Sea Turtle & Texas State Symbols: Texas Blue Topaz, Lonestar Cut by Stargazer
Picture taken from the bridge at Bear Creek Park
I actually got my first "first to find" x 2, by being the first to hit two new letterboxes in Bear Creek Park in Keller,TX! Yay! And.. Yes, It feels good to beat the Grizzled Gryphon for once!
There are several boxes in this park. It is a nice park with miles of paved trails. These two are close together and easily accessible. The blue topaz stamp is a really nice carve. I also like the special ink dabber that was in the box for it. I'm going to have to look into finding some like this to use for my stamps in the future.
In the Tree: Meghan's Bird 2 by Viewfinder
Playground at the park.
This park is also in Keller and has a really cute playground in it. I need to find the time to take my daughter here sometime soon to play. There were many mothers out there this day with toddlers. There was also a construction crew there building some new restrooms. As I left the busy playground area and began to walk into the woods, I encountered several bold squirrels, which stayed on the path until I was within a few feet of them. As I approached, they'd quickly scamper up the nearest tree, and chitter at me as I walked by.
This was a second attempt find, as I had been out here a month or so ago and had been within a few feet of the boxes location. During that attempt, I had been unable to get it due to a spider who had chosen to build a web across the tr ail, right in front of the box's location. (Did I mention I was terrified of spiders?)
This time I realized I didn't have the clues with me, so I had to a make quick call to Redoggy and have him read them over th e phone. I thought I would remember, but it had been several letterboxes ago... Following Redoggy's directions over the phone, I was able to find the familiar spot again. Luckily, the spider had vacated! The ants in the tree did complain a bit though as I used my extending pole/mirror to coax the box out. After retrieving the box, I found a nice shady covered sitting nook just down the main trail a bit and relaxed while I logged it.
WOOF! I want my bone! by texasti
View along the trail at Park
This one is located in Arcadia Trails Park in Fort Worth,TX. It is a nice little park, which includes a natural area, many walking trails, playgrounds and sports fields. If you follow the directions on the clue, it ends up being about a mile round trip. On my first attempt, I took this route, but I made a few notes of alternate parking areas to save a little time on successive attempts.
This was originally called "Vroom!" , but apparently was washed away during all the bad storms we had this summer. When I made the earlier attempt a few months ago, I made it to the final location, but had chickened out on putting my hand in the hole to retrieve it. At the time, I wasn't aware it was missing, so I wouldn't have found it anyhow. The reason I chickened out was due to the grassy debris in the tree which is laced with spiderwebs. (Did I mention I was scared of spiders?)
So for this box, I called in my "Spider Man", Redoggy. We cheated a bit, as I mentioned, and knocked off the first 1/4 mile to shorten the hike. It was still an enjoyable hike through the natural area. There were dragon flies flying about and landing on us. I saw a really nice field of wild flowers with some bird houses, but the grass in the natural area was too high for me to get a good picture.
My "Spider Man", Redoggy doing the dirty work.
