Are you feeling lock-y?

Test your problem-solving skills at The Great Escape in Lincoln City

Barbara Keckler with husband, Cole Risdon, and son, Hunter Risdon

By Gretchen Ammerman

Oregon Coast TODAY

With the TV show “Survivor” being in what feels like its 750th season, it’s pretty obvious that the more ease we ease into our lives, there is still something in our genes that screams for the kind of problem solving our ancestors had to face.

Enter escape rooms — bite-sized versions of the real world where you have an hour to use your wits and learn how well you work with others in order to “survive.”

The Great Escape opened in Lincoln City this spring with the first of three planned rooms.

Owners, designers and operators Barbara Keckler, her husband Cole Risdon and their son Hunter Risdon kicked around a few ideas before a friend helped them come to the theme of the first room.

“We were a little way down the road on a different idea when one of our friends said, ‘You’re going to do a Bigfoot room, right?’” Keckler said. “And we were like, ‘Of course we are!’ So, we put the brakes on the other idea. It was such a great decision because people not only love the Bigfoot theme, but it was really fun to create it.”

Like road trips and international travel, escape rooms are a great way to test how well you work with your family member, friend or even co-worker.

“It's super fun for us to watch how the dynamic works with different groups,” Keckler said. “If you have a bigger group, you always have that one person that is just wandering around, that other person who takes charge and then people that are attracted to a certain type of clue, like the ones that use math. People often come out realizing they have skills that they didn’t even know they had.”

My husband and I entered Bigfoot’s lair somewhat trepidatiously, having failed pretty miserably at our last escape room attempt a few years back. And let’s just say we didn’t exactly hit the ground running this time either. We tried many different permutations of the possibilities before finally giving in and asking for our first clue. It turns out we were sooooo close, and probably would have got it if the combined age of our eyes wasn’t 226.

Our hunt picked up speed once we realized that the provided clues were gentle nudges, not simply shame-inducing answers, and grew more comfortable asking for help.

Once we finally made it to the end of the allotted hour, we were one clue from escaping on our own. We called that good, especially as we had had a fantastic time getting there.

“We really worked hard to make this a great experience,” Keckler said. “We wanted to come out of the gate with something where people would really feel totally immersed in the forest.”

The theme for the next room, open later this year, came from customer consensus.

"When people come in, we bounce ideas off them and most responses are lukewarm,” Keckler said. “When we mention the theme of ‘Fear Factor,’ people get super enthusiastic, so that’s our next theme.”

But visitors to the current room needn’t fret if they need their escape room fix; the clues for each room change often, so no experience will be exactly the same.

The business name is a nod to the classic film starring Steve McQueen, who can be seen in the movie poster prominently displayed in the lobby.

The lobby also has games people can play while they wait for their experience and hopefully soon, have something to eat.

“Our goal was to have a cozy place where people like to be, especially when the weather is lousy,” Keckler said. “We’re also ready to host events, team-building exercises and even birthday parties here. We’ll be working with other vendors to bring in cakes and other things like that.”

The family visited many other escape rooms on their journey to being owners, which helped inform their own experience as game masters.

“We’ve done some we flew through, and others where we couldn’t get through the first clue,” Keckler said. “We recognize that every group is individual and we treat them like that.  If you are having trouble we’ll help you. If you don’t want clues, we will do that, too. One group finished using only two clues, which is phenomenal.”

The number of clues we used, I’m not ashamed to admit, was a bit north of that number.

The Great Escape is located at 1845 SE Hwy. 101 in Lincoln City and is open from 10 am to 9 pm Monday through Thursday, 10 am to 10 pm Friday and Saturday, and noon to 8 pm Sunday. The cost is $45 per person for two to eight participants. For more information, go to tgeoregon.com or call 541-614-0008.