The muddy path The path levels out and we stop to catch our breath, which is good, because walking blindfolded has been a pain. A voice says, “You can take off the blindfold now.” I squint as I get my bearings. Then, after walking a bit more and pushing through the undergrowth, I finally see it. The prize. The thing that no one is supposed to know the location of, at least for a few more weeks. A golden treasure.
I have to fight my reptilian brain’s instinct to reach it. No. If all goes according to plan, the treasure will soon belong to someone else: the winner of a madcap treasure hunt dreamed up by two of the guys guiding me through this remote wilderness. One is a musician named Tom Bailey. The other is Jason Rohrer, the genius. Rohrer has designed some of the most clever and conceptual video games of the 21st century. And now we have this: not a video game, but Rohrer’s first game set in the real world.
Rohrer calls it Skydrop Projectand he’s been working on it, mostly in secret, since 2021. He’s 46 and tall. Tall like an NBA power forward. And thin. His blond hair, which once flowed down his back, is now cut short. Today, he’s wearing boots, cargo pants, black aviator glasses, and a bucket hat. (Think: Vietnam War style, save for an extremely Gen X wallet chain.) His 21-year-old son is here, too, equally tall, with his hair down like a young man. He got the shorter straw and had to be my personal guide. As the hours tick by, he reminds the group that we’re losing sun and that we should In fact Leave the hiding place before it gets dark.
The treasure was paid for and made by Rohrer himself, cast from 10 troy ounces of 24-karat gold. It’s worth about $25,000, but to that reward you have to add a yet-to-be-determined amount of bitcoins, which could be life-changing, depending on how many people participate in the search. What I’m allowed to say about the treasure’s location is that it’s somewhere in the northeastern United States, and that I got here first by flying to Rohrer’s home in Dover, New Hampshire. Perhaps I should add, at the risk of saying too much, that I was then taken (again, blindfolded) quite a ways away, possibly across state lines, onto public land, who knows where. A newly released YouTube trailer for Project Skydrop offers more details. “Maybe there’s a feeling deep within you,” the Gandalphian narration goes. “A hunger. For mystery. For adventure. And most importantly, for treasure.” The video then explains that to find the treasure there is a special map, updated every morning for (at most) 21 days, and photos taken with a drone, from increasingly higher points above the treasure.
We spend several hours at the find site. The guys set up six motion-sensor cameras around the clearing, hoping they’ll provide epic footage of the find. They also fly their drone up and start snapping photos. The mood is dizzying, even as the sun begins to set and the mosquitoes descend. Tasks accomplished, we finally pack up, and Rohrer’s son prepares my blindfold for the return trip. At the last moment, Rohrer calls Bailey over and points out his treasure, barely visible through a bunch of baby trees. “We’ll never see it again, Tom,” Rohrer says.
In two days, the race to find him begins. And if you’re reading this on September 19, 2024, that day is today. The search has just begun.