Yesterday was a beautiful day in Virginia and I took off to
Fountainhead Park (Fairfax Co) to look for the Scooby Series aka The
Creature of Fountainhead Park. This is a series of 5 boxes. The
first 2 boxes are kid-friendly. Then you have to cross a creek - you
can almost hear the scary music as you approach the creek, take a
left, and see that the place you are supposed to cross is under water.
Even the wobbly pipes aren't there. Two joggers showed me an
alternate crossing to the right as you approach the creek. The scary
music was still playing in my head as I made it across the pointy tops
of rocks that were barely above the water surface. Then I was on the
other side and needed to head left and had to cross a side creek that
comes into the main creek. I easily jumped across this little creek -
the opposite bank is about 3 feet lower than the bank I was on.

The real trouble came on the way back to the car. I couldn't go
across the pointy rocks because I couldn't get up the little creek
bank to make my way back to the pointy rocks. There were no other
rock crossings. What to do, what to do? Aha - there are mounds of
pea gravel in the creek rising barely above the water. There are foot
prints in the gravel! Eureka! I could jump across the water to the
mounds of pea gravel. Joyful tunes were playing in my head. Until I
stepped on the pea gravel. And sunk in pea gravel soup about 8
inches. Then I knew why the other footprints were about 4 inches deep.
I pulled my feet out (shoes stayed on!) and dragged pounds of wet pea
gravel to the opposite shore. Fortunately, I had another pair of
socks so I could shed the gritty pair. But I still had to walk about
a half mile back to the car with wet shoes and muddy wet ankles.

So the warning is this: Do not try to cross the creek with children.
Don't even go to the creek because it is a vigorous climb back up the
hill to get back to your car. The only time it might be possible to
cross the creek is after a summer of drought so that the flat stones
at the crossing place are above water. Or just take off your shoes
and socks, roll up your pants legs, and wade across. You might not
want to try this in March.

Mary, glad no one saw me sink in the creek