Friends
of Willard Brook Letterboxing Day 2008
Welcome to our third annual
letterboxing day! We hope you enjoy
hunting for the six letterboxes that are hidden around
them!
The
Beaver Box
Careful!
This leads you down an eroded trail with lots of roots! Don’t trip!
From the
parking lot of
past
two picnic tables to the Nature Trail sign.
Follow the trail as it meanders along Pearl Hill Brook. Go over the wooden bridge.
Watch
your footing. There are lots of roots in
the trail! The spring floods surely
carried away lots of soil. That means
there is
lots
of trail work for Friends of Willard Brook to do!!! Go over the second bridge. When you reach the
third bridge, don’t go over
it. Instead, walk between the two rivers and then
follow the path up the hill. Down to the
right is a beautiful beaver meadow.
When
you reach the T intersection, go straight.
Walk past the antler scraping to the pink double flagging. Turn left and
bushwack
uphill to the next pink double flag.
Turn right and walk over a wintergreen carpet towards the dead
snag. Near its
base
is a rotting log. Look underneath!
The
From the parking lot of
look
at the pine trees to the south. One pine
tree has a large bat house. Follow the
dirt road at the base of the pine tree toward the
south. At the black and orange beaver, don’t follow
the arrow! Go straight ahead. When you hear a babbling brook, follow the
sound
to
the roots of a hemlock tree near the bank.
There you will find a great surprise!
The
Thistle Box
Walk
to the far end of the parking lot, towards the bathroom building. From the parking lot corner, find the trail
beyond the
bathroom building that has a barbecue pit
near its side. This trail leads to the
orange fencing where the dam is being repaired.
Follow that trail to the orange fencing,
and notice the great repair job being done on the dam. Turn to the right and walk into the
open field.
Stand on the cement rectangle, and look towards the far edge of the
field. Walk straight to the middle of
that edge.
This time, the treasure is hidden above
ground level behind some bark in the fork of a tree. After you sign and stamp the book,
carefully put the box back in its hiding
place!
The
Cattail Box
To find
this letterbox, take the Friends Trail which starts in the main field of
sign
on the brown wooden post, follow the yellow diamonds. Count 15 diamonds that are leading you onward. Don’t count the diamonds
that
lead you back home. When you reach the
lucky 15th diamond, go past the diamond and through the oak and pine
tree pair that
mark
the trail sides. At the young hemlock
tree and beech sapling on the left, walk carefully down the slope in the
direction of
the
water. A large white pine on your right
is sheltering your treasure! Nature has
another treasure at this tree --- look for
ant-lion
pits in the sand!
The
Daisy Box
Careful! This one takes a while to reach!
From
the parking lot, follow the road that leads towards the campsites. Walk across the field, and then go the “wrong
way”
up the camp road (take the left fork at the
one-way sign). Follow the paved road up,
up, up. Finally the road levels
off. Keep on
going!
When the road starts to go downward, look for the yellow diamond markers
of the Friends trail on both sides of the road.
Follow the Friends Trail to the right, just
before a dirt road. Cross over the dirt
road. The trail goes down steeply and to
the
right.
Keep following yellow diamonds until the trail levels off. Ahead of you is a deep, dark hemlock
grove. Be on the lookout
for a triple-wide old rotting stump off the
trail on the left. Your treasure is
hiding there.
To
return to the parking lot, you can either retrace your steps OR continue on the
path to the pavement and turn right,
following the pavement back.
The
Deer Box
From the
parking lot of
There
you will see two orange trail markers on a tree. Follow the beaver’s arrow. Stay to the left of the next beaver. The third
beaver
shows you which direction to follow.
Look for animal tracks in the path as you go around the pond. Smell the sweet fern!
Climb
over the birch tree that the beavers recently chopped down. Find the places along the trunk where the
beavers ate the
bark. Can you find their teeth marks? Continue
along the path and look for a huge ant hill on the left. The trail may get a bit
muddy,
but the beavers finally lead you to higher ground when they point to the
right. Once you are on the dry trail and
you start
to round a curve, look uphill for the funny
white pine with the outsie belly button.
Just above that tree is a stump holding your
wonderful treasure.