Hay There!

We didn't have to go far to find the Hay Boat at Salt Pond Visitors Center but we decided to adventure further anyway.

It was a misty and foggy morning.  It was a beautiful walk and we enjoyed meeting up with a little bunny along our way.

Retired Sea Creatures

It had been 3 years since the last find. So I decided to retire these sea creatures. Kind of seems ironic to retire them since sharks and seals are such a large part of this area now. They weren't nearly as much when E-man and I first planted these seven years ago.

One had become surrounded by a sea of poison ivy so it seemed like it was time. This is one of my favorite spots on the Cape. Such a great little hike. Beautiful views.

The Farmer in the Dell

Today I had the chance to finally plant another box that I had planned and assembled years ago. It was great to run into the Perry Family, trade letterboxing stories, meet the hens, sample some home brew, and visit the "three corner wood," leaving something behind.

If you've never been to Perrydell Farm Dairy, it is a neat place to visit, especially if you're with your family.  In season they have a small corn maze, perfect for young children.  If you time it right, you can watch the cows being milked from the milking parlor. You can always pet the young calves. They have a nice self-guided tour of the facility.

The store is great too.  I highly recommend their skim milk.  It is higher in fat content yet still falls within the skim percentage designation. No "blue" milk here! The chocolate milk is like a milkshake and you won't be disappointed with any sundae, especially those made with local fresh fruit (strawberry, peach, etc.) in season.

got milk?

Hotdogs

Blue Delft and idlemoon like to create the best presents for each others' birthdays and the rest of us get to benefit!

These two craft the best appointed, sweetest, most clever gifts for each other. I just love finding these surprises.

I also get to learn a little bit about each of them in the finding - like what their favorite things are.   And then there was the lump. So fun!

Fish Go Blub

I am so thrilled and honored to know this ancient secret! It is one of my favorites!

Soaking it in

Fort Hill View

I absolutely adore Cape Cod.  We often talk about living here some day.  But for now I have to settle for a handful of weeks each year.  So when my time here is over I get very despondent and just want to soak in as much of the area's beauty and fun as possible.  So today, in between loads of laundry and packing I stole a few minutes to take in a visit to Fort Hill, Penniman's House, the Eastham windmill, and to Stage Harbor in Chatham.

Eastham Windmill

Funny story about our trip to Penniman's House. The visit went great. Hot Lava was telling me about how he played the game camouflage when he visited here with his camp.  It was a delightful walk to find the box. A really great hidey hole. It was a little buggy as we rounded a bend but then as it opened up to the view the bugs left us alone.  Just then we spooked a large deer who bounded away from us.

Stage Harbor

We sat on the bench and logged in while taking in the views of Fort Hill.  As I was putting my stuff back in my bag I realized that I didn't have my car keys.  I began to freak out a little so Hot Lava and I booked it back, retracing our steps, looking for my dropped keys. We didn't see them.  We raced to my car and realized that not only had I left the car open, but I had left the keys in the car as well.  I guess I was just so excited about getting my fix of letterboxing that I spaced out.

Kent's Point

I knew Kent's Point was a popular spot to walk your dog but I had no idea!  Everyone and their brother was walking their dogs at Kent's Point today!  We were the only ones with our dogs on a leash.  Seriously, are leashes not required in this park?  And what about poop bags?  Also not required apparently. Ick. Hot Lava got a hot mess all over his shoes.  :(

Great walk for us and the dogs, though. Nice views. I was able to find A-bear lying low as well as work out some clue updates for Licks.

Rising

It was the perfect day to visit the falls.  It had been 7 years since we were here before. Hard to believe. No wonder the boys didn't remember it well.

We saw loads of warty little toads and even found a tiny snapping turtle.  It was almost cute.

I checked in on the feather spirit but the tall stump it had been languishing in had rotted and fallen away. It was no where to be found. But thanks to bones, who found it last week (prior find was 2011!), I persevered and located the rising spirit.  After watching the family frolic in the falls and slide down the rock slide, I found a new place for it.  One that is much more accessible.

It's a cool little park.  Really enjoyed it today!

Using our Senses

 Our next stop found us at the Five Senses Garden.  What a fun little place tucked into the city of Harrisburg.  We noted how fun it might be to come back in season to experience the garden when the plants are in full bloom.






Not only did we find a firefly but also we found these clever critters as well.

Adventures in Eastham

Of course we were familiar with the Evergreen Cemetery. Not only had we been here before but it is just across the street from Arnold's and that's hard to miss.  A lot of people love Arnold's but I don't believe they serve pasta.  More like lobster rolls and fried clam strips.

As we were exploring the cemetery, we encountered a coyote.  That was pretty exciting for us.  Fortunately, it didn't take much interest in us but we were a bit spooked to see it out in broad daylight.

Of all the time I've spent on the Cape exploring and I've never met the three sisters. I have never even heard of them.  Until now.

They were very cool to visit. We will have to return in the off season so we can get to the images that eluded us today.

On our way out we spotted this guy making a trek across the road.  We stopped and provided crossing guard services to make sure he was safe. We don't see box turtles around like we used to!

Long Overdue

There was a time in my letterboxing "career" when I would have set out within a day or at most, a weekend of a new box being planted in my area.  Boy have times changed.  Now my letterboxing habit takes a very back seat to many other things.  But since I was having a sad day realizing that my kids are growing up way too fast, my (no longer a) baby decided to take pity on me and he agreed to hike with me in my favorite local park.

More than a year ago, I was along on the plant for hop along home but it seemed that I was not an official finder until I found it on my own. Which I did today.

Then Hot Lava and I scaled some rocks including a case of rock stairs.

Yikes!...Oh Fudge!  A fawn must've been resting nearby because it jumped right out in front of me and made me scream.  A few moments later I screamed again when I lifted the SPOR to find the box and a snake slithered over the box.   I was jumpy all the rest of the hike.

