After our evening retreival of the Stacks House letterbox we
were "fortified" to pursue more letterboxes despite the night hours.
My co-conspirator is a night owl after all. So we headed for
Arlington and Lacey Woods Park.

I have been letterboxing at night before and I am sure many of you
have but how often have you been letterboxing in the DARK? We
discovered we had no flashlight! Hey, the parks not that big, how
hard can it be? It was dark.

We walked back out of the park to the streetlights a couple times to
reread the clues. Then night owl discovered she could use her cell
phone button lights to read by. Wouldn't light up the trail though.
We found the holly tree by feel. Literally. That's right. "Ouch!
Yep, that's a holly tree."

Vague shapes in the dark. At one point I said hello to a stump
thinking it was night owl down low to look at something. I think I
found "2003 Year" more by letterboxing placing instinct, and feel,
then by sight. We went back to the car to stamp in. At least it was
close to the road. It sure was spooky putting it back by myself
though.

"1533" was deeper in the woods. "I thought this was a little
park?!" For a little park we were sure led through a maze of little
trails in the dark. "Is that a trail or a log?" "Oww!" "Must be a
log." We punched our cell phones over and over to light up the
clues. Do you know that clues are more incomprehensible and
everything seems so much farther in the dark? I was shading my eyes
from far away porch lights through the trees to preserve my night
vision.

Finding the great circle of benchs around the fire platform, in the
dark, was a spiritual experience. Again I couldn't see most of the
objects in the clues and just read ahead and guessed. So much for
reaching under logs carefully. Can't use a stick in the dark. But
you can feel a letterbox container. "Ah ha!"

Night Owl insisted we stamp in there at the picnic table in the
dark. Someone called her on the cell phone asking if we'd just
called. Night Owl must have been redialing someone accidently while
pushing buttons to get light.

Enjoyed the stamps in both places. Wish we could have seen how nice
the park was. Though we did thoroughly enjoy the park, in the dark.

It was fun and challenging and I can't believe I didn't get poison
ivy. I can't say I recommend it. Did I mention it was DARK?

Scarab and Night Owl of the Doubtful Guests