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Climber Escapes Series LbNA #1775 (ARCHIVED)

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Nov 13, 2002
Location:
City:Bethesda
County:Montgomery
State:Maryland
Boxes:2
Found by: Rich (2)
Last found:Jun 3, 2003
Status:FFa
Last edited:Nov 13, 2002
Little Falls Trail
Difficulty: easy; about 1 mile round trip

Directions: Take the Capital Beltway (I-495) to River Road (Exit 39). Take River Road east for 3.5 miles to Little Falls Parkway (just past the Amoco station). Turn right and go 0.7 miles on Little Falls Parkway until it ends at Massachusetts Avenue. Just before Massachusetts Avenue, you can pull off and park on the right under the pine trees. Cross Massachusetts Avenue to get to the trail. (After your hike, turn right on Massachusetts Avenue and go about 1.5 miles until it ends at Goldsboro Road; turn right on Goldsboro to get back to River Road and I-495.)

The Clues are Based on a True Story!

Box 1 Climber Escapes

Climber the Hamster has a good life. She has a cage with a wheel, food, water, and a family who loves her. But she longs to explore the wide, wide world. One day, someone left the door to the cage open! Climber escaped! She made her way to the Little Falls Trail between Massachusetts Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard. If she could read she could see the signs said "No Motor Vehicles" and "Caution Sewer Pipeline." She went down the paved trail.

Climber first passed a big "S" disc on the right. Then she saw a bench on the left. She thought she'd sit down, but the bench was too high for a little hamster so she changed her mind. Then she passed another "S" disc on the right. The trail got so close to the water that someone put up a cable fence to make sure no one would fall in, although the lowest cable would not have kept a hamster safe, so Climber continued very cautiously. Then she passed another "S" disc on the right with a trail passing by it. This "S" disc was painted green, which she liked, so she took the trail into the woods towards the water. (Technically, hamsters don't like water, but Climber made an exception.)

Climber stayed on the trail until she passed through two fallen logs that almost blocked the trail. (It looked like someone had kindly cut a path between them.) She went 10 human footfalls further, then looked to her right. She took 6 footfalls on the trail to her right. She then turned left and passed between 2 trees on the right and a V tree on the left. Then there was a log blocking her path. She scampered to the right along the log until she found a cozy place to rest in the V of the log. Can you catch her?

Box 2 — Climber Escapes Again

Uh-oh! Hamsters are hard to catch! Climber escaped from her cozy nest! She retraced her steps to the paved trail and continued down it. She passed a pole on the left that said "Caution Sewer Pipeline" and had an orange "blaze" on it. Then she passed a bench on her left. When she looked to her right, she saw a bridge.

Climber went over the bridge to get to the other side of the water. She saw some steps in the distance and went over to them. But the steps were too high, so she turned around and went back about 10 human footfalls to a wide trail on her left. She went about 67 human footfalls down this trail until she saw 2 V trees on her left. Standing in front of the larger V tree, she used her instincts to point herself 160 degrees. (Humans should use a compass.) She saw a small tree tilting toward the sun, with some brush at its base. She climbed in the brush and took a nap. See if you can catch her before she runs away again!

P.S. The real Climber was found downstairs in the family room.

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