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Spike Searches for his Friend LbNA #65658

Owner:RickettsGlen
Plant date:Aug 31, 2013
Location: Ricketts Glen State Park
City:Red Rock
County:Luzerne
State:Pennsylvania
Boxes:1
Planted by:Fairmount Girls
Found by: The Nature Lady
Last found:Sep 6, 2014
Status:F
Last edited:Aug 31, 2013
(This is an easy 20 to 30 minute hike -- a nice box to look for with children. Begin by parking in the Evergreen Trail/Adams Falls parking lot, on the south side of Rt. 118, at Ricketts Glen State Park. Head down to the uppermost pool, where you can still see Rt. 118 (from below), and begin there.

Spike is on his friend's trail. He sniffs his way across Route 118 heading south, nose to the pavement. Certain that he has caught her scent and intent on finding her, he is so focused that he does not see the log-filled 18 wheeler bearing down on him. When he finally looks up, the truck is almost on top of him. He dives for the curb and, thanks to his haste and his poor vision, miscalculates its distance, over-shoots, and plummets over the paved road’s edge.

He free-falls, quills brushing the sheer sandstone walls of a narrow canyon as he drops 5, 10, 15, 20 feet and then: SPLASH! He lands in the small creek at the bottom.

Spike sinks straight down, slows, then pops back up to the water’s surface. He sputters as he begins to paddle. The current pushes him downstream, through the narrow canyon and out into a wide pool. He paddles towards a stone slab that rises from the bottom of the pool. He climbs out, shakes the water from his fur and quills. and rests for a few minutes just above the water's surface. The noise of the rushing stream drowns out all other sounds, save for that of his own heavy breathing.

At one side the slab drops off abruptly: there is nothing below but air. Spike creeps to the edge and pokes his nose over. The creek empties in a narrow waterfall, dropping to a series of smaller pools and spill-overs below.

Spike puts his nose into the air and sniffs: he picks up her faint scent from down-stream. He scrambles up and over the fallen trees and boulders to the right. The railing alongside a set of wooden steps offers a better view, and he climbs up it. Slide-waddling down the rail to the staircase bottom, he heads out onto the rock plateau at the left. From its edge he can see the last and largest waterfall dropping into a deep, cool, green pool.

It is still too far to jump. Spike heads back to the base of the stairs, passing through a pair of leaning trees. From here he can see another staircase – this one rail-less and made of rough stone. He heads down it, stopping to catch his breath for a moment in a flat spot with 2 perfectly straight, stone walls set at right angles. It is peaceful in this little nook; the babbling of the creek flowing out from the green pool is replacing the rush of the waterfall above. Her scent lures him onward, though, and so he continues down the stairs and along the creek-side path. Above, he notices many nooks and crannies carved from the rock face by seeping rainwater: great places for naps, be thinks, but now is not the time. Onward!

Following her scent, Spike veers off onto a blown-down tree that extends above the creek, from one bank to the other. But just a few yards out her trail disappears. Did she fall in? He scurries back, puts nose to ground, and soon picks up her scent again. She seems to have followed the creek and then crossed a wooden bridge. Just across the bridge she U-turned to the right, down the slope – probably to eat some berries and to get a drink – and Spike follows suit. He sniffs at a bright-colored thing that he spots on the ground there, next to the creek. It smells sickly sweet – unappetizing – so he lets it be.

Then, Spike is back on task. The trail runs up hill, and is full of rocks and the occasional criss-crossing tree root. On the right side are the long trunks of blown down trees. He scurries along the top of each, pausing only when he comes across a large white rectangular thing covered with black markings. He sniffs it – there are strange smells there -- then moves on quickly.

Where the path begins to level out, he heads up one of the fallen logs, only to discover – halfway along – that it is leading him up, off the ground, its upper reaches caught against a pair of trees.

Spike backtracks then. He is in a clearing, and at its far edge he spots another of the strange, white rectangular things with its unusual markings and even more unusual smells. Her trail approaches it, then veers to the left, following one of two trails there that immediately passes through first one pair, then another, of cut, felled trunks.

As he moves further and further from the creek now, its babble and its water-scents fade. Spike can hear cars as he moves along, and he shivers, thinking of the logging truck and of his roadside plunge.

As he works his way up the path he nibbles on roots and leaves. There are stumps and downed trees scattered alongside, and he spots many that look like they would be great hide-outs for him and his friend. But her scent stays right on the path. He spies a carving on one tree that looks like “KJEK” and wonders at the stragne symbols.

As he nears another of the alien, white, rectangular things he becomes aware of the sky: the forest opens up and there is a hole in the canopy that sun shines through. Poking up into the space are a batch of dead, leaf-less snags. He gazes up at them and wonders if his friend could be hiding in one of them. But no: her scent lures him further along the trail and he continues on.

A young buck looks out at him through the trees on the left. Spike scurries ahead.

Another white rectangular thing shines out at him. Across the path from it, two trees rise next to one another. Her scent leads him to them, and there is a cavity in the base of each. His heart skips a beat as he darts toward the two but no – both dens are empty.

Her scent grows stronger now and Spike picks up his pace a bit. He hops atop a 4’ high log that runs alongside the left side of the path and then, back to the ground, playing a game of “Don’t Touch the Ground” with himself on the rocks that poke up from the path’s packed earth.

Suddenly he is in a clearing. Another strange object – this one, a smoothly cleft section of tree trunk resting atop two smaller logs – offers him pause, again. From atop it, he looks out and sees where the path turns. At its feet are two more brightly colored things like those he saw beside the creek – one red and one blue. This pair is salty, and he licks them clean before moving on to snack on a scattering of acorns that lie nearby.

Her scent clear, he scurries ahead, pausing at a small creek to wash the salt down. He narrowly avoids lapping up a small water strider, then heading across the simple bridge that spans the creek. The path rises and he pauses beneath a giant tulip poplar – the poplar’s fresh, spring buds are a favorite delicacy, but alas, the only buds he finds are old and dried. It is the wrong season.

On he marches. He noses into the moss that covers a fallen tree on the left of the path and gets a fresh, strong whiff. She has left her scent here – and recently, too!

Her pushes on, hardly noticing another log construction and another of the white rectangles – though he does spot, with joy, a large patch of gnaw-marks at the base of a tree: she has been here, sharpening her teeth!

There is a shape in a tree off to the right, just up the path – it is about 8’ off the ground and his heart skips a beat. He is sure that it is her! Spike rushes forward and is standing at the base of the tree, front paws reaching up the trunk, before he realizes that no, it is just a burl. His poor eyes have failed him again.

From here, he spots another tree off to the right – this one with an opening at its base. Her scent is so strong now that he charges towards it, willy nilly. Again he is out of luck: the cavity is empty.

And then, another shape up a tree on the right – this one much bigger, and lower down. He rushes past another of the white rectangular things, not even noticing it. Again: he is foiled. It is another burl.

Spike is dizzy with her smell now. He is desperate to find his friend. Just down the path he spots a snag to the left – a dead, topless tree riddled with woodpecker holes. To him, it looks like a castle.

Spike races towards it. He circles around the back. There is an opening – a cavity. He pokes his head in and boom. There she is.

He enters slowly, and approaches her. She takes a step forward and the two porcupines put their faces right up next to each other, giving each other a nose-to-nose rub. Then, she lets out a loud, porcupine shriek in greeting.

Spike has found his friend at last!