Wood Shire Letterbox Hybrid
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This is a letterbox hybrid with an additional digital "stamp" component that was planted as a Christmas memento for a special pair who live at the base of Vineyard Mountain.
The letterbox can be reached by hiking several miles on the Vineyard Mountain Loop trail from the trailhead on Sulpher Springs Road off Lewisburg Road. It can also be reached by driving to the top of Vineyard Mountain from Concord Drive off Sulpher Springs. You'll follow Concord up to Cardinal Drive until you reach Zinfandel Lane, where you'll turn right and continue until the road ends at the radio towers at the summit. Here you should stop and sip some zinfandel, cabernet will also do, and check your frequencies. To the west is McDonald Research Forest, a large tract of trees and trails managed by OSU. Look for a thin trail across from the blue house and next to a gate that says no trespassing on its western side. The short trail leads to the intersection of three fire roads. Here you'll see a small wooden marker with 5010 on it. One road leads SW to valley views and at least one other letterbox left by someone else. Check it out later. For now, take the road that heads north around the summit, which on maps is Nettleton Road. Your goal is a short easy walk mid way down this road on the left hand side.
The Wood Shire lives inside a hollow tree at eye level but can be coaxed out by the murmur of treetops conversing with the sky. The firs are always speaking here. Please replace the branches that conceal this spot from the road. Bumped up the terrain rating because of the slope and conditions that can be muddy.
This letterbox also contains an additional virtual "stamp" that can be seen by anyone who has the free app Repudo installed on their phone (imagine the possibilities). Please leave your own but drop it a little distance away because the program doesn't handle overlapping drops very well.
Happy holidays!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ybbx sbe gur taneyrq byq gerr jvgu gur fcyvg nyy gur jnl qbja gur zvqqyr, nobhg 10 lneqf qbjauvyy sebz gur cngu. (Rqvgrq sbe orggre npphenpl ba Frcg. 16, 2012.)
Treasures
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