Well, we tried to. We thought in order to be good hostesses we ought to scope out a perspective location prior to sending our friends there. Kind of glad we did, kind of bummed about it too. Last year we had construction issues with our High Tea Mini Meet. This year the owner has decided to get married and is moving on. So Sweet Leaves Teahouse will be closing for good on Decemeber 31st. Now I'm all for folks getting married - but moving on? When we need to have an event there - now this just cramps my style!
So we sat and had our high tea, while the rain drizzled outside... and we were knocked for a loop. We had calendars and notebooks and all we could do was - well, nuthin. Team MudCup was at a loss. We did learn something... Tea likes lox more than she thought she did, we still haven't figured out why there was plain butter on the cucumber and watercress sandwiches and neither of us likes cocoa dusted on truffles. But honey is good in Raspberry Black Tea and Tea was able to bring ginger cookies to her grandmother.
But any planning for a midwinter high tea was firmly put on hold. So we opted to think briefly about a future series - knowing we would need to visit a few cemeteries in order to pull it off... before heading off to WalMart. I was in search of a Bumblebee for my grandson. Not really knowing what I was looking for, I strolled back and forth the toy aisles. Sadly - no bumblebees. So how on earth did I manage to spend $130? I did have 6 or 7 bags for my money - Tea spent the same and only had 2! LOL!
So here I sit, another weekend gone. I did pull together 5 hikers and I think I might replant a box from our summer pre-gather. I've tucked away the nine stamps for next Halloween - and am avoiding making 5 LTCs. Oh yeah - I did also pick up black paint and light tacks for our night boxing series next summer... so all wasn't lost. Now if the rain would go away...
Anyone wanna do my LTCs for me : )
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Team MudCup's Muses
Okay - so I've written numerous times that there are a few places Tea and I love to box. Highest on our list is probably cemeteries. So naturally - on more than once occasion - cemeteries have been a talking point for a series of our own. This past Saturday Tea and I headed out early. Tea keeps telling me she doesn't like night boxing, maybe we should quantify that statement.
Tea does not like night boxing at night... she does on the other hand like night boxing in the wee small hours of the morning. So to bend a couple rules in order to accomplish this... shhh - don't tell. We started out at 5:30, our normal launching time. But now that the time change has taken place - it's still darn dark at 5:30am! And still dark at 6:00am - and cemeteries don't open up until 7am. So many things wrong with this picture already. Its also a bit of a challenge to read headstones in the wee small hours of daybreak!
BUT we had an agenda to stick to - of which included a series of boxes we needed to finish. So off we went. Well - it so happens that there was more than one Jesus watching over nuns, and low and behold, it also seemed that More than once Michael married Bridget with the same last name... so we walked the perimeter until the light came up... and later on with us. After fifteen minutes - being POSITIVE we were in the right location, we opted to head to the next box. Having found that one without nearly as much trouble - we oriented ourselves and backtracked... yup - there was Michael and Bridget in the opposite direction as their counterparts.
Now getting this box required one to either carry a long stick, or you had to be partially made of rubber to twist in and around to grab it. And since I know I have more water and other minerals in my make-up and am sadly lacking rubber parts, we were in need of a long stick. Tea pops her trunk so I can grab her handy dandy walking stick when I look in the bushes, and there for our boxing convenience - a perfectly hidden stick! Some boxers are so considerate!
So Michael and Bridget can go back to watching over the box while Jesus watches over a second cluster of nuns. We continued past Norton's treasure and was looking for an area that we both agree twists us up a bit. Seeking out one of God's Littlest Angels was our next task. We did not find the Angel we were seeking, but did find a plot full of little Angels guarded by numerous Catholic Fathers. It would seem in 1933, some major epidemic befell Portland's tiniest population, and many were interned together. It shows the humanity that the Catholic church has even for its smallest parishioners (all the headstones had first names), while also providing a brief look into a low period in our medical past. In the not so distant past. Knowing I would be taking my 4 year-old for his flu shot had me reflecting what these tiny little souls had suffered from? Too often it was something like the flu. Today, commonly passed off as a mere annoyance, back then it it claimed so many little souls.
