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Factice Creek Preserve LbNA #15117 (ARCHIVED)

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:May 8, 2005
Location:
City:Vancouver
County:Clark
State:Washington
Boxes:1
Found by: Maiden1974
Last found:Mar 9, 2008
Status:FaaFF
Last edited:May 8, 2005
Factice Creek Preserve Letterbox

Placed by Ronnie and Winnie on May 8, 2005 (our first box!)

Location: Factice Creek Nature Preserve, Vancouver, WA

Directions to the park: Take Exit # 5 in Vancouver and go west on Campbell Ave appx 1 mile. Turn left onto 346th St and follow 2 blocks. Turn right onto Factice Creek Drive and follow to the park entrance. This is a very small but quaint little park with only about a dozen parking spaces but if you visit on a weekday you will likely find plenty of parking available.

Clues:
Start at the parking lot and go west through the park entrance gate, assuming it is not padlocked, past the litter bin and onto the trail.
At the first trail junction, turn south and walk 25 paces.
You will come to a bench with a plaque on it honoring Virgil Macarthur who apparently donated the bench.
Continue on from the bench and watch for a small footpath going 290 degrees.
Follow this footpath as it winds up a small hill.
At the crest of the hill look for a cherry tree on the left side of the trail.
From the north side of the cherry tree, take 45 paces to another large trail.
Turn left on this trail and follow it 40 steps at a direction of about 140 degrees.
This should bring you to a small bridge over Factice Creek.
Cross the bridge and look for the stone monument and read the sign that tells about Gansfried Lieser who build a mill here back in 1878 along with his lesser partner James Andresen.
Mr. Lieser had come here from Fredricksburg Virginia on the Oregon trail in the late 1860’s and settled on the Washington side of the Columbia River and began a crude logging operation here along Factice Creek.
From the information on the monument, subtract the year the mill closed operation from the number of square feet the mill covered on the shore of the pond.
Take a bearing using this number and walk 65 paces along that path.
Take the next path available to you at 100 degrees and go another 75 paces to a large fir tree.
Continue another 45 paces and find the path going 140.
Follow this path 40 paces and watch for a runt of a cedar among a stand of young alders.
From the third alder past the small cedar sight a very large maple through the brush at 360 degrees and mark its location.
Continue on the trail and turn right at the next opportunity and walk 70 paces to that maple tree.
Take another 20 steps further and find the lonely cottonwood on the right.
Look behind this cottonwood for the letterbox in a shady recess under debris in a very plain looking plastic box.

Since this is our first box we would really like some feedback from anyone who tries to find it. The park is kind of obscure and the clues might be a bit confusing since Ronnie hastily wrote them down as we wandered around looking for a good place to hide the box. Please contact us at our alternate email address if you have any trouble with the clues or directions at contra_ordinary@yahoo.com