Yesterday I headed up to into the north of Michigan (still in the
lower peninsula). The day started overcast, and by noon the
forecasted evening rain had made its early entrance. Mid-afternoon I
found myself stamping in on the 45th parallel at Mission Point under
protect of a massive, dense cedar tree. Unfortunately, the entire
trail was not covered with huge cedar trees and by the time I got
back to the truck, I was soaked through. Fortunately I had taken
along extra clothes and didn't have to ride 3 hours back home like
that!

In addition to the 45th parallel box co-planted by Esperanza and Matt
the Rat, I found 3 other Esperanza boxes. One other I had hoped to
find, the Interlochen box, eluded me, which was too bad since I had a
little something special planned for this neighbor of the performing
arts center. Either my slightly steamy compass readings misled me or
my paces were not accurate, more likely the latter (see previous
post). I must have gone back to the two little pine trees and took
readings and paces at least 20 times. I took small steps, and large
steps, I counted a pace as one foot-fall, I counted a pace as two
foot-falls. The amazing thing was every time I ended up between an
oak and a many-branched pine tree -- seems this combination of trees
is prolific in the area!

Eventually, since both compass readings were in the same quadrant, I
abandoned use of the compass and carefully poked a stick down inside
and around the base of every rotting stump I found between East and
South, looking for loose debris posing as box covering... and
believe me there are a lot of rotting stumps out there. Finally as
darkness and still more rain loomed overhead, I decided my presence
had been enough invasion and headed back up the trail. I will have
to take OldShoe back with me to this one... he has a nose for these
things!

Also planted the next 3 boxes in my Michigan lighthouses series...
clues to follow.

Thanks to Esperanza for some great box locations that made for a very
scenic trip even in the rain! Also I was excited to find hand-carved
stamps, nice job!

Deb (SpringChick)