Oxley Nature Center letterbox series LbNA #4100
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Add Location| Owner: | Adoptable |
|---|---|
| Plant date: | May 30, 2003 |
| Location: | |
| City: | Tulsa |
| County: | Tulsa |
| State: | Oklahoma |
| Boxes: | 7 |
| Planted by: | Donna  |
|---|---|
| Found by: | The Turtles (3) |
| Last found: | Dec 29, 2011 |
| Status: | FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFaF |
| Last edited: | May 30, 2003 |
As of December 28, 2013, all 7 of the letterboxes are in place. All were placed with the permission of the property manager at Oxley Nature Center. The Tulsa Parks Department decided in 2001 to allow letter boxing and geocaching on most Tulsa Parks properties, but requires that you ask permission first. You may contact each site's property manager directly, or you may call the Mayor's Action Line at 918-596-2100. After several rounds of lay-offs left no one in the Parks Department available to handle questions and reservations, that call center was given the task of serving as general information for the Tulsa Parks Department.
Logistics: Oxley Nature Center is located on the north side of Mohawk Park, about a mile north of the Tulsa Zoo. Nearly nine miles of trails ramble over 804 acres of rich habitat just to the south of Bird Creek. The trails are open to hikers every day, from 7 am to 9 pm. The Nature Center's main gate opens at 8 am and closes at 5 pm, and remains closed on most city holidays.
The Interpretive Building has trail maps, restrooms, drinking water, and friendly help available, and is open 10 am to 4:30 pm Tuesday through Saturday. Interpretive Building hours could go back to being open seven days/week if the current hiring freeze restrictions are lifted to allow laid-off and retired staff to be replaced. Trail maps are also available in a box on the front ramp. Pets are prohibited, and bicycles may be ridden only on paved roads. Most of the trails are wheelchair- and stroller-accessible, but there are times when the trails are muddy or even under water. Be warned that mosquitoes can be thick in shady areas during May and June.
On Saturdays and Sundays between April 1st and October 31st, there is a $2/car fee charged to enter Mohawk Park between 9 am and 5 pm.
Letterboxes: Each of the seven letterboxes features one of the Nature Center's trails. Most are tupperware-style containers, about 5" by 9" by 2".
1) Bird Creek Letterbox is a letterbox hybrid geocache. It is located behind a huge bur oak, next to the Bird Creek Trail, not far from the east end of the trail, just north of where Bird Creek Trail starts at old Mohawk Boulevard. The Bird Creek Trail winds beside Bird Creek, along the edge of a peninsula known as "The Wildlife Study Area."
The trail is not paved, but wheelchairs should be able to negotiate the eastern end, between Mohawk Boulevard and the letterbox's vicinity. In fact, you might be able to find traces of old pavement from a former road.
2) The Blue Heron Trail Letterbox is precariously hidden under some vegetation until some repair work can be done, but it is there. Just be careful to hide it back as well as you can. It is located southeast of the Bird Creek Letterbox, where Blue Heron Trail goes along the west side of Lake Sherry. Blue Heron Trail has numbered posts that correspond to an interpretive brochure. The letterbox is located at the observation blind between posts 4 and 5, and the true hiding place is closer to post 5 than to post 4. This letterbox has been plundered several times, so there will be an empty "dummy" box in the more obvious of two hiding places at this site when the repair work is finished. Beware of poison ivy at this site!
Blue Heron Trail is wheelchair-accessible.
3) The Blackbird Marsh Letterbox has been replaced, again. It is a letterbox hybrid geocache. It lies southeast of the Blue Heron Trail Letterbox, across Coal Creek, at the bend of the boardwalk that crosses Blackbird Marsh.
PLEASE NOTE: It is very important to close this one back up properly to make it waterproof after you have stamped in! Fasten it up high and tight to keep it from floating out into view.
Wheelchair users will be happy to find new ramps at each end of the Warren Bridge across Coal Creek. Muddy conditions may cause difficulty in getting to the boardwalk, but wheeled hunters will then be able to roll to a point directly above the letterbox. A wheelchair-using letterboxer may need assistance for the final few vertical feet.
4) The Green Dragon Trail Letterbox has been replaced. It is a smaller box than the others, and wrapped in camp duct tape.
Hike along Green Dragon Trail until you come to a tree next to the trail with five major trunks arising from a very large base. The letterbox is hidden in the junction of the five trunks, concealed by leaves. Do your best to hide it from view when you are finished stamping in.
5) The Red Fox Trail Letterbox is a letterbox hybrid geocache and may be found at the trail junction with Woodpecker Trail. There are two containers here; one is the letterbox, and the other is the geocache. Be sure to seal up the letterbox as tightly as you can. The ten-year-old original stamp was completely eaten by roly-polies.
Red Fox Trail may be wet at times, and this location is one of the low spots. However, the trail is surfaced with hard-packed limestone screenings, making it one of the easiest of the Nature Center's trails for strollers and wheelchairs.
