This is Why I Letterbox - Patuxent River Park

It isn't often that I really WANT to post about a particular series of boxes so, believe me, I was totally happy that I was motivated two weekends in a row to write about "This is Why I Letterbox" experiences.  Sepia Slipper and I had headed to Upper Marlboro MD to find a new letterbox series planted by Super Rod and Night0wl in Patuxent River Park and Merkle Wildlife Sanctuary.  It was a dreary, overcast morning when we arrived at the park but we were ok with this.  The 19 box series had been posted as mostly drivebys and short walks so we weren't too worried about rain.  It was nice to be greeted by this brightly colored bluebird who was watching for waterfowl in the river.

The clues led us to the Rural Life Museum and Sepia Slipper and I were absolutely fascinated with this 1923 Craftsman kit house.  

 We both quickly decided that we could easily live in this house with one exception...we needed a real bathroom.  The kit privy was not exactly to our liking.  Our mother had just been telling me stories last weekend about growing up with an outhouse and it isn't something that I would ever want to be forced to experience.  I do remember thinking it was neat to use the outhouse at my grandparents' when I was a kid but I was also happy to run into the real bathroom they had installed after my mother was grown.

 

 As we meandered around the museum area, this vulture who seemed to think he owned this fence rail on the farm museum watched every move we made.

 We moved onto other boxes and totally enjoyed the green that was popping up throughout the forest.

 The next village that we visited was a little more rustic, the American Indian Village.  I quickly decided that I would NOT want to live in this house.

 

 Luxury and comfort were not part of our country's native American's vocabulary. 

 Another part of this wonderful park included the first African American owned airport.  As we walked to the memorial, we marveled that the windsock was blowing straight out in spite of the rather calm day.

 Aha! It wasn't the wind which was assisting the windsock, it was the wire inside of it.

 

As I had mentioned, this was a 19 box series but three of the boxes were in a part of the park called the Critical Area Driving Tour.  The road was only open for a few hours each Sunday and since we were there on a Saturday and we wanted a complete set of the stamps, we decided to walk the three and a half miles to get those three stamps.

 There was a long boardwalk type bridge that crossed over the swampy area and, personally, I am glad that we walked it.  I am not sure I would have been comfortable driving across it and I know that we would have missed a lot of the sights that we saw if we had been driving.

 Sepia Slipper climbed up this observation deck in spite of a very badly aching knee.  I am not into heights so I stayed safely on the ground and took pictures.

 

Box #2 of the CADT boxes found and stamped into.

 The final CADT box was at this very tall observation tower which neither of us chose to climb.  Perhaps if the day had been a little clearer we would have considered it.....nah, we still wouldn't have.

 As we walked back across the wooden bridge, Mama and Papa osprey visited their nest.  We couldn't see if there were babies yet.

 It was now time to head to the southern part of this park, the Merkle Wildlife Sanctuary.  Since we had walked the CADT, we had to reverse engineer the clues a bit since the original clues continued on the CADT.

 

We passed the Visitor Center before we reached the next part of the clues so we decided to stop in.  We were kind of startled as we were greeted by a very young park ranger who asked us to step into a bucket of disinfectant prior to entering the center.  He explained that they have found that Avian flu viruses can be carried through droppings we might have stepped in so they ask everyone to disinfect the bottoms of their shoes before entering to protect the screech owl who resided there.  The ranger then personally conducted a tour of the various sections of the Visitors' Center and introduced us to the little owl who lived there after losing an eye.

 We headed to the spot where the original tour would have taken us and saw another little osprey head peaking out of another nest.

 What does one do when they are waiting for some strolling muggles to pass by the spot for the next box?  One takes pictures of the tree from every angle as though it is the most picturesque tree in the whole forest!

 Next on the list was a visit to the frog pond which proved to be very photo worthy.

 Sepia Slipper tried to sneak in on some frogs but wasn't successful.  We didn't see or hear any little critters in this pond.

 Next to the last stop of the day was to a "BIG.Huge tree and the clue was absolutely correct.  It WAS a tremendous tree and it hid a nice little surprise.

Due to the walk that we had taken on the CADT, we managed to log 6.5 miles this day and collected 19 exquisite stamps.  I had a lot of trouble staying alert as we made the 150 mile drive home and when I tried to crawl out of the car, I was stiff, stiff, stiff, but I have to say that this was one of the best series I have ever done in my 12 years of boxing.  Thank you, Super Rod and Night0wl!