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Animal Search LbNA #23515 (ARCHIVED)

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Jul 4, 2006
Location:
City:Newtown
County:Fairfield
State:Connecticut
Boxes:4
Planted by:Smoky Lizard
Found by: yonnie (4)
Last found:Aug 6, 2008
Status:FFFFFF
Last edited:Jul 4, 2006
Starting point is the Pond Brook boat launch on Hanover Road next to Upper Paugussett State Forest. Hanover Road is the first right turn off Main going west from the Flagpole in Newtown. The boat launch is about 3 miles from the center of town.

This search will take you along part of the Newtown Trailway, or Al’s Trail, a scenic trail along Lake Lillinonah. The last box is hidden in a part of the trail that is not open December 15 – March 15 (to protect nesting bald eagles). Finding all 4 boxes and returning takes about 1 – 1 ½ hours.

At the boat launch parking lot, you hear the startling news that four zoo animals have escaped from a truck that was transporting them to Beardsley Zoo. They are hiding in the Upper Paugussett Forest. Being a skilled animal handler, you offer to find and return the animals.

Starting at the boat launch parking lot, walk along the road over the creek to a small parking area at the side of the road. Enter the woods on the trail closest to the water. Keep on the main trail that curves to the right and cross a stream. Another trail joins from the left, but continue straight. The trail is marked with blue ribbons. 20 paces from where the two trails merge, up a slight hill, you notice PENGUINS hiding under a fallen tree on its east side.

Continue on the trail until it intersects with the Newtown Trailway, marked with a yellow diamond above a light blue blaze. Go east on the Newtown Trailway. Cross a stream, a fallen log, and another stream (if there isn’t much rain, read “stream bed”). When you see a stone wall up a hill on the right side of the trail, you see what you think is a GIRAFFE. It is actually a hollow log leaning on the wall, but if you look on the other side of the wall near the log, you will find the GIRAFFE hiding in the wall (!).

You hear a WOLF howl, so you continue along the Newtown Trailway. After a while, you cross another fallen log and another stream. As soon as you pass under two trees that have fallen over the trail, walk over a rocky area on the trail and look for a skinny tree to your left with the light blue blaze. Stop at the tree and look to your right. The WOLF is hiding next to a large rock off the trail.

Continue along the trail over some rocky ground and a stream. You soon see a sign near a stone wall that says “Scenic Trail. Next 3.1 miles trail closed Dec 15 – Mar 15.” Head uphill on the trail (if it’s not Dec 15 – Mar 15, of course). Continue on this scenic part of the trail for a good ways. At one point you will see that a TIGER has scratched its initials into a tree! After a while, you see the TIGER crouching on a log leaning over the stone wall next to the right side of the trail. It springs away, and you follow it along the trail to what looks like a meeting place with a platform, fire ring, and a bench. As you sit down to rest on the bench, you hear the TIGER roar behind you. You walk 27 paces 110 degrees from the bench to another fire ring. Looking south, you see the TIGER hiding underneath the very log that it was crouching on a few minutes before, the one leaning on the stone wall.

After you’ve collected all the missing animals, return back on the trail the same way you came.