It was a perfect day for a walk in the park, which is what this quest was since it mostly followed the all-purpose trail and bridle trails in the park. Liza was in favor of the large bridge we walked over near the start of the trip, mainly because she got to throw rocks at the local residents:
Jason and Liza had to leave the hike early to go to swim class, so he wasn't there when I finally found the first box:
above: in situ
below: removed for examination
Like most letterboxes, this one contained a custom stamp I could use to record the find in my journal, a logbook where I could record the date I found the box, and enough plastic bags to keep it all relatively dry. This series was supposed to illustrate four things Clevelanders are proud of, so in four boxes I got three sports logos and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Here's my completed journal page, along with the fourth letterbox:
I have to say, this was a lot of fun. The quest I chose had very straightforward directions ("After the culvert, walk 40 steps and look to your right. Behind the tree stump that's about 6 feet tall is a tree that forks about 4 feet off the ground. The box is behind that forked tree.) and the boxes were easy to find. They were located close to well-traveled paths, so it's not like I had to bushwhack much to find them.
In fact, the paths were probably a little too well-traveled, since I managed to accidentally make one horse on the bridle path shy away when I moved in the brush to the side of the path, and another guy on the trail wanted to know what I was doing back there. Since the locations of letterboxes are supposed to be kept secret from everyone except the people on the quest, I already had a story prepared: photographing tree fungus. No better reason to be poking around in stumps off of the marked trails, right? No, really, officer, I'm not hiding drugs in this hollow tree.
I'll definitely be doing this again, if only so that Jason has a chance to be in on the final discovery. Plus, that way he's the one digging around in tree stumps with his bare hands. It's not like we have (many) poisonous spiders or snakes in Ohio, but it doesn't hurt to be careful. I think next time, I'll bring gloves.
And the whole "quest" thing gave us a destination on an otherwise unremarkable stretch of trail, which gave us an excuse to get out and see what was there. And there was plenty to see, if you looked. I love the evil-looking tree roots in the background here:
You can't see it so well in the last photo, but that's a neon blue body on some kind of dragonfly or damselfly. It was spectacular in real life, but like so many other things, not so impressive on film.
1 comment:
When we go to the beach, we bring a pirate's chest and bury it in the sand. Later, one of our kids will "find" a map. One time, we found a park ranger to give them a map. Another time, they found it in a bottle in the surf. They enjoy digging around for the chest.
In our neighborhood, the police were called to investigate a fellow positioning a suspicious box in a tree near the school. Fearing that he was setting explosives, a rather large police presence found that he was setting up a geo-cache.
- MLF
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