A hunting we will go

Part scavenger hunt, road rally, trivia test and brain teaser, Lawrence contest offers a wild and wacky experience

For those who like to run with a fire extinguisher down Mass St., wear a bikini made of bacon or sprint across Alvamar searching for a monkey, Andy Morton has a game for you.

“We think it’s fun to treat Lawrence like a big playground … with roundabouts,” Morton says.

Morton, Kitty Mitchell and Matt Armstrong are the masterminds behind the Lawrence Hunt. Since spring 2005, their zany and taxing competition has been popping up in revamped formats.

“Andy hates it when people call it a scavenger hunt, because that’s only one aspect of it,” Armstrong explains. “It’s a combination of a series of code breaking, brain teasers, trivia about Lawrence itself, a road rally and scavenger hunt. It’s a whole lot of different disciplines.”

This weekend’s entry – dubbed Mirth Burglars – will mark the last game of the year. The three “Huntmasters” promise a more linear contest reminiscent of TV’s “The Amazing Race,” with each clue leading to a mission that must be completed before another clue is received.

They also predict that Saturday’s game is going to be long, likely taking 10-12 hours.

“I wish a person could make a living doing this, because I’m getting really good at hiding film canisters filled with clues,” Morton says.

Random and infuriating

Part of the appeal of the Lawrence Hunt is its ever-evolving nature.

“Some of them have been a scavenger hunt of dares, where you have to complete a certain task for a certain amount of points, and whoever gets the most points wins,” Mitchell recalls. “Things like go do a pole dance or wear a bacon bikini. Then you took pictures of all these things and you brought them back. Other games were more riddle-based, where you’d get a list of clues that would take you to different locations. Then there were games that involved tasks that were multiples of those.”

The Lawrence Hunt generally draws between 50 and 75 participants. Teams are composed of between two and 10 people, although it is sometimes limited to “however many can fit in one vehicle.”

Winners receive a generous prize package of items donated by local businesses. Proceeds from the teams’ entry fees go to the Lawrence Humane Society.

While Mitchell says it’s difficult to prepare for the barrage of random and infuriating tasks the Huntmasters deliver, she does offer strategy for the makeup of one’s team.

“You’ll want to have a riddle-solver. It would help to have someone who is familiar with Lawrence. You want to have a runner. It never hurts to have someone who is daring and is willing to do something a little rash to get to the next place,” she says.

Andy Morton, left, Kitty Mitchell and Matt Armstrong are organizers of The Hunt: Mirth Burglars, their ongoing scavenger/trivia/dare game. This photo itself provides a Clue to a location that factors into Saturday's competition.

“It’s just crazy. It hurts your brain after a while – but you can’t stop,” says Hunt competitor Justin Eddings.

Eddings has taken part in all three events this year, finishing third, fifth and ninth.

“There is not any great way to prepare. I’ve seen guys walk into this with wall-to-wall laptops, GPS equipment and spy-tracking devices. And they didn’t do any better than anyone else,” Eddings says.

His advice to new players: “Don’t get discouraged when you’re standing in the middle of a parking lot looking for a clue, and there’s nothing there. It happens quite a bit.”

Raised as scavengers

The Huntmasters have all grown up around contests of this sort.

“I used to organize little treasure hunts for my class in grade school,” Morton remembers. “So several of my teachers are probably reading this, thinking, ‘He’s still doing that? But he had such potential. Sigh.'”

Likewise, Mitchell fondly recalls joining her family in the KLZR Treasure Hunt every summer.

In fact, that was the impetus for the Lawrence Hunt when she and Morton – who both grew up in the city – were reminiscing about the radio station’s contests.

“It just sort of snowballed from there,” Mitchell says.

Similarly, Armstrong organized scavenger hunts in Dallas prior to moving to Lawrence in 2004. Eventually the three decided to apply their past memories to a Frankenstein monster of a challenge.

“All of us definitely have our roles in the creation of these Hunts,” says Morton, who hosts the “1 on 1” trivia show on Sunflower Broadband Channel 6.

“I’m the Here-Are-Four-More-Ideas-That-Will-Really-Frustrate-Teams person. Kitty is the Hell-Yeah-We-Could-Pull-That-Off-but-Let’s-Do-It-Using-a-Black-light person. And Matt is the You-Are-Both-Out-of-Your-Minds-and-We-Need-to-Reel-It-Back-In person.”

The three Huntmasters don’t always step back and cackle at the torture they are putting contestants through; they actively take part.

In the three previous games this summer, each Huntmaster sat out from their organizational role in order to play.

“We did that this year to troubleshoot our own processes,” Armstrong says.

Mitchell ended up winning the Lost in Translation game. Armstrong won Safari. The only Huntmaster who didn’t triumph was Morton, who lost the one dubbed Gut Check.

Coming back

“Any time teams run into each other at the same stop and decide to go for the same thing, it gets really fun and really competitive fast. There’s been some pretty close calls for divorce lawyers,” Armstrong says.

Despite the frustrations – and the running joke that in every game played so far, some team’s car has bit the dust – players seem to return in droves to the Hunt.

“Every time we get a couple of new teams, and those people usually come back. Oddly enough, there are teams that get slaughtered every single time,” Mitchell says.

The Huntmasters believe the fundamental appeal of the game may lie in its strong connection to Lawrence.

“It’s so easy in this (era) to learn to not appreciate where you live,” Armstrong says.

“It feels really good that people can get done with this and be so talkative about how they knew about a location because of different memories they had there. It’s coming back to center about where you are, and not just deciding that you live in a hokey little Kansas town.”