“TREASURES!”

My 3-year-old niece shrieked in delight at the chest filled with gems, Slinkys, bouncy balls and slime. Decked out in an eye patch, gold earring and black pirate hat, Addie collected her riches with a gaggle of children who’d successfully followed the treasure map, solved the clues and found the X that marked the spot.

Against my better judgement, I let her walk away with a container of orange slime.

Addie is among the roughly 1,500 kids who flock to the trails of Columbia nine times a year for the HoCo Pirate Adventures treasure hunt, a tradition that started eight years ago as a father-daughter bonding activity and has exploded into beloved community scavenger hunt.

Columbia resident Chris Fuchs, also known as Captain Cannonball, set up this month’s hunt on a 1-mile loop in the Sewell’s Orchard neighborhood, where youngsters and their families use a hand-drawn map to find and solve a series clues, navigate past the “sea monsters” in the ponds and unlock the pirate’s booty. The self-guided activity runs through Sunday, with an $8 entry fee paid online.

The public hunts have only been running for a few years, but the idea dates back to 2016, when Fuchs’ daughter, Evie, was 3, and her younger brother, Sawyer, was on the way. To keep her entertained when they were heading to the playground one day, Fuchs began talking like a pirate. Evie did, too. Soon, the playground was her pirate ship, and Fuchs was burying quarters in the sandbox, which Evie dug up with glee.

The game of pretend only got more elaborate from there. Evie received a message in a bottle from her pirate friend. Following the parchment paper map, Evie went back to the playground and found a pirate hat, a red-and-black striped vest and a foam sword. A wooden treasure chest was waiting for her at home.

Fuchs and Evie would go out every couple of weeks to hunt for treasure. After Sawyer turned 3, he joined in.

When COVID-19 hit, Fuchs’ neighbors asked if he would set one up for the entire Dorsey’s Search neighborhood to get their kids out of the house in a safe way. So he did.

More and more people started coming. Over the years, it went from about 30 people to a Facebook group of about 6,500 people to date.

The hunts now take place on a different trail each time. Fuchs makes each one about a mile long with a couple of stringent requirements: the trail needs to be a loop, there needs to be a playground at the end and one somewhere in the middle. The Sewell’s Orchard trail features the same playground twice, because of the loop.

“You have to plan everything for someone who is 3 years old,” Fuchs said.

Perfect for Addie.

After receiving a map, our quest was to find large white beads and black beads that we either had to add or subtract to decipher correct letters and crack the pirate code. (There are two sets of clues: The ones for the little mates who swab the deck — 3- to 7-year-olds — and the clues for the children who square the sails and trim the sheets — all kids ages 8 and up. We used the first set.)

Addie was the finder and the counter. Then her Auntie Jess (that’s me) did the math.

Clutching her hat and sword, filled with purpose, she headed from one clue to the next clue. Addie shushed me so we wouldn’t wake up the sea monsters. She wasn’t afraid, she really wanted the monsters to get their rest.

Following the chalk instructions on the trail for the final clue, we skipped, walked backward, hunched down in a sneaky way, stomped as we walked and ended in a zigzag pattern.

When we spied the pink X, for X marks the spot, Addie hightailed it to the treasure chest with some friends she’d met along the way — photographer Eric Thompson’s two girls, Eva and Mia. With the help of a grown-up, Addie plugged in the secret password and then Addie and Eva lifted the latch.

“Woahhhh!”

The girls’ eyes widened and smiles filled their faces. They couldn’t believe the bounty they had found.

After Addie collected her treasure pieces, she booked it for the playground.

The next HoCo Pirate Adventures hunt starts on Saturday Oct. 26 in Columbia’s Huntington neighborhood. The hunt is $8 per family and $30 per group of up to 20 pirates.