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Panther Creek Letterbox LbNA #7188

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Feb 14, 2004
Location:
City:Clarkesville
County:Habersham
State:Georgia
Boxes:2
Planted by:Red's Bunch
Found by: Kirbert
Last found:Mar 20, 2005
Status:F
Last edited:Feb 14, 2004
Location: Panther Creek Falls Trail (Note - USDA Forest Service policy allows for the placement of caches in National Forests)
Difficulty: 3.6 miles one-way; trail difficulty is easy-to-moderate (for the careful) to difficult (for the clumsy)
Last Verified:
Box 1: 11/26/04 - Verified good condition.
3/22/05 - reported landmark footbridge washed out, traces still visible.
Box 2: 2/26/05 - Replaced lost letterbox.
3/22/05 - Reported missing (again!) Not yet verified.

A notorious jewel thief is at large in the area, and the bungling detective I sent to out to arrest him has gotten himself lost in the woods. Now I have no choice but to send you out to rescue the idiot, and hopefully (with your help) there will still be time to nab the thief. If you are successful, it will probably get each of you a promotion. His last radio contact was brief. Here’s the transcript:

"... path ahead was roped off or I would have missed the two blue blazes on the rocks to the left that I was to climb between ...[garbled due to static] ... immediately after I crossed the third footbridge, when I turned right, I noticed that there were no more blue blazes ... [severe static] ... upstream for 73 paces ... [unintelligible] ... footprint near the mossy tree with several trunks led me to believe that the suspect was heading ... [static] ... bearing of 205 degrees. There, I noticed a suspicious crevice. As I peered into it, I [unintelligible] and fell. I am afraid that I have received a rather large [unintelligible – sounds like bimp?] and became confused. It seems ... [static; end of transcript]”

Once you have our hapless detective safe and sound, go after the thief. He has a hideout in the area. The department has attempted several times to follow him, but he always manages to shake the tail. The detectives on duty reported back after seeing the culprit in several places along the trail, each one a little further along. Perhaps you can use their information to track him to his lair.

1. The first detective trailed the suspect for about a half-hour after crossing the third footbridge. He lost track of the culprit when darkness began to fall.
2. For the next attempt, we sent a team. They followed the jewel thief along several precarious ridgelines; our team lost their suspect because the path became dangerous due to rainy weather, but he appears to have continued along the main path.
3. An off-duty officer saw the suspect hanging around at a populated beach-like area. The officer was vacationing with his family; he was reluctant to do anything but call in the sighting.
4. Our surveillance team staked out the beach. They spotted the perpetrator and chased him from a gnarled and knotted tree in the middle of the area to a blue blaze. They took no more than 4 steps toward the creek and over a 4-foot wide rock, but the fugitive had disappeared. I fear it will be a while before he "sticks his head out" again, since we nearly nabbed him this time. There was a hole with a flat rock leaning on it, but the thief wasn't there, unless he managed to pull a rock in after him! This is the last known sighting.

I am anxiously awaiting word from you that you were completely successful in this assignment. (Unofficially and off the record, I would not mind if that idiot detective stayed lost, but knowing how inept he can be, it’s entirely possible that left alone he would manage to destroy several hundred acres of wilderness. Not to mention my career.)

Good luck.