Bonnie Bazarski didn’t expect people to get hung up on her cell phone.
A group of kids piled into Bazarski’s camper. They were surrounded by locks, puzzles, and clues. They rifled around the camper, solving brain-teasers and unlocking drawers. To advance to the next stage, they had to use a flip phone. They had no idea how it worked. They needed help.
Bazarski’s daughter showed the team how to use the ancient device, allowing them to progress further with the puzzles. Bazarski thought the cell phone’s puzzle would be tricky enough; she didn’t expect its operation to be a puzzle in of itself.
For younger visitors, Bazarski may have to attach an instruction manual to the cell phone. It’s one of many small tweaks and changes she’s made to her camper over the summer. Building a puzzle room from scratch is a learning experience.
“I just love puzzles and trying to solve things,” she said.
Bazarski, the owner of the Corn Trails in Canora, fully opened her brand-new puzzle room last weekend. She’s converted a camper into a chamber of head-scratchers, mind-melters, and chin-strokers.
The puzzle room is a twist on the ever-popular escape room. In the latter, participants are locked in a room based around a particular theme (gangsters, pirates, prisons, etc.). They have a limited amount of time to decipher a series of clues and escape their scenario. Typically, there are grave consequences for failure, such as imprisonment or even death (not literally, of course).
Bazarski’s room puts more emphasis on puzzles than escaping. It’s all about putting the pieces together to find an answer. The stakes aren’t so high as to involve life-or-death.
Bazarski got addicted to escape rooms last winter when she visited Regina. She enjoyed the high-pressure situations and the puzzles. She was disappointed that there were no escape rooms in the Canora area, so she decided to make one herself.
“That’s the type of people we are,” she said. “Do it ourselves.
“So, we did.”
Bazarski and her family purchased a camper back in June at an auction. She couldn’t find many tips online about building escape rooms, so she went off her experiences and her instincts.
“I just went to Value Village one day and took my time and walked around as things popped out at me,” she said.
Bazarski filled the camper with her supplies, turning the unassuming room into a giant mystery. The room’s theme focuses on a family that has been traveling around Saskatchewan for the summer. Participants have to figure out the family’s most recent location.
“When you find that, you’ll know you have the solution,” Bazarski said.
As an escape room participant, Bazarski doesn’t enjoy “red herrings” (items that aren’t actual clues and are designed to distract people). But when creating her puzzle room, she loved crafting misleading pieces.
“[Red herrings] are a must,” she said. “I hate them in escape rooms, but it was...fun [making them] knowing it might get somebody.”
Participants have 30 minutes to solve the puzzle room. Bazarski tested the room with friends and family before opening it up to the public. She sat in the corner with a notepad, watching how people reacted to certain clues.
“I wanted to...see if they were getting frustrated when they shouldn’t be,” she said. “[The hardest part is if] my brain can come up with the right combination of puzzles that...make sense to other people.
“That’s the biggest thing.”
Bazarski is excited to get her puzzle room off the ground. She plans to keep it running for as long as her corn maze is open (usually the end of October). If the room is popular enough, she may upgrade it halfway through the season, possibily with a Halloween twist.
“Change the puzzles up and give the people who’ve already done it more to do,” she said.
The puzzle room was hard work, but Bazarski thinks it’s a worthy addition to the Corn Trails.
“Every year we try to add something new,” she said.
The puzzle room is open on Friday evenings and Saturday and Sunday. Admission is seven dollars per person. Reservations can be made by calling 306-563-7511.