But anyways, that is a sidebar... so we made it out of one cemetery and headed off to a different one. While the first cemetery had elaborate headstone, this one had very conservative stones. But they still were holding a box and we wold seek it out early in the day. Luckily by now we had daylight, so it made it easier... even though it wasn't any drier. Did I mention that we had already changed from very wet sneakers to our Bean boots? Well, we picked up this cemetery box prior to this cemetery officially opening as well. So we scooted out quick and headed off to our next quarry. We visited college and pulled stones out of a stone wall looking for the correct 'loose' stone before we found our box.
By this time we had broken enough rules that we felt we needed a bit of redemption... so we followed our clues into a Library. We found two of the three boxes in the Children's section (where I picked up my 600th find.) And then had an interesting chat about some visitors they had had a couple weeks earlier. Some woman dressed with a bumpy, veiny costume had strolled in looking for "The Manor." I chuckled knowing they were trying to get to Frightnight and I then proceeded to explain Oread's costume to the librarian who had sadly never heard Seven of Nine or Star Trek. How that is possible - I'm still unclear.
But we needed to continue on. We were on a time limit and we still had to log a few more miles and a couple more boxes before heading home again. We drove a bit and I managed to get us completely off-track, but we finally found the correct road, after driving across a narrow well-marked road. (Well marked with ATV trail markers anyways.) Passed I don't know how many abandoned trucks, some with orange clad men touting shotguns into the woods.
We visited an absolutely gorgeous out of the way Rest Area that closes for the winter. It was lovely. On the edge of rushing waters and it had well groomed picnic areas and walking paths. We also visited a pond to pick up some skates. Way to warm to go skating - but we couldn't find the companion canoe. How does one ice skate while canoeing?
So on our way home we ventured back to the idea of a series of boxes in local cemeteries. Tea has a book on the subject, (I told you we like cemeteries) so we can tie in some local history as well. A short day of boxing for us for sure... but in the seven hours we had - I managed to pick up another 14 boxes, almost 2 an hour... and we managed to brainstorm about a series. So those planning on coming to play next summer.... maybe we WILL have some new boxes to add to the clues when you come!
Tea does not like night boxing at night... she does on the other hand like night boxing in the wee small hours of the morning. So to bend a couple rules in order to accomplish this... shhh - don't tell. We started out at 5:30, our normal launching time. But now that the time change has taken place - it's still darn dark at 5:30am! And still dark at 6:00am - and cemeteries don't open up until 7am. So many things wrong with this picture already. Its also a bit of a challenge to read headstones in the wee small hours of daybreak!
BUT we had an agenda to stick to - of which included a series of boxes we needed to finish. So off we went. Well - it so happens that there was more than one Jesus watching over nuns, and low and behold, it also seemed that More than once Michael married Bridget with the same last name... so we walked the perimeter until the light came up... and later on with us. After fifteen minutes - being POSITIVE we were in the right location, we opted to head to the next box. Having found that one without nearly as much trouble - we oriented ourselves and backtracked... yup - there was Michael and Bridget in the opposite direction as their counterparts.
Now getting this box required one to either carry a long stick, or you had to be partially made of rubber to twist in and around to grab it. And since I know I have more water and other minerals in my make-up and am sadly lacking rubber parts, we were in need of a long stick. Tea pops her trunk so I can grab her handy dandy walking stick when I look in the bushes, and there for our boxing convenience - a perfectly hidden stick! Some boxers are so considerate!
So Michael and Bridget can go back to watching over the box while Jesus watches over a second cluster of nuns. We continued past Norton's treasure and was looking for an area that we both agree twists us up a bit. Seeking out one of God's Littlest Angels was our next task. We did not find the Angel we were seeking, but did find a plot full of little Angels guarded by numerous Catholic Fathers. It would seem in 1933, some major epidemic befell Portland's tiniest population, and many were interned together. It shows the humanity that the Catholic church has even for its smallest parishioners (all the headstones had first names), while also providing a brief look into a low period in our medical past. In the not so distant past. Knowing I would be taking my 4 year-old for his flu shot had me reflecting what these tiny little souls had suffered from? Too often it was something like the flu. Today, commonly passed off as a mere annoyance, back then it it claimed so many little souls.
