I was having a rough day. My daughter was in the emergency room and we were keeping my grandchildren while anxiously awaiting word on Laura's condition so my emotions were rather fragile. I quickly glanced at Atlas Quest and saw an email that there was a new Pennsylvania box. When I looked at the clues, I immediately broke down crying. The boxes called Pop's Eyes Were Blue were in memory of our father who passed away last July. Sepia Slipper, aka Karen, my little sister, has just returned to letterboxing after a several year hiatus and she had been telling me that she had prepared some special boxes and needed a very special place to place them. She didn't give me any other details. So I tried to remember a very nice park in the vicinity of where Sepia Slipper lives and I told her about a wonderful boxing experience that I had a few years ago finding Silly Moosehead's Looney Tunes series in SGL 211. Guess where Pop's boxes ended up! Causing even more emotion for me was the email that I received a half hour later announcing yet another new PA series called Big Sister. Guess who the Big Sister is! I have to admit that giving this a "This is Why I Letterbox" designation is mostly emotional but the trail and the stamps are every bit as deserving. Thank you so much, Karen, for the thought and work you put into these memory boxes.
I headed to the SGL early the following Saturday, a bit disappointed that I wouldn't be first finder which usually doesn't matter to me at all but these were special boxes to me. Another boxer had visited already during the week when I was working. Seven more months till my retirement and my ability to box during the week....but that is another story. I headed for the first of the two Pop boxes and lost control of my emotions again. Our dad loved to build birdhouses. It was one of his only hobbies later in his life and Karen was able to find birdhouses with suitable hiding spots nearby for both of these series boxes. I could almost feel Dad smiling at the two of us for honoring him with our simple little scavenger hunts. I proceeded on to the five box series that Karen carved and hid for me and I was so touched that she pointed out things that she felt I should be thanked for when they are just things that I love being and doing. So, thank you, Little Sister. I don't want to give away too much about these two series so I decided that I would just show pictures of the beautiful trail that they are on. 
As I logged in to the boxes, I was happy to note that our woods are finally greening up. I had arrived to the trail in the middle of a rainstorm which did end about a half hour later but everything in the woods had that hazy damp feeling to it. Still beautiful though.
When I say that everything is greening up, I really meant everything...even the fungi on the trees. The rhododendrons and mountain laurel looked ready to break open in flower. As I started down the trail, the sound of spring peepers was almost loud enough to drown out the bird calls but as I was on my way back to the car, the Canadian geese honking took over as they headed toward the lake.
There obviously was some type of civilization in these woods as detected with the various bits and pieces of ruins.
When I saw this ruined tree from a distance, my first thought was that a Peter Toth Sleeping Giant had appeared out of nowhere. Even though it wasn't a work of art, it was a tree worth photographing.
I had been introduced to "trail trees" by the Silvan Lady while finding some of her boxes in Nescopeck State Park. When I had been on the SGL trail previously, I had no idea that the bent trees that I was passing were probably markers created by Indians to give directions to fellow travelers.
I can't end this blog segment without mentioning that my brother in law, John, is an excellent cairn builder!
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