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Inaugural Tahoe Treasure Hunt celebrates locals’ season

The first annual Tahoe Treasure Hunt is taking place on September 28, and Tahoe artists, locals, and visitors are all encouraged to get involved.

Hosted by Nicole Stirling (of the Chickadee Art Collective/Stirling Studios based out of Tahoe Backyard in Kings Beach), the idea of hiding art came from Stirling taking part in Game of Shrooms. In 2019, artist Daniel Seifert who goes by “Attaboy” created a worldwide scavenger hunt for anyone interested in mushrooms and art.

“Envision a collaborative art movement spanning the globe, free from religious dogma, where people actively create, share, and encounter moments of absolute freakin’ wonder,” is how Attaboy describes the event on yumfactory.com. On a posted day—usually sometime in the summer– artists from all over the world hide their original mushroom-themed art works in public places. When art seekers go out, the artists give clues (often on social media) about where the art is located. Once they find it, they get to keep it.



“I think I started doing the Shroom Drop first and hiding art before the pandemic,” Stirling says. She follows Attaboy on social media and found a group of artists participating in Game of Shrooms in the East Bay. After looking for shrooms in Oakland, she started hiding her own shrooms in Tahoe.

“Follow the shady trail across the bridge to find your fungal treasure! And please share or tag me if you find it so we know it has been discovered,” Stirling posted to her Instagram on the day of the 2024 Game of Shrooms.



“I know right where it is. Dang it I can’t get there,” one longtime Kings Beach resident posted. Within a couple of hours, the shroom had been found and the seeker posted a picture of her holding it.

“Congrats! I was looking for it too. You must have swooped right in! Nice find!” a fellow North Shore local commented.

When the COVID-19 lockdown happened in March of 2020, Stirling thought that it would be fun to hide her mandala art all around the North Shore to keep the community engaged and connected with each other. She’s hid dozens of pieces of art out in public places since then, sharing clues of where it’s located to social media.

“I hide art every month and have probably hidden about 50 pieces so far. My family tries to get out and do art drops with me; my niece was here from Mexico this past summer and came out with us, she had so much fun,” Stirling says.

Therefore, to get more of the community involved, Stirling has launched the first ever Tahoe Treasure Hunt where all artists in the Truckee-Tahoe area are invited to register and hide their art for lucky seekers to find on September 28th. After artists register on TahoeTreasureHunt.com and hide their art the morning of, they can post clues to social media or be completely mysterious about it.

“There are different needs for different artist levels, it’s whatever they want to do. Treasure hunters can look for art by following that artist or look for the pin on the map [on the website],” Stirling says.

Artists can register up until the day before the event, but she encourages them to get their pins on the map sooner than later. As of September 18th, a handful of artists had dropped pins on the map showing where art will be placed around Highway 267 and Tahoma.

“I want to do a day of celebrating locals’ season and get the community excited by leaving something magical around. I would love to have this as an annual event, and it can be done around the entire lake. The options are wide open,” Stirling smiles. For more information about the Tahoe Treasure Hunt, visit https://tahoetreasurehunt.com/.

* Note: Yours truly will be hiding at least one copy of Moon Northern California Road Trips somewhere on the North Shore as part of this event.


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