Our shadows in the parking lot as we got underway

We thereby opted to wait until autumn, even though we knew that the clues would be more difficult without foliage on the trees.  I am delighted that we waited for another reason as well – back in May, our chief supporter wasn’t really into the sport of letterboxing as the kids and I.  He would tag along and frequently help us to locate boxes – but he didn’t have a signature stamp or trail name of his own.  Since then, he has had a change of heart and has joined the ranks of letterboxers all over the world.

Our CEO

We drove out early in the morning … arriving about 9 a.m.  In this area, there are well over 25 letterboxes.  We hunted for four hours – taking a brief rest now and then to refuel when necessary – still we didn’t find them all.

Buddy enjoying a brief little siesta

Sweetie wins the award for most boxes found … she would run ahead of us and find the boxes before I had even finished reading the clues.  She is quite the treasure hunter.  Dad and Buddy proved to be the most persistent .. finding boxes that even I had given up on.

Sweetie finding yet another letterbox before we even arrived

As per usual, some of the boxes that were originally hid have since been lost. One was believed to have fallen into a hollowed tree trunk.  We thought perhaps we could see it though our arms were not long enough to reach it.  I thereby offered to my husband my survival knife in hopes that perhaps he could poke it and thereby retrieve it.  This didn’t work.  However, as I proceeded to put the knife away, I sliced my right index finger quite severely (not quite requiring stitches, but nearly so).  Funny, as I equipped my day pack earlier this summer, I purchased a first aide kit as well as this knife.  Had I not been using this knife, I would not have had need for first aide.  Ah well.  Live and learn.  Fortunately, it was I who was injured and not one of the kids.

Me … modeling (thankfully) the only injury of the day

We went out for lunch after our adventure and then stopped by the pumpkin patch for our pumpkins.  It was a great day!