But anyways, that is a sidebar... so we made it out of one cemetery and headed off to a different one. While the first cemetery had elaborate headstone, this one had very conservative stones. But they still were holding a box and we wold seek it out early in the day. Luckily by now we had daylight, so it made it easier... even though it wasn't any drier. Did I mention that we had already changed from very wet sneakers to our Bean boots? Well, we picked up this cemetery box prior to this cemetery officially opening as well. So we scooted out quick and headed off to our next quarry. We visited college and pulled stones out of a stone wall looking for the correct 'loose' stone before we found our box.
By this time we had broken enough rules that we felt we needed a bit of redemption... so we followed our clues into a Library. We found two of the three boxes in the Children's section (where I picked up my 600th find.) And then had an interesting chat about some visitors they had had a couple weeks earlier. Some woman dressed with a bumpy, veiny costume had strolled in looking for "The Manor." I chuckled knowing they were trying to get to Frightnight and I then proceeded to explain Oread's costume to the librarian who had sadly never heard Seven of Nine or Star Trek. How that is possible - I'm still unclear.
But we needed to continue on. We were on a time limit and we still had to log a few more miles and a couple more boxes before heading home again. We drove a bit and I managed to get us completely off-track, but we finally found the correct road, after driving across a narrow well-marked road. (Well marked with ATV trail markers anyways.) Passed I don't know how many abandoned trucks, some with orange clad men touting shotguns into the woods.
We visited an absolutely gorgeous out of the way Rest Area that closes for the winter. It was lovely. On the edge of rushing waters and it had well groomed picnic areas and walking paths. We also visited a pond to pick up some skates. Way to warm to go skating - but we couldn't find the companion canoe. How does one ice skate while canoeing?
So on our way home we ventured back to the idea of a series of boxes in local cemeteries. Tea has a book on the subject, (I told you we like cemeteries) so we can tie in some local history as well. A short day of boxing for us for sure... but in the seven hours we had - I managed to pick up another 14 boxes, almost 2 an hour... and we managed to brainstorm about a series. So those planning on coming to play next summer.... maybe we WILL have some new boxes to add to the clues when you come!
Sunday, November 2, 2008
The Quest: Day Three
Okay - so we were fairly sure the quest had been accomplished. But really? Is 500 boxes enough for one person? There's 600, 700 and beyond. And we still had boxes and places to visit on our list yet to tackle. We had a couple that were those darling Blue Diamonds that we both wanted, and smartly decided against getting in the dark.
After our morning fuel up (And yes, this time we packed provisions in the form of a donut a piece.) of that incredibly sustaining Kashi oatmeal and juice we packed up our coffee and hot cocoa and headed off to our first box. Gathering up our stuff - which when carrying hot beverages really does require two trips to the car - frost scraped from the windshield - we checked out of the hotel and started on our daily voyage. First stop - all the way across the street!
Dang! I didn't even have a second sip of coffee and we were back out of the car! LOL! So off we went in search of our first morning box. And what do we come across - the trail has a river running through it! Granted the frost was tipping the edges of the grass on either side of the river, but we had gone almost ALL weekend without getting muddy or wet and we wanted to keep a clean record - and dry feet. So off we head on the round about loop to our destination. We were in search of 'The Queen's Throne.'
Its a very peaceful place at 7am on a Monday morning. A couple birds did voice a loud protesting call at us disturbing their early morning siesta, but other than that - there was not a lot of movement. We looked high and low and didn't see any sign of 'The Queen.' Granted I wasn't too sure if I was looking for a peacock or the Queen of Hearts, but no Queen showed her regal face that morning. (Probably way to early for royalty to be up and about.) But we did find what we were seeking in this location and headed off to "The Egg." It was then that I decided - if it was "The Queen" that layed this egg, it was probably a good thing we hadn't found her. There's absolutely NO WAY she could have ever been in a good mood after laying this egg!
Back at the car, we reached happily for our coffee and cocoa. Dang - it was cold! Almost as cold as we were. Our options, stop and turn around to get some coffee before heading on - or suck on our cold beverages and trek on. You guessed it - we trekked on! Our motto - so many bboxes, so little time. Besides, the faster we could get back to Ellsworth, the faster we could get some Sweet Tea! (You call it addiction, we call it required beverage material when boxing!) So off we went in search of our first Blue Diamond.
