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Benham Falls Bicycle Letterbox LbNA #18734

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Oct 13, 2005
Location:
City:Sun River
County:Deschutes
State:Oregon
Boxes:1
Planted by:The Nail Family
Found by: Azzbugged
Last found:Aug 29, 2008
Status:FFF
Last edited:Oct 13, 2005
Benham Falls Bicycle Letterbox
Placed 10/13/05 by The Nail Family

This letterbox was placed while the Nail Family was on vacation at the Sun River community in October of 2005. The letterbox was actually created in 2002 on a previous visit to Sun River and was placed but clues were never published for its location. We decided to relocate the box and release the clues to the public on this visit.

Sun River is a resort community located about 8 miles south of Bend off of Hwy 97. This letterbox is placed on a beautiful mountain bike trail that overlooks the Deschutes River between the Sun River area and Benham Falls. The trail is somewhat primitive and is best suited to experienced cyclists. For hikers it is no problem.

Directions to trailhead:
From the Bend area, go south on Hwy 97 appx 8 miles and take the Cottonwood Rd exit.
Follow Cottonwood Road into the Sun River community.
At the first Roundabout at Circle 10 take the first exit to East Cascade Rd.
Follow to the next Roundabout at Circle 9 and take the first exit to continue on East Cascade Rd toward Circle 7.
Just before Circle 7 there will be a sign on the right directing to a dirt road, actually Forest Road 600. Turn right onto this road.
There is a parking area located on the left about 30 yards up the road. The bike/hiking trail starts at this parking lot and runs about 4 miles to the Benham Falls Picnic Area inside the Newberry National Volcanic Monument area. For those who do not care to hike the entire 4 miles, Forest Road 600 will take you to a boat landing area on the river about 2 miles down the trail. From this boat landing area and parking lot it is only about 1/2 mile to the letterbox for an alternate starting point.

Clues:
From the trailhead follow the bike trail northward. The trail will run approximately northward for about 2 1/2 miles and then cross a dirt road (Forest Road 600) near the river. This is the location of the boat landing where canoeists, rafters, and kayakers take out their boats before they reach Benham Falls. This take out landing allows boaters launching from the Sun River area to take out 1 1/2 miles upstream from Benham Falls and also eliminate a 8 mile drive back to Sun River via Hwy 97. This is also the location where letterboxers may park and eliminate the first 2 1/2 miles of bike trail for a shorter excursion.

To get to the letterbox, continue northward (downstream) on the bike trail. The trail will climb a hill and eventually come to a small clearing at the top of a bluff overlooking the river. This is a gorgeous overlook of the river from the edge of a fairly recent (in geologic terms) lava flow. In fact, this is the very location where, thousands of years ago, the Descutes River breached the lava flow which had dammed the river and created a small lake where Sun River now is located. You can see the small hill across the river and the broken lava rocks along the east shore on which you stand and imagine the lava flow creating the natural dam in past times.

From this beautiful vantage, find the lava rock that is located on the east side of the trail and stand on it. You will know you are on the correct rock when you can line up a stump directly in front of you that is closer to the bluff with a dead tree (snag) on the top of the opposite hillside across the river.

Now, while standing on the rock with the stump and snag lined up, sight a 9ft, one-eyed forest remnant at 240 magnetic. Look to the backside base of the 2nd pine beyond. The box is hidden under two rocks strategically placed next to the pine and disquised with pine needles. Be careful when retrieving the box, there are snakes in this area.

Be very careful to rehide the box in the exact location and disquise its location with pine needles so as not to allert other visitors. This location gets a lot of traffic from bicyclists, hikers, horse riders, and fishermen. Please make the hiding spot look as natural as you can so as not to attract attention to the letterbox.

After stamping in and rehiding the box, if you care to, you can continue on the bike trail another 2 miles to the Benham Falls Picnic Area (another box resides there too). Nailhead and the 4 Nail boys did this route on bicyle departing from the vacation home we stayed in in Sun River and rode all the way (4 miles) to Benham Falls. We had Happy Mom meet us at the Benham Falls Parking Lot with the van to shuttle us back to the house afterwards. For those who are even more adventureous, the trail continues along the Deschutes River another 8 miles further and visits Dillon Falls and other beautiful areas along the river. Next time we plan to place other boxes along this trail to make a larger series.

We hope very much that you enjoy this letterbox and especially this special location. Please be careful to not disclose the letterbox location by rehiding it well and also be careful while visiting the box if you have small children as the box is located close by a 40ft bluff overlooking a tumble of volcanic rock along the river. Many of our boxes are popular with families and we must advise those families with small children to take extra caution on this box due to the bluff.

The Nail Family also likes to get feedback on our boxes. So, if you happen to find this box (or do not find it when you make the attempt), please send us an email to let us know. Since we live in Olympia, WA we do not get out to the Central Oregon area often but we still love to get information on the status of our boxes. Contact us at the7nails@yahoo.com

Enjoy!