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Paddle To The Sea & You Otter See This

2 messages in this thread | Started on 2001-03-25

Paddle To The Sea & You Otter See This

From: Carolyn Stearns (cstearns@neca.com) | Date: 2001-03-25 16:47:06 UTC-05:00
Paddle To The Sea Letterbox  & You Otter See This Letterbox
( Otter box is handicapped accessible)
Planted  3/25/01
Rated easy ; flat mostly paved on flood control dike
 
North Windham, Ct   Windham County
More Cock-A-Doodle-Moo Boxes
 
On rte 6 north Windham pass by Walmart and the shopping area as if going to Chaplin. Shortly after the shopping just past the end of Windham airports runway park at the communter parking lot.  Here you pass through the gate and see the dike run out in front of you in curving arcs headed to the Mansfield Hollow Dam flood control project.  This is an area abundent with  wildlife some permanent some passing through on their way to breeding grounds or winter  areas. We saw many variety of birds on our expedition here and were so lucky to watch a pair of river otters play  on the ice slip sliding on their bellies in sheer delight.  A pair of beautiful swans live here as well.  Walk on the paved dike do not go on the dangerous stone embankments! While walking you will pass  a pair of twin silver sentinals. 7 gaurds past these you will find the  " You Otter See This " letterbox. Because this  is a very busy walkpath try to camoflage your stamping activity with  birdwatching or some other thing. Rehide the box exactly in it's little house it is highly visible and will disappear if not done well.  The next box is not wheel chair handy but hope all you others will enjoy the rest of the walk.
    Continue down the dike. You reach a yellow gate just slip by and continue and you will  come to the end wall of the dam. The view is of the little village of Mansfield Hollow, the Kirby Mill, and of course the massive engineering feat of retaining the lake. Below to the left the river races away toward Norwich in boiling torrents over the  Horseshoe Falls. Water here moves treacherously fast at high water   please be careful while exploring this area. From this vantage point you can see where the box is hidden only you will hgave to back track a little to the yellow gate. Now bear right and down the path along the edge of the dike. It is paved but old. When it levels out look to the left for the tallest most well grown pine on the hill overlooking the river. Proceed to the big pine. At the Pine take a reading of 280 degrees. Site a stump and your  Paddle to the Sea stamp awaits you there.
Paddle to the Sea is inspired by a childrens story of a handcarved canoe perched to ride the Canadian  snow melt out of the hills to Lake Superior and on to the sea. Paddle travels thousands of miles and at last is picked up on the great Fishing  banks in the North Atlantic.  Our paddle is perched thus on a snowy bank  where the melting snow quickly would send a little canoe to the sea, only our paddle wishes to remain and see you on your way.   Enjoy the park and  your walk and these two handcarved stamps.

Re: [LbNA] Paddle To The Sea & You Otter See This

From: (mohmers@aol.com) | Date: 2001-03-26 07:01:45 UTC-05:00
In a message dated 3/25/01 1:00:46 PM Pacific Standard Time,
cstearns@neca.com writes:

<<
Paddle to the Sea is inspired by a childrens story of a handcarved canoe
perched to ride the Canadian snow melt out of the hills to Lake Superior and
on to the sea. Paddle travels thousands of miles and at last is picked up on
the great Fishing banks in the North Atlantic. Our paddle is perched thus
on a snowy bank where the melting snow quickly would send a little canoe to
the sea, only our paddle wishes to remain and see you on your way. Enjoy
the park and your walk and these two handcarved stamps.

-------------------- >>

How awesome! I read this story to my kids just in the fall! They loved it
and we launched our own ... "Paddle to the Mississippi" and "Float to the
Gulf of Mexico" with high hopes. We had thought what a wonderful series of
boxes this book would make along the path "Paddle" had traveled in the book.
We look forward to finding your Paddle if we ever make it there!

Mohmers