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Leaving Summer LbNA #63157

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Sep 22, 2012
Location: Otter Creek
City:Elgin
County:Kane
State:Illinois
Boxes:4
Planted by:KLeyd96
Found by: Jaxom and Sharra (3)
Last found:Aug 4, 2013
Status:FFFFa
Last edited:Sep 22, 2012
Park in the parking lot on the north side of Hopps Road about one mile west of Randall Road.
Sit at the picnic table looking away from the street to see a pathway leading down to the creek. Follow the path slightly downhill into an overgrown meadow. You will cross over a small creek and come onto a mowed pathway. Here you will decide to turn left or right. Make the right decision. Follow the path around the bend until it curves again and you can see telephone poles across the vast meadow. Continue down as the forest gets thicker to your right. Keep walking down the path until you see a small white sign on the right side of the path that reads, "District Kane County Forest Preserve." Turn right and take this rocky path towards a fascinating bridge. Looking at the bridge you can see old wooden posts hold up the railroad. Find the wooden posts that are no longer in use and count the closest of them counter clockwise. Inside the sixth old post, under some loose rocks, you will find your first letterbox!

Continue under the bridge and you will come across another crossroad. The decision you should make is easy, but it will not be right. Going slightly downhill, continue down this path looking at the trees and enjoying the scenery, smells, and feel Autumn coming into her season. Continue this direction for about .25 miles. This is a good time to share a ghost story or another nature trail experience. Do you know what kind of leaf that last letterbox was of?

This path will continue until it crosses back under the railroad bridge. Go back under the bridge. On this side of the bridge, you will see more grasses, maybe more flowers, and you will have a better view of the railroad at the top of the hill. Keep an eye open for an old, no longer used telephone pole and pass it and continue on your path to find the next letterbox. You may have to step over a small white birch tree or other sticks the lay on the path. Look around, closely. You may notice some of these things don't belong. People who litter leave garbage in nature and may hurt animals and destroy their homes with this ugly pollution. A little further up the path and to the left, you will see a small tire that is half burried in the ground. On the inside of this tire, you will find the second letterbox. This tire is also directly across from another old telephone pole.

Now turn around and head back the way you came going back under the railroad bridge. On the north side of the railroad, there is a pile of old posts that are not even planted into the ground. In between two of these posts and very close to the trail you should find a third letter box. Please be sure to replace them careful so that they are not found by other hikers. You can use loose rocks to cover it up.

There you have it! There you left it! Did you know September 22 is the first day of Fall? Also, did you notice each of these boxes were on your "left"? So sad to leave summer, but here's to looking forward to colorful autumn!