6) The Meadowlark Prairie Letterbox has been replaced (yet again) IN ANOTHER NEW LOCATION (not the original location beside the pond, nor in the second location "plugged" into the ground). Because the prairie vegetation has been growing exuberantly, and is 8 or 10 feet tall in some years, the new location uses the trails. You will need a compass, and it wouldn't hurt to have a pair of binoculars. Wheelchairs should have no trouble with this one if the trails are dry.
Walk along the prairie trails, watching for three landmarks. You will have to triangulate on the letterbox's location. Find the site where the chimney cover on the Interpretive Building is at 190 degrees, where a tall 4x4 post holding a birdhouse and topped with a yellow sign is at 60 degrees, and where a small tree with a bright blue birdhouse is at 250 degrees. No adjustments were made for magnetic declination. (The blue birdhouse is missing at this moment, but the letterbox location can be found with 2 triangulation points.)
Here is more help for those who are just learning to use a map and compass. Another way to pursue this one is to subtract or add 180 degrees from each clue and go forward somehow:
Take a map, lay it flat, and using a compass, orient it to north. Draw a line at 10 degrees out from the Interpretive Building. Note where that line falls in the prairie. Then find one of the other landmarks, perhaps the 4x4 pole. (If it's not on the map, you will have to go out in the field and estimate where to place it on the map.) Stand at the pole or mark it on the map, and walk or draw a line at a bearing of 240 degrees. Where do the two lines intersect? What would happen if one person walked a bearing of 240 degrees from the 4x4 pole and another person walked a bearing of 70 degrees from the blue birdhouse?
7) The Whitetail Trail Letterbox is a letterbox hybrid geocache located west and south of the Meadowlark Prairie Letterbox. On the west side of the Interpretive Building's parking lot, there is a large dumpster. Go past the dumpster to a gap in the trees, and follow the trail westward back to the Picnic Shelter located in the grove of trees that used to be a tree nursery. Whitetail Trail starts out the west side of the Picnic Shelter and circles around counterclockwise to return to the picnic area. The Whitetail Trail Letterbox will be found in an old stump on the northwest (right-hand side of the trail as you leave the Picnic Shelter), before you reach the intersection with Coyote Trail. It is screened from the trail by a large wild rose bramble. It may take 2 or 3 people to tip the stump so you can pull out the box with 2 compartments inside. One part is the letterbox; the other is the geocache. It is important to fit the box back inside the stump carefully so that it is not twisted or bent partially open. It does fit, snugly. When you put the stump back in place, rake a clear spot. Set the stump down on bare ground and then scoot leaves and twigs around the base. Try not to pin any sticks or leaves. That is a giveaway to others that the stump is not "natural."
Wheelchairs will have to negotiate some rough ground and downed limbs for the last 30 feet off-trail. Also, the Picnic Shelter has a bit of a drop-off at the east side that may be difficult for wheels.
These are just seven of the trails at Oxley Nature Center. The Nature Center staff hopes you enjoy your hike, and that you find time to walk some of the other trails as well. For more information about the Nature Center, you may call 918-669-6644, or check out the Friends of Oxley Nature Center website: http://www.oxleynaturecenter.org.
Logistics: Oxley Nature Center is located on the north side of Mohawk Park, about a mile north of the Tulsa Zoo. Nearly nine miles of trails ramble over 804 acres of rich habitat just to the south of Bird Creek. The trails are open to hikers every day, from 7 am to 9 pm. The Nature Center's main gate opens at 8 am and closes at 5 pm, and remains closed on most city holidays.
The Interpretive Building has trail maps, restrooms, drinking water, and friendly help available, and is open 10 am to 4:30 pm Tuesday through Saturday. Interpretive Building hours could go back to being open seven days/week if the current hiring freeze restrictions are lifted to allow laid-off and retired staff to be replaced. Trail maps are also available in a box on the front ramp. Pets are prohibited, and bicycles may be ridden only on paved roads. Most of the trails are wheelchair- and stroller-accessible, but there are times when the trails are muddy or even under water. Be warned that mosquitoes can be thick in shady areas during May and June.
On Saturdays and Sundays between April 1st and October 31st, there is a $2/car fee charged to enter Mohawk Park between 9 am and 5 pm.
Letterboxes: Each of the seven letterboxes features one of the Nature Center's trails. Most are tupperware-style containers, about 5" by 9" by 2".
1) Bird Creek Letterbox is a letterbox hybrid geocache. It is located behind a huge bur oak, next to the Bird Creek Trail, not far from the east end of the trail, just north of where Bird Creek Trail starts at old Mohawk Boulevard. The Bird Creek Trail winds beside Bird Creek, along the edge of a peninsula known as "The Wildlife Study Area."
The trail is not paved, but wheelchairs should be able to negotiate the eastern end, between Mohawk Boulevard and the letterbox's vicinity. In fact, you might be able to find traces of old pavement from a former road.
