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Secret Circular Salamander LbNA #52641

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Jul 3, 2009
Location:
City:Dryden
County:Tompkins
State:New York
Boxes:1
Planted by:Jayanjas
Found by: ordinarykt
Last found:May 12, 2013
Status:FF
Last edited:Jul 3, 2009
Cornell Plantations maintains this high altitude natural area for educational use, so PLEASE no fires, no collecting, no hunting, no trace of you left behind (except, of course, your stamp & notes in our logbook). The very special rare habitat here is fragile and restricted to Authorized Educators, so keep on the red trail and don't even make footprints! Step lightly, don't scuff your feet! If it's bug season, be sure to wear lots of serious bug repellent and mud-proof footwear, as the trail skirts bogs and swamps and follows rivulet beds through the Circular Woods. If it's been real wet lately, don't visit till it get drier; honest, footprints are not welcome here. We like to bike up Ringwood, huff huff huff, from East Ithaca and have noticed that Ringwood Neighbors has Adopted the Highway for a mile by our favorite salamander preserve. Jay says he heard salamanders were once thought to live in fire because they'd crawl out of wet logs thrown on a campfire, and we saw more than a dozen fiery red and orange spotted ones hiking the trail today when we planted this letterbox for you. Once you have stopped climbing, just a bit past the Adopt-a-Highway sign, look for a shoulder just a bit wider than usual on the left (west) side of the road. A low, nearly hidden Salamander Wall along the roadside here was installed to discourage amphibians from crossing this not very busy road. If you've found the Secret Trailhead, you'll see the Plantations Natural Area sign and a boardwalk across a soggy spot of the red-blazed trail. Follow red blazes and soon you'll come to a Y where the trail loops back to itself. Take the left branch of this Y and after about 178 steps you'll come to a double-blazed right turn. Start counting again from zero at this double blaze and note after 18 steps a huge double-trunked oak tree on your right; don't stop counting till you've gone 64 steps to a tall maple with red blaze on the left side of the trail. In the hollow at base of this tree, stashed in a small pile of rocks inside hides our Secret Circular Salamander. Please keep him covered with rocks, as we've had a similar letterbox in Ellis Hollow munched by critters (chipmunks, maybe?) and would like our salamander to survive for at least a few years. If you're enjoying the woods so far, continuing along the red blazes is a longer hike than returning the way you came. If the mosquitoes are sucking you dry, you should try a better repellent. We use Ben's 100% DEET.