Hunter Lewis spent years creating the adventure, but it ended tragically when he didn’t return from preparing the final clue Hunter Lewis left his f

‘Epically heroic and tragic’: how a family treasure hunt ended with a son lost at sea

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2022-01-13 06:00:08

Hunter Lewis spent years creating the adventure, but it ended tragically when he didn’t return from preparing the final clue

Hunter Lewis left his father’s home on California’s far northern coast last week with a plan. The adventurous college student, 21, had spent years creating an elaborate treasure hunt for his friends and family. Now it was time to hide the final prize.

On 30 December, Lewis is believed to have launched a 15ft green canoe into the frigid Pacific waters to hide the treasure that would complete the journey.

Lewis’s adventure had been years in the making. An experienced outdoorsman who was scuba certified and had a second-degree black belt in Taekwondo, Lewis had always been fearless, his father, Corey Lewis, said. The boy grew up outdoors, strapped to his father’s back as a one-year-old while the elder Lewis went snowshoeing in the Sierra Nevada.

The Lewises loved movies involving lost treasure, such as National Treasure and the Goonies. And, over the course of the pandemic, while studying aerospace engineering and earning his pilot’s license, Lewis designed his own epic treasure hunt: the search for the “lost Lewis treasure”.