Bruised, battered, bleeding and bummed... the 4 "B's" of unsuccessful
letterboxing... oh and I was sneezing too...

Solved about 90% of Mitch's rebus... thought it might be enought to get
close & we could figure the rest out on site. The whole family +1 was
along on this trip.... all experienced letterboxers. Compass, clues & a
brand spanking new hardbound book for stamps at the ready.

Without giving away location, etc... I'll share the details. Followed
the footpath as directed... at a "Y" in the path, we went the wrong way
& ended up at a bridge that is being rebuilt. Most of us were able to
get across on the 4X18 beams that had been recently set. One maverick
chose to get feet wet crossing rocks & stream below. After walking a
little ways, we realized that the surroundings did not match the next
clues. This is not a very big park, so we continued on the path, pretty
sure it would loop back & meet up where we went wrong. It did, but
several of our group were committed to finding a letterbox and marched
off in any direction that seemed promising.

We eventually made it to where we THINK we were supposed to be. We were
looking for a particular opening & thought we found it, but it seems to
have been overgrown with blackberry vines. Now... mind, you, I am
dressed for genteel letterboxing on this particular morning... shorts
and sandals & a t-shirt (damn the disclaimers!). But, our enthusiastic
younger members are POSITIVE that this is the spot & can almost see the
letterbox gleaming on the other side of this bramble!! Since we left
the machete at home, we pressed a couple of sticks to service and hacked
as best we could at these predatory vines. Blackberries are a
non-native, invasive species here in Oregon, and the only reason we put
up with them is because of the incredible blackberries they produce. I
have no guilt pangs for beating the holy heck out of a blackberry
bramble. This one was bent on revenge for every vine I have pulled,
snipped or otherwise dispatched. By the time I was past the
blackberries, I was bleeding from at least 5 different wounds. Once
inside the clearing, we ran to the suspected location. Very
interesting... on the bank of this creek, it was at one time, the corner
posts of an old wood & barbed wire fence. A snarl of locust trees have
grown up and around this corner over the past 25-30 years and in several
places grew through the barbed wire, creating a living fence post...
beautiful. The beavers had been at these trees and nibbled exotic
patterns through the bark and into the wood of the trees. It was a neat
little spot and I was glad to have found it. It was NOT, however, the
resting spot of Mitch's box. We headed out once again and did battle
with the same blackberries... I was injured at least another half dozen
places on the way out... mild PG curses and yelps as I crashed (all 6'2"
200+ lbs of me) through the last of it. Once on the other side, whatever
herb in the nearby fields that was currently doing it's best to spread
pollen, suddenly became an issue with my nose... itch, twitch, sneeze,
sneeze, sneeze....

okay... time to go home.

We'll try again later.

--
Thom Cheney
tcgrafx... among other things

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