Expedition Planning · 2026-08-05 · 6 min read
How We Place Rings (and How We Never Will)
Every ring placement follows the same five rules. Here they are in full — because a treasure hunt is only as good as its ethics.
Rule one: legal ground only. Every ring is placed on legally accessible public land or with a property owner's enthusiastic yes — placed in a way that requires no digging, no moving of rocks, no disturbance of anything living or old.
Rule two: the clue can't point somewhere the body shouldn't go. If solving a clue seems to require leaving a trail, climbing a wet rock face, crossing a roped-off area, or exceeding your ability — the clue has been misread. We design them so the safe reading is the correct reading.
Rule three: no ring will ever be placed where retrieving it is the dangerous part. Nothing underwater in current, nothing on a cliff edge, nothing that turns treasure hunting into an incident report. No ring is worth that. None will ever be.
Rule four: nature outranks the game. Placements avoid nesting areas — the Morro Bay sandspit ring sits well clear of every snowy plover closure — erosion-sensitive slopes, and sensitive sites entirely. Where rangers or land managers have opinions, their opinions win.
Rule five: coordinates never override judgment. Weather, ability, daylight, and law all outrank any pin on our Atlas. The ring will still be there when conditions are right — and if someone else gets it first, the next Quest already has more.