We headed back out towards Acadia and headed over to the trail we searched out the night before. The path was wide and clear and we hiked on. A time was given for the approximate amount of time it should take to complete the hike - we added 20 minutes : ) Pine needle laden and wide, the path quickly turned and became a bit more narrow. We were diligent in seeking out our needed markers - how many Senturies could possibly be in the woods of Maine??? After all, Maine only has 17 million acres of forests... so two trees should be a piece of cake to find!
You guessed it - a little bit of dumb luck and a little bit of walking backwards and we found our Blue Diamond! Woohoo! And with it was a hiker! Our first of the weekend! And other folks had actually been here and left it behind! They must have know we were coming! Yeah! Someone did read the messages I had written by those skywriters! Another one off the list! And another one's gone and another one's gone. Another one's off the list! Yes, we sing and dance when this happens. We have other songs and siren calls when we are out seeking other boxes... but that's a different story.
Back we walked to the car... the path seemed much longer on the return trip than on the one to the box. Kind of odd. But we were headed off to tackle the fine township of Lemoine. And in Lemoine was another Blue Diamond! We circled the booming town and visited the Lemoine State Park and the Lemoine Beach. We visited a cemetary and a church and a preserve! We rescued a lock and lock from sunburn as it had thrown itself out into the late mornings warming rays. After a quick chat with the lock and lock about providing proper protection of leaves, sticks and rocks we left it with only the hope it would heed our advise.
We headed back and realized that we were a touch off our time line again. Oh well. We did manage to conquer Lamoine in fine style! And only a couple people looked at us like we had lost our way. We didn't even manage to do too many u-turns. But then again the town does practically run its roads like a loop trail. we did have to pull over to snap a couple photos. One of a field of approximately 30 wild turkeys. I think Tea was a bit shocked when I started to 'call' to them in their 'native' tongue. But she was able to recover from laughing long enough to continue to drive.
We still had a couple cemetaries to conquer in Ellsworth and one was frighfully close to Tea's sister's house. Okay - so you couldn't see her house on the raods we were on, but Tea was convinced her sister would see her so we drove past her road and held our breath in case we got caught. We found our cemetary and our box. Add that to the checks in the found column! Woop! Woop!
Then it was off to a nursery. This would probably be the hardest dang box to get all weekend! we were told the long story of where the pair of geese spent their winter (New Hampshire) and that they would be getting crated in the next couple days or so to head south for the winter. Now call me crazy - but New Hampshire is not all that south from Maine! Even more perplexing was how one could possibly believe wintering in New Hampshire would give you better weather than wintering in Maine! We have almost the identical weather in the winter! But we listened. And listened. And then I went off in search of a pumpkin. Now normally we wouldn't knock the customer service. But we were the only ones there and they were insistent on helping us! We had no way to know if the owners knew about the box or not, so we didn't want to tip our hand. I left Tea high and dry with the goal of getting the box to her car. I thought if I bought the perfect pumpkin - maybe they would give Tea a wide enough berth to grab the box. we could see it... we just couldn't get anything to distract our two helpful men!
Well, pumpkin in hand and a slip to pay for it. I managed to distract one of them lon g enough for Tea to grab the box and stampus into it. Now the goal was to get the box back into play. More stories... "Did you know swans mate for life?" "No, really?" "What does it mean when one fluffs up their feathers?" "Oh, that's the male trying to attract the female." "Really? How interesting. I think I'll just get a couple more pictures, they are beautiful birds." Yadda, yadda, yadda... keep walking, keep walking. Just a bit further. Yup and the box is back out of sight and into play once again. With a thumbs up, Tea snapped the last couple of shots, we commented on some Oriental themed planters and high tailed it back to the car. (By the way - that ten dollar pumpkin is still on my propane tank - waiting to be carved for Halloween - do you think it will last until next year???)
