San Francisco Blog

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Some of the clues were easy to find

Players form teams (prizes are given for the best names, corresponding to the particular Chinese animal of the year-- this year's was the Ox) and must choose a route beginning at Justin Herman Plaza and covering roughly a one-square-mile radius. The clue sheet offers hints to the general location where the answer to the puzzle can be found, but actually solving these brain-teasers is harder than it sounds; there are plenty of red herrings, and the answers aren't always obvious, even after you've decoded the clue and found the location.

Compounding the gameplay is the logistics, which not only require planning a circuitous route which involved huffing up and down hills and seeking out back alleys, but clue locations which are bisected by the Chinese New Year's Day route. And there's a time limit.

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This clue was easy to miss

After hooking up with a team of strangers--all SF residents except one--we chose the name Yokes on Us (get it?) and walked to the Hyatt to go over the clue sheet. Here's a sample: "If you retain the first letter of this street's name and remove its consonants, it spells out a woman's name that is also familiar to lawyers" (answer: Sutter). After mapping out what seemed like the most sensible course--start at the farthest point and work your way back--we began our hunt.

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Our route took us through North Beach, where hundreds of people were watching the parade

We quickly came across our first clue, on Drumm Street, which was impossible to miss due to the other teams crowding around it. Heading west on Washington, we cut up Columbus, where we solved one clue at Jack Kerouac Alley and another at the Stella bakery. 

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Can you see the clue in this picture?

Our route took us even deeper into North Beach and then through Chinatown. We eagerly solved the riddles we found at Turk Murphy, Joice, and Trenton streets, but were stumped by the mystery near Willie "Woo Woo" Wong Place, which really threw our time-management off.

From there we went to Portsmouth Square in the heart of Chinatown, where another clue awaited, as well as a dilemma: The parade route ran right through the remaining clue locations; it was impossible to go through it, and going around it would have taken us way off course. After watching some fairly impressive floats go by, we made a tactical decision to hit one more clue near Union Square, then abandon the clue near the Financial District so we could get back to Justin Herman Plaza on time. 

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The parade made logistics a lot harder

Several clues lay along the way, and though our initial sleuthy enthusiasm had turned to tiredness, hunger, and fatigue by then, we doggedly continued to search for answers (or at least for other teams, whose presence pointed us in the right direction).

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No alley was left unturned

We solved one last clue in the Embarcadero Center, then hastened back to the plaza, where we turned in our answer sheet and dreamed of hot toddies and/or cold beers. Even though we didn't solve every riddle--I think we tallied 15 of 17--we learned a lot about San Francisco. Some folks were even thinking of doing it again next year, and how they'd prepare differently (bigger flashlights, more comfortable shoes, tastier snacks). Big shout out to the rest of the Yokes on Us crew, and to Jayson Wechter for reminding us that some of the most interesting sights to see in The City are right under our noses. In retrospect, that was the real treasure we found.

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The Animal of the (Lunar) Year figured prominently