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First aidFredericksburg Battlefield at Pratt Park LbNA #51344

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Nov 4, 2009
Location:
City:Fredericksburg
County:Stafford
State:Virginia
Boxes:6
Planted by:Lefty
Found by: HomeScholKids (4)
Last found:Jun 27, 2017
Status:FFFF
Last edited:Nov 4, 2009
These boxes are located at: 120 River Rd, Fredericksburg, VA 22405 in Pratt Park

NOTES: You may want to bring some clippers with you since some prickly vines have a tendency to grow up around the trees.

Also, BEWARE not to touch any "furry" or "hairy" vines on the trees - these are poison ivy.

1. BOX NUMBER 1 IS UNAVAILABLE AT THIS TIME. From the parking lot, follow the gravel pathway to the tennis courts. Keep walking until you find a little pathway into the woods/tree line adjacent to the tennis courts. Stop at the National Park Service marker, look to your left for the multi-trunked tree. Look at the base for your first letterbox. It should be covered in leaves - please recover when you replace the box. NOTE: Count how many birdhouses you're passing!

2. Follow the gravel path around the park. Take the first pathway past the fourth birdhouse. The pathway into the tree line is located near two utility boxes. The path splits immediately. You should take the right pathway across the bridge. Keep walking until you see the back of the YMCA building. When you see the fallen bridge, keep right on the path. There is a little pathway towards the YMCA building, but don't go all the way through the little path. There is a large, two-trunked tree that your letterbox is hidden behind. It should be covered in leaves - please recover when you replace the box.

3. Return from the second letterbox to the main park gravel/asphalt pathway, take the asphalt path until you find the swings. Just behind and to the left of the swings is another pathway through the tree line (the first path directly behind the swings). From the edge of the grass, take about 20 steps down the path and find the twisting tree towards the right side of the pathway. In the back of the tree at the base is where you will find your third letterbox. This box has had a history of getting washed down the cliff during heavy rain. After retrieving it a few times (not fun) it is now tethered to the tree root. Please take care to coil the tether and tuck it up and out of site as much as possible when replacing the box. Thank you! NOTE: Please be careful as this pathway is a bit steep and there is a steep cliff on the right. The twisting tree is not that far down the path - do NOT start going down the cliff, as you have gone too far if you do that. ONLY ADULTS SHOULD RETRIEVE THIS BOX DUE TO THE STEEP TERRAIN. USE EXTREME CAUTION!

4. Return to the main park asphalt/gravel path and continue until you reach Shelter "H". Behind the shelter there is a trail marked "Oaken Sunrise Trail: Approx. 2000 ft." From that sign, walk approximately 20 steps down the path. You should see a tree stump to your left - stop there. Look towards 2:00 and you will see a thick-trunked tree. Behind that tree is another letterbox. It should be covered in leaves - please recover when you replace the box.

5. Keep going down the trail for letterbox #5. As you approach the first bridge, look for a huge cut tree stump on the right that is toppled over onto its side. Your letterbox is hiding inside the top of it under a bed of leaves - please recover when replacing the box.

6. Continue until the end of the trail for your sixth letterbox. NOTE: There is a meadow that intersects the trail but continue straight through and do not veer off the trail. Once out of the trail you will be in a little clearing by the park entrance. Directly ahead of you from where the trail ends is a tree marked "#1". Face the "#1" sign and look to the right perpendicular to yourself. Walk approximately fifteen steps to the tree you see and stop in front of it. Look to your left at the tree line for a tree with an upside-down "V", hollowed base. Your letterbox is within the base of the tree. NOTE: You may want to poke around with a stick in the base of the tree first just to make sure nothing besides the letterbox is hiding in there! If you continue to walk up the asphalt drive you will reach the parking lot where you started.