Yesterday, Reporter at Large and I set out to find Rich's new Herndon
Parks letterbox collection. Of the 5 boxes in this series, we were
surprised to be the first finders of 4 of them. Waterbird beat us to
Frosted Cupcake.

Things started well enough. We found Slice of Cake and Warm Apple Pie
without too much problem. I will tell you that no one will ever
stumble on these boxes by accident. WEAR LONG PANTS. You have to
scramble down banks, up banks, and walk through prickly bushes, plants
and other ferocious flora. We ran in to BeMa on the trail - you may
have seen her post yesterday.

Then on to Frosted Cupcake. Again, the clues were pretty clear but
the paths were pretty muddy. Of course we've had too much rain lately
so it's no surprise that things were on the wettish side. If you are
bringing kids along, wait until it dries up. Some of the
mud-avoidance tactics couldn't be accomplished by kids.

And now the cussing starts. Rich gives us fair warning that we aren't
going to like him when we are done finding these boxes. The Ol'
Homestead had us cursing his entire family and even back several
generations. But we found the box!! I will tell you that the compass
bearings are accurate so you don't have to think that the cursing is
because the guy can't read the compass. And that's all the hint I'm
going to give you.

Finally, Ice Cream Sundae. We stumbled around quite a bit on this
one, too. Once we'd tried every direction and pacing combination and
poked at every large forked tree within range, and some out of range,
we finally figured out where we were supposed to be before we followed
the final clue. AND TA-DA, there was the box!

BTW, the stamps are pretty dang cute. Rich is quite the carver! Last
weekend, I found his Leesburg boxes. Again, great carvings,
particularly the intricate Antique Carriage.

Rich, I hope you'll come to the May 31 gathering!

Mary