Our first letterboxing attempt

This Sunday, we went out to find The Three Bears. We found none.

The boys were wary of the idea. I tried my best to explain it to them, but of course their young minds began to fill in the blanks and create great imaginary ideas of what it would be like. This worried me. I would like to do this as a way to share my interest in the outdoors and to be able to find our way around some of the little known areas of Dayton once we get there.

It's one thing to say, let's go check out X park. The boys often fight an idea such as that because they have no idea whether there will be something great there or whether it will be another boring place mom drags them to. With Letterboxing, I can say let's go to X park. I hear they have a letter box hidden there. We have a discrete purpose for our travels. Something to focus on.

So I was nervous going out. I also wanted DH to join us for the first excursion so that I could get a lay of the kind of land used in these things. Will it be safe for a woman and kids? Am I risking my kids? What happens if one of them gets tired. I'm certainly not in better shape than my kids are at this point. Maybe I'm setting myself up for a drastic situation. Worry! Worry! Worry!

The boys showed their true colors as we entered Vietnam Veteran's Memorial Park in Billerica. I've driven past this park many times and seen the RC planes flying around, but I have never actually entered the park. The boys were really excited to find the playground at the entrance to the trails. That was enough treasure to keep them happy for the whole day. But they condescended to tag along with mom into the woods to find the real point of our journey.

We followed the directions to the best of our ability. The clues lead you first to Pappa Bear's box. But we were uncertain when the clues told us to stop at the fallen tree with the orange marker after the third tree with an orange marker. Do you start counting the markers at the beginning of the orange trail or at the next marker? We started at the beginning, but I'm not sure that was right because we found no fallen tree with an orange marker. And frankly, that seems like an important piece because in the woods, there are lots of fallen trees.

We tried to use logic but things were just as cloudy. Which rock is Pappa Bear's boulder in a giant stack of boulders. Again, we tried to use logic. But to no avail. The idea of letterboxing is to hide the box in a way that disturbs nature as little as possible. Firstborn thought we needed a shovel. But that would have disturbed nature. I found what I thought was the perfect boulder for Pappa Bear and it would have been a great place to store a letterbox because there was a boulder below it, making it easy to stash a box between and cover it with leaves.

I tried using a stick to swipe under the boulder, but nothing was there. I was relieved that no wildlife came racing out to attack, but dissapointed that no box at least rattled around in there if not came flying out with the swipe of my stick. We tried "under" many big boulders. We dug under the leaves and I explained to the boys that a box should be under the brush, not under the dirt. There must be some sort of natural hole to hide it in and then camoflage it with leaves and sticks.

After about a half hour of looking and Lastborn tagging along saying these woods give me the creeps, we decided to leave Papa Bear's Box behind and see if Mama Bear wanted to visit with us. Apparently, Papa Bear is in a grouchy mood today. We followed a long trail over a hill and past many more stacks of boulders. I pointed out to the boys that these great granite outcroppings are a feature of the northeast and that we would see few of them around Dayton.

They were not impressed. Eddie was still talking about how creepy things were and Ken was still walking way too fast and getting way ahead. Meanwhile, I was trying to read through the clues and not trip over roots and rocks, and the mosquitoes were coming out as the sun seemed to dim more and more by the minutes. Mama Bear's box was supposed to be hidden behind a tree just off the path at the 4th yellow marker. Again, do we start counting at the intersection of the blue and yellow trails or after that one? It might have made a big difference. Because we pursued the only tree that even remotely fit the description of the tree in the clues, and we went behind it but found nothing that looked like a good hiding place. We walked around looking for a hole under the leaves. We moved leaves and twigs looking for a hiding place and we replaced everything so that no one would know we were there. Again, Firstborn wanted a shovel.
I suspect that if we went to the 4th marker and looked for a tree, we would have found a tree with a hole in the back of it, but the mosquitoes were getting hungrier and so were the boys. We gave up after 15 minutes of this and headed back to the car without making an attempt to find baby bear.

I expected the boys would give me a very hard time for our failed outing, but was surprised. They liked the hike even if the woods were creepy. Firstborn was certain that the clues were flawed and I tried to explain to him that we are very new at this and probably missed something.

They seemed even more intrigued after the hike than they were before. Well, Lastborn complained of being tired, which is to be expected considering he had attended a party at a zoo earlier that day and spent the entire time running around like a madman.

I mentioned to them that there are boxes hidden at Union College in Schenectady and that maybe we could go out with cousin J to see if we could find them. First born liked the idea. Lastborn was silent. So I suggested that Lastborn could stay home and I would go with Firstborn and J.

This morning, Lastborn asked if he could go to find the boxes at Union. He was nearly in tears. I told him of course he could. He thought I didn't want him along and I explained that he seemed like he didn't really have a good time. Well, I guess I was wrong.

Maybe it's a good thing that we didn't find our first boxes. I think it made the boys even more interested in finding boxes now that they know they are so well hidden.