Image and pumpkin in tow, we headed off to a train trestle. We parked and walked around to follow the clues. Of course its up. What else would I think? Tea headed up first and dislodged the box from its hiding spot. I followed using her backpack as a foil for the thistles and burdocks. He pack was covered with them. We stamped up and watch a few cars pass us by without even a glance up at us. Two women hanging over the top of a train trestle must be normal in Ellsworth. No worries. But we decided to just go back up the foot over the tracks and back to the car instead of tackling the fall flora.
We debunked ourselves of hikers before continuing south. Off we headed to Indian Point. Not back tracking to where we had been, Indian Point in Ellsworth. We were heading out onto a trail that was set up by a high school program. The trail system has two trails that merge on and off from one another. The mail trail has traditional markers, but the one we needed had rocks with blue blazes painted on them. We actually had to pick up a couple of them and place them back where they needed to be to be visiable. Many of the educational markers were gone, but we did manage to find two of the three boxes in one series and a lovely little troll under a bridge here. And the point had a lovely picnic type area. There were many benches that afforded a great view of downtown Ellsworth. I fear once the housing developement is completely, this spot will loose much of its tranquility. But we needed to get back. We had one more stop in Ellsworth before heading home.
While Tea and I love cemetaries, boxes in stonewalls - not so much. Especially when the stonewall is already in near disarray. Clues lead you to believe its in the lower section of the wall. But this wall was all lower section. It had been picked apart and tossed asunder. Sadly it was also riddled with broken glass. Every time I tried to shift a stone that tiny voice would climb up on my shoulder and give me a big slap. It just didn't seem right. There were other noticable places close by to plant a box. Why here? Well, needless to say - this box eluded us. And I fear it wasn't there anymore to begin with. But it was a great place to visit. We walked past two folks playing croquet and made our way back to the car.
Now on our way north we missed a couple boxes. It was our plan to pick them up one our return trip. One had a time limit on it as the gate closed at 5pm. We had also missed the Tour the Fort series at Fort Knox. But a couple of the locations had taken longer than planned so we knew both of these would elude us on the return trip as well. We did want The Masks by Jiffy and guess what - they were waiting for us in a cemetary! Now we needed to get to the road they were on. The 'offramp' we could see... but how on earth do you get to it? Well we fell onto a road and took a stab that this was where we needed to be. Yup - we were right on! Picking up these boxes and another hiker - we started for home. The sun was dipping faster than we were driving.
Somewhere along the way we did a uturn so i could take a photograph of those Easter Egg cabins. On the way north - they just struck me as funny. But by the total lack of reaction from the gentleman cutting wood nearby - me snapping photos was obviously not unusual. We drove on until we reached Camden. There had been a box at the ampetheater... so we thought we'd give it a quick run by. I almost scared 10 years off Tea when I went in behind her (I was the diversion taking photos of the evening sun reflecting on the harbor) to see how her luck was. Found the location - no box though.
Back into the car we continued closer to home. It was getting late, and we were both running low on steam. we decided to pass the last box on our list - which had started out as our first box only two days before. Back in Brunswick, we transferred my things to my waiting car and were both grateful we would be sleeping in our own beds tonight!
Final count... I picked up 80 boxes and 3 hikers. Tea added a little more than 40 to her count and we logged 350 plus miles on her car over the three day excursion. Did we get them all? Heck no - but that just gives us another reason to go back. July 2009 can't roll around fast enough! So start planting up there - we'll be back!
After our morning fuel up (And yes, this time we packed provisions in the form of a donut a piece.) of that incredibly sustaining Kashi oatmeal and juice we packed up our coffee and hot cocoa and headed off to our first box. Gathering up our stuff - which when carrying hot beverages really does require two trips to the car - frost scraped from the windshield - we checked out of the hotel and started on our daily voyage. First stop - all the way across the street!
Dang! I didn't even have a second sip of coffee and we were back out of the car! LOL! So off we went in search of our first morning box. And what do we come across - the trail has a river running through it! Granted the frost was tipping the edges of the grass on either side of the river, but we had gone almost ALL weekend without getting muddy or wet and we wanted to keep a clean record - and dry feet. So off we head on the round about loop to our destination. We were in search of 'The Queen's Throne.'
