TORIENTED LbNA #58996 (ARCHIVED)

Note: This series is on a road that is not maintained in the winter, and hunting is allowed from November to April. High Rock Road starts in Wrentham, but the box is actually in Foxboro.

While hiking in the F. Gilbert Hills State Forest, looking for letterboxes of course, we kept seeing lots of trails that begged to be explored. On an earlier letterboxing foray in another state forest that was unmapped, we missed a turn and got hopelessly lost. Scary! "Gilly" is the name we call the FGHSF now, and it is very familiar to us, but it might not be to you, so before you find the awesome TOR that we happened upon, you first have to orient yourself.

From I-495, go just over 2 miles north on Route 1. Take a right onto High Rock Road which goes about a mile, ending at a parking lot with a brown gate. This can be a party spot, so thanks for picking up the trash to put in the barrel there. Stand near the middle of this place to orient yourself. Disclaimer: A compass will show you that these directions are only approximate. NORTH is the direction where you drove in. Walk down this road to a path on the left which is blocked by a large rock. To its left is another rock. At its point furthest from the trail and road is a Suspicious Pile Of Sticks (SPOS) hiding the box. You might want to stamp this at the top center of your logbook page. Please re-hide this and the rest of them cap-side up. Thanks!

Go back to the lot and this time go SOUTH through the brown gate. You are now following a gravelly road which is actually the continuation of High Rock. Walk down it until you come to an unnamed trail that goes west. I'll call it the Linking Trail. Look to your right for a fallen tree angling away from you. Go to its far end to find a SPOPC hiding the box. You might want to put this stamp at the bottom center of your logbook page.

Return to the parking lot, pick up a grape-to-walnut-size round rock and heard EAST which is the Warner Trail. Go up the nicely built stone steps, and bear left towards a large boulder with a plaque. In front of this boulder is a cross trail. Go to the right, over to a pair of boulders. Behind the larger one is a SPOR hiding the box. You can probably guess where to imprint this stamp and the next one in your logbook. Before leaving, add your little rock to the pile, being sure all the little rocks completely hide the box.

Now you need to find the WEST box. Go back down the steps to see a paved road that goes up to an orange tower next to a large building. Only go a few steps on it before turning left on a gravel path that goes alongside the woods by the building. This is the Acorn Trail that will eventually go into the woods and connect with the Linking Trail that you saw at the South Box. You won't need to go that far. Instead, stop and turn around at a place where a paved gutter crosses the path. Take about a dozen steps back and look to your right for a large oak and some saplings next to a row of rocks. Cross over the rocks and put the oak on your right, so you can see along the row of rocks. About six steps away is a triangular overhang that wants to hide a letterbox. It was put there under a SPOA, but the squirrels ate them all, so now it is surrounded by rocks and capped by a flat stone.

Now that you have finished orienting yourself, you won't get lost finding the TOR. Again (sorry) go back to the parking lot and at the brown gate, head southwest-ish. You are now on the Warner Trail in the opposite direction from the part with the boulder. Notice the circles on the trees - some white, some shiny, some rusty - which mark this trail. After about a minute of walking, you should be on a buried ledge leading you to a left turn in the Warner Trail. This is hard to spot. Before turning left, take note of the straight-ahead trail for later. Soon the Warner will cross the Linking Trail. Stop there to quiz yourself to answer where each of the choices would take you. Now, keep following the Warner Trail (straight) until you see a wonderful Tower Of Rocks (TOR) on the left. Ahead of you is a large rock that will brush your right shoulder. Before that rock, spy a trail on the left. Don't take that trail now, but you will later. The Warner Trail goes along the TOR for quite awhile, so just enjoy admiring it. It better suits Geocachers rather than Letterboxers, don't you think? When the TOR ends, say "see-you-later" to the Warner and take the unmarked trail that goes left uphill, not too steeply, towards the top of the TOR. Pass through a stone wall. Go straight a little further, climb left, and just before the top, see a pile of logs. Go to the top left of the pile, and find "T" below a crack in the rock. Knowing there will also be an O and an R, you should plan to position them abutting each other, preferably in the top half of your logbook page. (The last box has a stamp that will go in the lower half).

Near the base of the log pile, continue left on the unnamed trail. It will veer away from the TOR awhile then it peeks out at you again on the left. Step over a fallen tree and stop. Notice a space between two large rocks/boulders in the TOR. Climb up between them. Behind the left one is a very tiny sunken "gravestone." Between it and the rock is the "O." Please recap the container tightly, since it has to be on its side here.

Go back down to continue along the trail to the end of the TOR to find the trail mentioned earlier. Part way down, on the right, is a lonesome boulder. Behind it is some bark hiding "R."

Now go down to the Warner Trail again. The "shoulder brushing" rock on your left is reassuring. You must be eager to find the last box which holds the last stamp and the logbook. Okay, go right on the Warner to the Linking Trail, then go left on that to a T that is the Acorn Trail, the one you found the West Box on. Ahead of you is an uproot. Behind it, under a SPOE, is what you have been waiting for.

Can you figure out how to get back to the parking lot? Did you make it? If so, you are now officially TORIENTED!