Happy Birthday, True Indigo!

You know how some things just seem to come together without planning?  Well, True Indigo, part of the Crayola Posse team, and I were chatting on FB Messenger Saturday afternoon and I mentioned a new series just posted by Pandajoy in Tuscarora SP, one of our favorite Pennsylvania state parks.  I mentioned that I hoped to get the series on the following Monday if the weather gods gave us a break from all of the rain we had been having.  We continued to chat and True Indigo mentioned that she had to leave because RGBisMe was taking her to buy new hiking boots for her birthday gift.  That led to a quick conversation about breaking in her boots and the discovery that neither True Indigo nor RGBisMe were working on Monday because it was True Indigo's birthday.  I offered a hopeful invitation to her because I really, really wanted company on this particular walk and Crayola Posse are my favorite hiking companions after my precious short people, Cool Dude and Puppy Kisses.  When she said "yes"  I was so excited!

We got to the park early on True Indigo's birthday and discovered that it was a LOT colder there than when we had each left our homes.  So we salvaged any bits of extra winter wear from our cars and prepared to hike.  

I had to take a picture of the new boots.  I was certain that before the hike was over, they would be covered with mud.  We have had so much rain this past month or so and several small snowfalls so I anticipated the trails being very muddy.

 Fortunately, I was wrong about the mud, most of the trail was wet but because it was so grassy, it was not boot sucking messy.  The exception was the little offshoot trail in the picture below where the water was over the tops of my feet and we had to  hop from one high spot to another.

 A pleasant side effect of the rain were pretty little waterfalls.  Such a relaxing sound!

 Usually, RGBisMe plays the part of One of Us, the name we give to the person who actually retrieves the boxes.  Because this series begged for a variety of colors for each stamp, RGBisMe became the color master and True Indigo became One of Us.

 Some boxes required a team effort to figure out the exact hiding spot.

I saw this interesting looking little cone arrangement.  I had never noticed any of these before but True Indigo was able to identify them as falling from a larch trees, conifers which actually shed their needles in the fall like a deciduous tree.


One of the best parts about the Crow Trail is a large area of beautiful green rhododendrons.  It makes a walk feel more like spring than winter when you reach this lovely section.  It probably lasts for at least a tenth of a mile, this picture doesn't begin to do it justice.

 More interesting finds!  RGBisMe noticed this owl pellet hiding on the trail and we were able to identify several animal parts that must have been meals for some lucky owl.

 While we were walking, I received a text from my Florida hiking buddy, Three Flamigo's.  Crayola Posse greeted Three Flamigo's! 

 27 letterboxes later, we finished our walk and my expectations of seeing very muddy boots just didn't happen.  True Indigo scraped some wet leaves onto them to make them appear broken in but in reality, they looked just like new when she finished the hike.

 By this time, we were ready for lunch so we headed to the Beacon Diner in Tamaqua, had an excellent meal and ended up a really terrific boxing morning.

Happy Birthday, True Indigo!

Cooling Off in Schuylkill County

 It has been quite a while since I went letterboxing but when I had been housebound for a day during my short 5 day vacation due to the horrible heat we were having, I decided to beat the heat by going letterboxing.  I know that usually one stays inside during periods of intense heat but I decided to head for the hills of Schuylkill County.  It turned out to be a good decision because the temps at home hovered around 95 but I was enjoying a wonderful day with the highest temp I saw of 85 degrees.  Gotta love smart phones for keeping one up to date and in touch enough to let everyone know where I was - in case I got lost in the wilds of Sweet Arrow!

I meandered my way to Sweet Arrow County park in Pine Grove and spent a good part of the day wandering through this lovely area.  I collected six boxes here and tried for a seventh which was missing.  The wonderful thing about the missing box was the view of this sweet waterfall that I got as I was walking back to the trail.

 

And a closer view!

 The dragonflies were out today in the warm sunshine and I even managed to catch up with one.

  

As I had been leaving the south side of the lake, I chatted with a man who was doing maintenance.  After our chat, I headed for the north side but he must have known a quicker way than I did because as I got out of my car there, he again greeted me.  I had to pretend to be taking a lot of pictures till he headed off and I could walk the trail for the next box.  So, I got pictures of these pilings and colorful canoes.  The ironic thing is that when I exchanged some emails with Cowboy's Girl whose boxes I was searching, she told me that the park supervisor is an avid geocacher and is aware of the boxes.  Now I wonder if that is who I was talking to and if he was laughing at me secretly for trying to be so sneaky!

  

Unfortunately, the last box I found in the park had been geotrashed.  Cowboy's Girl went to check on this box and replaced the stamp within a couple of days and I did make a return visit to get the new stamp impression.  I was glad that I had done it because the impression that I made using the pumpkin eraser left by the geocacher just wasn't all that great.

 From Sweet Arrow I headed to Pine Grove Iron Forge which was really very lovely.  I snapped a bunch of pictures of the forge while trying to wait out the dozen or so people milling about - strange for a hot Monday afternoon in July - and finally was left alone to pursue the box which was hidden high on the hillside behind the forge.  Somedays it is just very tough to haul this 60 year old body up the hillside but I managed a very ungraceful ascent and perched precariously on the side of the hill to stamp in.

 

Much to my dismay, as I was hanging on the hill, not one, not two, not three but four maintenance trucks pulled up and parked on the road in front of the forge.  Oh, no, I thought, they were going to start doing ground maintenance around the forge and I wasn't sure how I was going to get off the hill or what I was going to use as an explanation.  But first, my main goal was not to be seen until it was determined what they were going to do.  Did you know that holding your breath does not make you invisible?  After I realized that was what I was doing, I decided to breath naturally and as I focused on that, all of the men reentered their trucks and drove down the road.  Breathing came much more naturally now and I took this as a signal that it was time to head for home.  The heat grew more oppressive the closer I got to home and I was really happy that I had chosen to spend the day out of doors and away from the heat.