My main purpose in planting this letterbox/geocache hybrid is to
introduce each activity's participants to the other. I am an active
participant in both and believe letterboxers and geocachers are
motivated by many of the same things, including finding great
locations and a pathological need to hunt for stuff hidden in the
woods.
Signal the Frog is the
official mascot of Groundspeak, the Seattle company that hosts
geocaching.com. He recently decided to take a little hike and host
a get-together in the Redmond Watershed Preserve.
From the parking lot, Signal looked for a trail that would
Connect him to the large trail system to the North. After making
sure he was not smoking, he took a right.
Before long, Signal was rushed by both a cougar and a bear! He
hopped off to the left, leaving the menacing critters behind. Soon
Signal was tired from hopping, and took a break on a nice
bench.
Here he looked around, spying power lines, no fewer than five
sign posts, and several trail options. After resting for a few
minutes, Signal went off in search of Trillium.
As he headed up the trail, Signal admired three large stumps on
the right side of the trail, and continued on. Eventually, he
started up a gentle rise. Near the top, he spotted a stump under a
medium sized cedar tree on the right side of the trail. He hopped
around to the back side of the stump, and waits for you there.
Signal asks that you please be careful not to trample the
ferns on your way to the rear of the stump.
The box: The cache/box is a full-sized, 50 caliber ammo
can (don't you miss those?!). Inside, you'll find two bags. One
holds the geocaching log book. The other holds the letterboxing log
book, stamp and ink. If you're new to letterboxing, here's the
drill: You stamp the letterbox's stamp into your personal log book,
and if you have one, stamp your stamp into the letterbox's log
book. Stamps are usually hand-carved (way easier than it
sounds, and fun!), but you can really use just about anything,
including your thumb print. (Please be sure to leave the
letterbox's stamp in the box.) You can log your find here and
here.
If you decide you like this letterboxing stuff, there are a lot
more boxes in this park.
If you don't want to follow the clues above, the waypoint for
the cache location is available below.