2) The Blue Heron Trail Letterbox is precariously hidden under some vegetation until some repair work can be done, but it is there. Just be careful to hide it back as well as you can. It is located southeast of the Bird Creek Letterbox, where Blue Heron Trail goes along the west side of Lake Sherry. Blue Heron Trail has numbered posts that correspond to an interpretive brochure. The letterbox is located at the observation blind between posts 4 and 5, and the true hiding place is closer to post 5 than to post 4. This letterbox has been plundered several times, so there will be an empty "dummy" box in the more obvious of two hiding places at this site when the repair work is finished. Beware of poison ivy at this site!
Blue Heron Trail is wheelchair-accessible.
3) The Blackbird Marsh Letterbox has been replaced, again. It is a letterbox hybrid geocache. It lies southeast of the Blue Heron Trail Letterbox, across Coal Creek, at the bend of the boardwalk that crosses Blackbird Marsh.
PLEASE NOTE: It is very important to close this one back up properly to make it waterproof after you have stamped in! Fasten it up high and tight to keep it from floating out into view.
Wheelchair users will be happy to find new ramps at each end of the Warren Bridge across Coal Creek. Muddy conditions may cause difficulty in getting to the boardwalk, but wheeled hunters will then be able to roll to a point directly above the letterbox. A wheelchair-using letterboxer may need assistance for the final few vertical feet.
4) The Green Dragon Trail Letterbox has been replaced. It is a smaller box than the others, and wrapped in camp duct tape.
Hike along Green Dragon Trail until you come to a tree next to the trail with five major trunks arising from a very large base. The letterbox is hidden in the junction of the five trunks, concealed by leaves. Do your best to hide it from view when you are finished stamping in.
5) The Red Fox Trail Letterbox is a letterbox hybrid geocache and may be found at the trail junction with Woodpecker Trail. There are two containers here; one is the letterbox, and the other is the geocache. Be sure to seal up the letterbox as tightly as you can. The ten-year-old original stamp was completely eaten by roly-polies.
Red Fox Trail may be wet at times, and this location is one of the low spots. However, the trail is surfaced with hard-packed limestone screenings, making it one of the easiest of the Nature Center's trails for strollers and wheelchairs.
6) The Meadowlark Prairie Letterbox has been replaced (yet again) IN ANOTHER NEW LOCATION (not the original location beside the pond, nor in the second location "plugged" into the ground). Because the prairie vegetation has been growing exuberantly, and is 8 or 10 feet tall in some years, the new location uses the trails. You will need a compass, and it wouldn't hurt to have a pair of binoculars. Wheelchairs should have no trouble with this one if the trails are dry.
Walk along the prairie trails, watching for three landmarks. You will have to triangulate on the letterbox's location. Find the site where the chimney cover on the Interpretive Building is at 190 degrees, where a tall 4x4 post holding a birdhouse and topped with a yellow sign is at 60 degrees, and where a small tree with a bright blue birdhouse is at 250 degrees. No adjustments were made for magnetic declination. (The blue birdhouse is missing at this moment, but the letterbox location can be found with 2 triangulation points.)
Here is more help for those who are just learning to use a map and compass. Another way to pursue this one is to subtract or add 180 degrees from each clue and go forward somehow:
Take a map, lay it flat, and using a compass, orient it to north. Draw a line at 10 degrees out from the Interpretive Building. Note where that line falls in the prairie. Then find one of the other landmarks, perhaps the 4x4 pole. (If it's not on the map, you will have to go out in the field and estimate where to place it on the map.) Stand at the pole or mark it on the map, and walk or draw a line at a bearing of 240 degrees. Where do the two lines intersect? What would happen if one person walked a bearing of 240 degrees from the 4x4 pole and another person walked a bearing of 70 degrees from the blue birdhouse?
7) The Whitetail Trail Letterbox is a letterbox hybrid geocache located west and south of the Meadowlark Prairie Letterbox. On the west side of the Interpretive Building's parking lot, there is a large dumpster. Go past the dumpster to a gap in the trees, and follow the trail westward back to the Picnic Shelter located in the grove of trees that used to be a tree nursery. Whitetail Trail starts out the west side of the Picnic Shelter and circles around counterclockwise to return to the picnic area. The Whitetail Trail Letterbox will be found in an old stump on the northwest (right-hand side of the trail as you leave the Picnic Shelter), before you reach the intersection with Coyote Trail. It is screened from the trail by a large wild rose bramble. It may take 2 or 3 people to tip the stump so you can pull out the box with 2 compartments inside. One part is the letterbox; the other is the geocache. It is important to fit the box back inside the stump carefully so that it is not twisted or bent partially open. It does fit, snugly. When you put the stump back in place, rake a clear spot. Set the stump down on bare ground and then scoot leaves and twigs around the base. Try not to pin any sticks or leaves. That is a giveaway to others that the stump is not "natural."
Wheelchairs will have to negotiate some rough ground and downed limbs for the last 30 feet off-trail. Also, the Picnic Shelter has a bit of a drop-off at the east side that may be difficult for wheels.
These are just seven of the trails at Oxley Nature Center. The Nature Center staff hopes you enjoy your hike, and that you find time to walk some of the other trails as well. For more information about the Nature Center, you may call 918-669-6644, or check out the Friends of Oxley Nature Center website: http://www.oxleynaturecenter.org.