Night Owl and Scarab really enjoyed these two series, on opposite
sides of our "world" (the DC area).

Hurricane Isabel made boxing very challenging. Fallen trees,
washouts of bridges, paths and boxes, whether real or suspected.

In the Woods we never found the first of the series. We were
looking for a fallen tree in the clues among so many new fallen
trees. Found an old looking root stock but had no luck. Really
enjoyed the rest of the series though and the Woods theme. Stood in
the forest while hundreds of migrating birds (grackels?) made
cacaphony of motion and sound overhead. One of those "moments" that
reminds us why we're out there.

*** May contain slight SPOILERS. ***

My Dear Watson really challenged our perseverance. Originally tried
it in 6" of snow last January. Decided leaving so many tracks all
over was not a good idea. Box 1 was buried completely under snow as
well as the log it was hidden in! Found it anyway and gave up for
warmer weather.

Returned in August with Cozy and Night Owl. If you don't know this
series it has cleverly written "prose" clues that are a challenge to
follow. As usual they work better if you read what they say and not
what you assume they are saying. After they refound the 1st box
they gave up on the second and fled from the flying little
vampires. We vowed to return.

Returned in October with Night Owl and plenty of time (needed). No
luck still finding box 2. Saw a perfectly good place for it,
matching the description great, but no luck. Seemed missing.
Trudged on. We got confused by the trail markings. Thought it
forked and went through the swamp. That's right we went through and
around the swamp for an hour trying to figure out where we were. We
were confused by a lot of washed out trail bridges and
boardwalks. "Look, it's all been washed out by Isabel!" Saw a lot
of beaver activity. Finally gave up and headed back, only to see
another hiker go a different way. Thinking we might have been all
wrong we headed off that way and onto the right track.

Found box 3 without only a little trouble, really enjoying it's
placement. We liked reading in the log how so many people had a lot
of trouble finding it and we didn't, "Found box 4 easily before we
came back and finally found 3." That came back to haunt us when we
couldn't find box 4. Searched and searched around the swamp. We
thought the "barrier" was the swamp! Another Isobel victim! But
wait, these people found it after Isabel.

Gave up and went on to box 5. Easy find. There we read again how
easy it was to find box 4, the one we couldn't find. We also read
the that planter, Celtic Pride, had checked all the boxes just a
couple weeks before, After Isabel.

We'd blamed Isabel for taking the boxes and had falsely given up.

Now determined, though getting late, we went all the way back
looking for 4 and even 2. They must be here somewhere. Reread and
reinterpret the clues. "Wait, shouldn't this be horizontal and not
vertical? Couldn't the barrier be something other than the swamp?"
Giving up our preconceived notions we found 2 and 4 after all,
pretty easily.

Thanks for a great fall day in the woods.

Scarab of the Doubtful Guests