Its a very peaceful place at 7am on a Monday morning. A couple birds did voice a loud protesting call at us disturbing their early morning siesta, but other than that - there was not a lot of movement. We looked high and low and didn't see any sign of 'The Queen.' Granted I wasn't too sure if I was looking for a peacock or the Queen of Hearts, but no Queen showed her regal face that morning. (Probably way to early for royalty to be up and about.) But we did find what we were seeking in this location and headed off to "The Egg." It was then that I decided - if it was "The Queen" that layed this egg, it was probably a good thing we hadn't found her. There's absolutely NO WAY she could have ever been in a good mood after laying this egg!
Back at the car, we reached happily for our coffee and cocoa. Dang - it was cold! Almost as cold as we were. Our options, stop and turn around to get some coffee before heading on - or suck on our cold beverages and trek on. You guessed it - we trekked on! Our motto - so many bboxes, so little time. Besides, the faster we could get back to Ellsworth, the faster we could get some Sweet Tea! (You call it addiction, we call it required beverage material when boxing!) So off we went in search of our first Blue Diamond.
We headed back out towards Acadia and headed over to the trail we searched out the night before. The path was wide and clear and we hiked on. A time was given for the approximate amount of time it should take to complete the hike - we added 20 minutes : ) Pine needle laden and wide, the path quickly turned and became a bit more narrow. We were diligent in seeking out our needed markers - how many Senturies could possibly be in the woods of Maine??? After all, Maine only has 17 million acres of forests... so two trees should be a piece of cake to find!
You guessed it - a little bit of dumb luck and a little bit of walking backwards and we found our Blue Diamond! Woohoo! And with it was a hiker! Our first of the weekend! And other folks had actually been here and left it behind! They must have know we were coming! Yeah! Someone did read the messages I had written by those skywriters! Another one off the list! And another one's gone and another one's gone. Another one's off the list! Yes, we sing and dance when this happens. We have other songs and siren calls when we are out seeking other boxes... but that's a different story.
Back we walked to the car... the path seemed much longer on the return trip than on the one to the box. Kind of odd. But we were headed off to tackle the fine township of Lemoine. And in Lemoine was another Blue Diamond! We circled the booming town and visited the Lemoine State Park and the Lemoine Beach. We visited a cemetary and a church and a preserve! We rescued a lock and lock from sunburn as it had thrown itself out into the late mornings warming rays. After a quick chat with the lock and lock about providing proper protection of leaves, sticks and rocks we left it with only the hope it would heed our advise.
We headed back and realized that we were a touch off our time line again. Oh well. We did manage to conquer Lamoine in fine style! And only a couple people looked at us like we had lost our way. We didn't even manage to do too many u-turns. But then again the town does practically run its roads like a loop trail. we did have to pull over to snap a couple photos. One of a field of approximately 30 wild turkeys. I think Tea was a bit shocked when I started to 'call' to them in their 'native' tongue. But she was able to recover from laughing long enough to continue to drive.
We still had a couple cemetaries to conquer in Ellsworth and one was frighfully close to Tea's sister's house. Okay - so you couldn't see her house on the raods we were on, but Tea was convinced her sister would see her so we drove past her road and held our breath in case we got caught. We found our cemetary and our box. Add that to the checks in the found column! Woop! Woop!
Then it was off to a nursery. This would probably be the hardest dang box to get all weekend! we were told the long story of where the pair of geese spent their winter (New Hampshire) and that they would be getting crated in the next couple days or so to head south for the winter. Now call me crazy - but New Hampshire is not all that south from Maine! Even more perplexing was how one could possibly believe wintering in New Hampshire would give you better weather than wintering in Maine! We have almost the identical weather in the winter! But we listened. And listened. And then I went off in search of a pumpkin. Now normally we wouldn't knock the customer service. But we were the only ones there and they were insistent on helping us! We had no way to know if the owners knew about the box or not, so we didn't want to tip our hand. I left Tea high and dry with the goal of getting the box to her car. I thought if I bought the perfect pumpkin - maybe they would give Tea a wide enough berth to grab the box. we could see it... we just couldn't get anything to distract our two helpful men!
