Treasure Hunt with your Smartphone!

The long-awaited smartphone version of GearJunkie’s “Checkpoint: SPOT” nationwide treasure hunt launches today! Since August, treasure hunters traveling from California to New York City — and many iconic wilderness places in between! — have tagged geographic pinpoints around the country with their SPOT Satellite Messenger devices to win BIG prizes and outdoors swag. Today, we open the contest to anyone with an iPhone, Blackberry, Android, or other smartphone capable of geo-tagging a location.

Go to the treasure hunt map of checkpoints and prizes. There are almost 30 checkpoints across the nation now (the orange ones on the map are still “live” with prizes up for grabs).

The rules are simple: Go to our “Checkpoint: SPOT” map and click the icons to get information on each checkpoint. Read the clue and see what the prize is, then zoom in on the map to discover where you need to physically go to “check in.”

> With a SPOT device, users send a “Check-in/OK” message at the checkpoint to mark their GPS waypoint.

> With a smartphone, you must go to the checkpoint location, log in to CPSPOT.com, and then hit the “Check-In” button to automatically tag your GPS location.

If you’re within the allotted range of the checkpoint (a couple hundred feet) your phone interface will tell you if you have won!

The promotion runs today through November 30, 2011. The new prizes this week include Mountain Hardwear gloves, Wolverine boots, a North Face parka, Sea to Summit pack, a Pelican case, Buck knife, and more. Good luck!

—Go to CPSpot.com for instructions, prize descriptions, and complete rules.