We had a little trouble finding the protruding "goggly eyes." It is funny to me how many trees I can construe into "protruding googly eyes" and how many of such trees have corresponding V trees with kick stands!  HA! We did persevere and were rewarded with a beautiful delft tile!

It was a super day after all!

Brachycephalic Boys at the Beach

I am not much of a dog lover.  I like dogs from a distance just fine.  You might even be surprised to know that we have two dogs, although I always say they are my husband's dogs and I just let them all (husband included) stay at my house.  ha ha.

So I was away for the weekend with the extended in-laws and it rained.  I was able to drag four noxer extended family members with me over to Ocean View to meet some brachycephalic boys.  It was fun to visit them and reminded us of our boy we had to leave at home.

The stroll was super.  Just the right amount of break from all of the in-law commotion.  We even made a new friend who was guarding the first box.  Although, he (she?) was pretty anti-social.  We tucked him away until we found the second box then circled back to find him again but he had taken off.  We weren't gone that long and couldn't believe he made such headway.

Really glad I got to come here.  Made a rainy day with the in-laws a happy, fun one!

Great Island

The cali cousins wanted a nice long hike so we chose Great Island as our destination.  We had never been before.  The letterbox had a high diamond rating so I was anxious to check it out.

We headed out and passed some cool stuff.   Sea pickles were abundant in the beginning of the trek. 

We also came across some tiny crabs and some strange holes that perhaps these crabs had dug and thrown some sandy pellet stuff out.  

As we hiked along the sand got  sandier and the sky got darker.  It is amazing how much longer the hike seems when you're not walking on firm sand.  We passed a number of dead birds and came across two larger decomposing critters.  I saw that the Cape had a bunch of dolphins stranding themselves in the Feb-March timeframe near Herring River which is very close to this area.  That must be what they are.  Such a shame.

We had some trouble with the map.  We probably would have done better without it.  We struggled to find the old Tavern site.  But finally we did stumble across it and the view was breathtaking.  We found the treasure with no problem once we found the Tavern site.  

The hike back was faster since now we knew where we were going.  Although still slower than firm ground.  The darkening sky gave way to rain right as we reached our last half mile or so.  It is definitely a hike I will remember for a long time.  Sometimes those challenging ones are the ones you remember better than the simpler ones.  

Strong Island

Ever since we found out that Chatham put walking paths on Strong Island we've been so anxious to go.  Today we finally got the chance and I left a little something behind.

It was very cool.  We saw a white egret nesting, a horse wandering around, and some beautiful overlooks.  We were prepared with bug spray and were able to stay away from the poison ivy which was everywhere off trail.

We can't wait to return to explore some more.

Moon Walk

We definitely didn't have the moon beaming overhead as we went on our moon walk, but instead there was a trifecta of ospreys screeching and circling.  Perhaps they were seeking lunch, we did find a squirrel tail and a bunny tail left behind from someone's meal.  We also saw a bunch of fiddler crabs peeking in and out of their holes.

Maintenance Loop

After dropping off the self-portrait, we decided to loop around and check in on some other adventures.  We passed by the missing tile and stuck our tongue out at the tree again, and made our way to the 3rd on the 6th.  I took a look through the logbook and thought it funny that so many finders commented on the missing crude bench.  When Eman and I originally wrote the clues in 2007 the bench was very crude then, no surprise it didn't last more than a couple more years.  Anyway, I took care of a few things, removed a useless and filthy outer bag (where did that come from anyway) and hid it much better as it was practically out in the open.  

We also ran into a couple of salamanders in the area of the box.  We enjoyed looking at them but left them alone.  

From there I headed over to check in on Nixon.  I took some bearings to help with the clues since it seemed that some finders were having trouble.  Again, I removed the outer bag and rehid better. All the while, I got a strange feeling that I was being watched.  Perhaps I was.  After all, the woods have eyes.  

  

Sping has Sprung

Recently, Blue Delft and I got to corresponding about a local box-less park and today we decided to meet and check it out.  After some exchanging of images (thanks for the awesome PT and the creepy cootie), we set out on a great hike.  The park has lots of nice features: steep hills, rock walls, springs, critters, ponds, benches, thick brush, open spaces, and meadow muffins.   

 
We came up with loads of ideas, now to find the time to execute them...

Stay tuned! 

The Briar Patch

From the scaredy cat at Saddle and Pillion we hopped over to the Briar Patch to make the acquaintance of Thornton Burgess and Harrison Cady's Animal Friends.  What a wonderful little hike and terrific carvings.  A perfect adventure for this beautiful fall day.  We also loved the bonus meeting with Peter Rabbit! 

An out of this world W-A-L-K

Today when we went for a W-A-L-K we saw some cool things.  We saw a number of trees that had been damaged from the October 29 snow.

We also saw a horse, a black and white fat cat, a beautiful blue heron, an alien hand, and osage oranges, which also look very alien-ish.  The afternoon was out of this world!

No Apple Pie in the Dutch Oven today

From the Nut we headed over to the Dutch Oven, also in Codorus State Park.  The box was hidden in the best hidey hole.  And there was the cutest little toad hopping all around. I was afraid that I was going to step on him.  But he hopped up behind the bark of the hidey hole tree for safety.  I tried to get a picture of him but he was too fast.

As recent finders had been reporting, the stamp from the Dutch Oven was missing.  I looked all around the area thinking that maybe it was among the leaves and bark but I was not able to find it.  I've decided to keep the Dutch Oven active even though it is missing its stamp.  Hopefully between Pappa Bear and myself, we can get a replacement there soon. 

From the Dutch Oven, we went to find the Apple Pie but I looked all around and it is definitely missing.