were in town, I'd attend this, so if anyone actually competes, let me know how it goes.
• April 21-May 1: Emerald City Search.  
• April 28: Columbia City Street Scramble
• April 28: U District Double-Header Alleycat/Scavenger Hunt + Sprint 
• May 3: First Thursday Adventure Run - Green Lake
• May 5: Hood Hunt - Sunset Hill.  Hood Hunts are like Street Scrambles, except even lower key, with no entry fee, no map (print your own in advance) and no prizes.  Walk/run around for an hour looking for checkpoints, then meet up at a neighborhood pub/eatery.
• May 6: Orienteering (Score-O) - Shoreview Park, Shoreline (near Shoreline Community College).  
• May 12: Port Gamble Rogaine
• May 17: BEAST race #2 - Mukilteo, Lynnwood. 
• May 26: Gig Harbor Street Scramble - Unlike most other Street Scrambles, this one is free.  Something about how Gig Harbor is trying to help their citizens lead healthier lives.  You might be dubious that having Seattleites travel to Gig Harbor to do a scavenger hunt will lead to Gig Harborites (Gigites?  Gig Harboridians?) exercising more, but then you find yourself buying lunch in downtown Gig Harbor and their secret plan is revealed.  Really, though, it's a nice little town, and the weather usually cooperates.  Tip:  only climb the hill up out of the Harbor once, unless you're some kind of masochist.

I mentioned this last week, but it was a late addition, so I'll reuse it as my 'anytime' suggestion:

Because maps of past Hood Hunts are all on the website, they're a great hunt to do on your own, say on a sunny weekend like this one that's coming up.  Just don't expect all the old checkpoints to necessarily still be around (particularly for the holiday events, which feature Christmas light displays and the like).