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Fox's Run LbNA #5188

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Aug 12, 2003
Location:
City:Westfield
County:Hampden
State:Massachusetts
Boxes:1
Found by: Jei
Last found:Sep 1, 2008
Status:FFFFFFFFaaaaFa
Last edited:Aug 12, 2003




FOX'S RUN
STANLEY PARK
WESTFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS

To search for this letterbox, enter Stanley Park at the gate near the tennis courts and playground (not the entrance near the gardens). Drive past the tennis courts on your right and turn left into the parking area behind the playground. Park here and begin.

CLUE DIFFICULTY: Easy
TERRAIN: Easy
Hike requires only about 45 minutes and is suitable for small children.

Begin in the picnic area behind the parking lot (not the pavilion on the playground side). Here you'll see many black squirrels for which Stanley Park is famous. However, you may also see a fleeting flash of orange or red, for the park is home to foxes, too. This particular flash of fur heads down a well-trodden path perpendicular to the parking lot, with large rhododendron bushes on each side. The fox doesn't pause to rest on the bench with a curtain of leaves; instead he strolls down the left path and you follow. He stops next to a small stump on the left of the path. When the fox sees you coming, he dashes up the hill and out of sight. You take about 12 paces from the stump before coming to a path on the right going up the hill. Once up the hill, stay to your left.

As you go down the hill, you may see a pile of red sawdust on your right made from woodpeckers drilling out the tree above it. Once you curve around to the bottom of the hill, you come to a 4-way intersection. If you imagine this is a compass and you are standing at the southern point, take the path that symbolizes East. Walk a few minutes along this wide path where the fox may have been moments before. He may have been stalking the bird box on your left, or running through a maze of fallen logs on your right.

As you come to the main bike path up ahead, you see the fox darting across the meadow in front of you. However, you decide to turn right, keeping the stone wall to your left. Continuing down the path along the river, you come to a great place to throw rocks. You pause here for a moment to observe the beautiful dragonflies, but the loud sound of a bull frog startles you back onto the path. As you continue down the path, you notice two trail blazes on your left that remind you of the fox. Beginning at the second blaze, take about 24 paces. There you glimpse a flash of red tail up the hill to your right and you head up in pursuit.

Up ahead, a large tree lies over the path like a bridge, but the fox doesn't go under it. Instead, he turns up the hill past a passel of pale, peeling paper producers. As you follow him, look carefully to the side of the path to spot rare Lady Slippers and beautiful Indian Pipes growing. Here you see the fox scamper nimbly over logs that block the path. As you follow, you spot a pile of logs stacked in a triangle on your right and you stop in your tracks.

The fox is about 20 paces in front of you, walking like a tightrope walker along a thin, fallen log that crosses the path and points, like an arrow, directly to your treasure, guarded by a "holy" couple.

The fox runs off and disappears. If you're an intrepid explorer, after finding the box you may continue down the narrow, wooded path and find out where it leads. Or you can double back the way you came, returning to the main bike trail. Here, you may want to go further down the trail to where there is a boardwalk through the marshy river area -- a great bird-watching spot. Or return directly to the parking lot the way you came.

This is the Swallowtails' first letterbox, which we hope you enjoyed. If you did, keep an eye out for more letterboxes coming soon in parks near you, all over the country!