Well, pumpkin in hand and a slip to pay for it. I managed to distract one of them lon g enough for Tea to grab the box and stampus into it. Now the goal was to get the box back into play. More stories... "Did you know swans mate for life?" "No, really?" "What does it mean when one fluffs up their feathers?" "Oh, that's the male trying to attract the female." "Really? How interesting. I think I'll just get a couple more pictures, they are beautiful birds." Yadda, yadda, yadda... keep walking, keep walking. Just a bit further. Yup and the box is back out of sight and into play once again. With a thumbs up, Tea snapped the last couple of shots, we commented on some Oriental themed planters and high tailed it back to the car. (By the way - that ten dollar pumpkin is still on my propane tank - waiting to be carved for Halloween - do you think it will last until next year???)
Image and pumpkin in tow, we headed off to a train trestle. We parked and walked around to follow the clues. Of course its up. What else would I think? Tea headed up first and dislodged the box from its hiding spot. I followed using her backpack as a foil for the thistles and burdocks. He pack was covered with them. We stamped up and watch a few cars pass us by without even a glance up at us. Two women hanging over the top of a train trestle must be normal in Ellsworth. No worries. But we decided to just go back up the foot over the tracks and back to the car instead of tackling the fall flora.
We debunked ourselves of hikers before continuing south. Off we headed to Indian Point. Not back tracking to where we had been, Indian Point in Ellsworth. We were heading out onto a trail that was set up by a high school program. The trail system has two trails that merge on and off from one another. The mail trail has traditional markers, but the one we needed had rocks with blue blazes painted on them. We actually had to pick up a couple of them and place them back where they needed to be to be visiable. Many of the educational markers were gone, but we did manage to find two of the three boxes in one series and a lovely little troll under a bridge here. And the point had a lovely picnic type area. There were many benches that afforded a great view of downtown Ellsworth. I fear once the housing developement is completely, this spot will loose much of its tranquility. But we needed to get back. We had one more stop in Ellsworth before heading home.
While Tea and I love cemetaries, boxes in stonewalls - not so much. Especially when the stonewall is already in near disarray. Clues lead you to believe its in the lower section of the wall. But this wall was all lower section. It had been picked apart and tossed asunder. Sadly it was also riddled with broken glass. Every time I tried to shift a stone that tiny voice would climb up on my shoulder and give me a big slap. It just didn't seem right. There were other noticable places close by to plant a box. Why here? Well, needless to say - this box eluded us. And I fear it wasn't there anymore to begin with. But it was a great place to visit. We walked past two folks playing croquet and made our way back to the car.
Now on our way north we missed a couple boxes. It was our plan to pick them up one our return trip. One had a time limit on it as the gate closed at 5pm. We had also missed the Tour the Fort series at Fort Knox. But a couple of the locations had taken longer than planned so we knew both of these would elude us on the return trip as well. We did want The Masks by Jiffy and guess what - they were waiting for us in a cemetary! Now we needed to get to the road they were on. The 'offramp' we could see... but how on earth do you get to it? Well we fell onto a road and took a stab that this was where we needed to be. Yup - we were right on! Picking up these boxes and another hiker - we started for home. The sun was dipping faster than we were driving.
Somewhere along the way we did a uturn so i could take a photograph of those Easter Egg cabins. On the way north - they just struck me as funny. But by the total lack of reaction from the gentleman cutting wood nearby - me snapping photos was obviously not unusual. We drove on until we reached Camden. There had been a box at the ampetheater... so we thought we'd give it a quick run by. I almost scared 10 years off Tea when I went in behind her (I was the diversion taking photos of the evening sun reflecting on the harbor) to see how her luck was. Found the location - no box though.
Back into the car we continued closer to home. It was getting late, and we were both running low on steam. we decided to pass the last box on our list - which had started out as our first box only two days before. Back in Brunswick, we transferred my things to my waiting car and were both grateful we would be sleeping in our own beds tonight!
Final count... I picked up 80 boxes and 3 hikers. Tea added a little more than 40 to her count and we logged 350 plus miles on her car over the three day excursion. Did we get them all? Heck no - but that just gives us another reason to go back. July 2009 can't roll around fast enough! So start planting up there - we'll be back!
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