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Dog Day LbNA #14741 (ARCHIVED)

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Apr 28, 2005
Location:
City:Ambler
County:Montgomery
State:Pennsylvania
Boxes:5
Planted by:B & E
Found by: Trail Hikers (3)
Last found:Jun 27, 2010
Status:FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFaaa
Last edited:Apr 28, 2005
FLASH! April 5, 2008 All boxes are restored and back in place. Enjoy the hunt!

B&E are addicted to Letterboxing. One day, they formed a colossal plan. They would return to the Armentrout Preserve and plant boxes with a few canine friends. Accordingly, they gathered some friends together and traveled to the Preserve in a pack.

Directions to the Armentrout Preserve: From the intersection of Route 73 (Skippack Pike) and Blue Bell Pennlyn Pike, drive north 1/2 mile to Beale Road. Turn right on Beale Road, drive to the end of the road, and park in the gravel area in the meadow. You will see two picnic tables a short distance away.

The clues start at the picnic tables. If all goes well, when you finish you will have spent about an hour, found five boxes and be pretty tired of the Armentrout Preserve (where B&E's First Box and the Jumping Logs box are also hidden.)

Gloves (or tough hands) may be helpful in retrieving some of the boxes.

B&E count in dog steps - four times human steps.

Some of Fifi's comments may not be suitable for children. Parents may wish to censor parts of these clues.

- * -

In August every year, Ambler has a DOG DAY PARADE, in which B&E, some of their human friends, and dozens of other dogs partcipate. This series of Letterboxes is dedicated to Ambler's DOG DAY.


Buddy the Puppy

"Me! Me! Please, may I be first?" little Buddy could not contain his enthusiasm. "I'm the smallest one here! Please! I want to hide my box first - please show me how!"

"OK, little Buddy," B said graciously, "we'll start out by going through this open area, past the sign behind the tables and over that buried pipe into the next field."

After they reached that field, Buddy was still full of energy. "I want to go to the next field after this one! Oh boy! Come on!" he cried, jumping up and down.

"Where does this little guy get all that pep?" B wondered aloud. At Buddy's insistence, they trudged up the hill. Near the top of the hill, they passed along a rutted trail. Just as it ended, Buddy spotted a large rock on the left hand side, next to a triple trunk tree.

"Oh, boy!" Buddy exclaimed, let's tuck my little box under that rock!" So B & E helped him hide his box under the rock right there by the side of the trail.

"Oh boy!" Buddy shouted, "my box is hidden here now, waiting for somebody to find it, and I put my picture inside, too. I'm so cute and little, people will just LOVE me!"

"Very nice, Buddy. . . and very easy to find," said E, who was a tiny bit jealous because, not so long ago, he was the cute little one of the group. "Now, it's someone else's turn."




Bubba and Izzy

"Zat is correct! Ve shall be next!" Bubba and Izzy declared, pushing forward. "No more sissy stuff! Let's get a real challenge going here!"

B&E were intimidated, so they agreed readily.

Turning right, they entered another field and walked along the edge, with lots of brambles on their right.

Bubba and Izzy and strode ahead, turning the corner and marching toward a black fence.

"Iz, vat is that strange vooden thing on the right?" Bubba asked as they marched along.

"Dumkopf! Ve don't vaste time looking at the sights! Turn right! Zere is a path here!"

Sure enough, just before they reached the black fence, they saw a path to the right.

"Right, Iz! Zis looks like von of those horsie paths, Iz! Ve might have to eliniate zem if zey get in our vay!"

"Yah!" Izzy agreed, "nozing better get in OUR way!"

The path wound into the woods, away from the houses behind the black fence.

"Look at zat tree!" Bubba shouted, "it has initials about us, see? "C M - Canines Magnificent!"

"No, zat's someone named Cory Miller," Izzy corrected him, "ve vill remember zat name as a tree-defacer!"

"Yah! Very suspicious. . ." Bubba agreed. "Do you think he had anything to do with zat pile of plyvood over zere?"

"Who knows?" Izzy replied, striding on. After a few minutes, they passed L A 05 on their right and, a bit farther along, a tree on the left with a No Trespassing sign.

Then Izzy stopped suddenly and looked around.

"Achtung! See that low stump right by the path? 96 steps behind it zere is a high stump, yah?"

When they reached the high tree stump, however, Bubba was doubtful. "Zat is too high. Even exceptional dogs like us cannot reach up to hide a letterbox up zere!"

"No," Izzy reluctantly agreed. "But - aha! Zeze two fallen trees make zee sign of the "X"! "X" marks zee spot. Ve can put zee box in zis lower stump right behind zee high stump - near zee interzection of zee "X". Vat do you think of zat as a hiding place?"

"Das Ist Gut!" Bubba placed the letterbox in the tree stump.

As soon as they returned to the path, Tallulah Mae stepped up.


Tallulah Mae

"Dahlins, I really must insist on hidin' my little lettahbox right now. My eahs are draggin! All this walkin' and carryin' this heavy box are wearin' me out!"

For Talluhah, B&E decided to seek a low down hiding place. They retraced their steps along the path, coming again to the tree with the No Trespassing sign. Across from that tree, the path forked and Tallulah strolled to the left. She sauntered along, listening to the birds and watching for wildlife close to the ground.

"Watch out, friends, for the evidence of the horses here," she cautioned, "I shore don't want to get any of that stuff on mah lovely eahs!"

They passed a number of fallen trees and a "horseways" sign posed on a tree on their left. They followed the path to the left.

"My, my, jes' look at that triple trunk tree ovah there on the right!"

"Yes," B volunteered,"and just 24 steps behind it is a nice big flat rock!"

"Ah'm thinkin' it would be jes' perfect to stretch out on that rock and have a nice little snooze, honey!" Tallulah replied, "but Ah'll jes' put my little ol' lettahbox right underneath the rock, instead."

She carefully tucked the box in behind the rock and waddled back to the path.

"Fifi, honey, yours must be the next box to hide. Wheah are you?"


Fifi

"Alors! Here I am, mes amis! These naughty boys made me wait until all those other boxes were placed. Mine will be the best box because I am tres tres jolie! Look at this quaint path, here." Fifi pranced around, batting her eyes at B&E, who were somewhat embarrassed.

"Let's place Fifi's letterbox quickly," E whispered, so she will go home and leave us alone."

Fifi had already taken command. "Now I don't want to break mes petits orteils, so we shall stay on this nice little path."

After walking for awhile, they found that their path joined a larger path and they came to a place where the path skirted a depression.

"Thees is not elegant!" Fifi complained, brushing dead leaves off her toes. Soon, the path came out to a meadow again.

"This looks like the place where that wicked witch was hiding," E murmured worriedly.

"Don't worry, Elmo. The wicked witch flew off last Hallowe'en," B assured him.

"Oh boy! What's a wicked witch?" Buddy demanded.

Fifi, annoyed at the interruption, led the group to the left. "Walk along the woods, here, svp. This is much more civilized."

About 1/4 of the way along the edge of the field, they saw a mossy rock. Above it was a fallen tree with a broken limb in the shape of a "Y" sticking out of the woods.

"Alors! Here is a charming petite fallen tree. I choose to hide my lovely little letterbox right here, a lettle bit behind theese lovely mossy rockl. Look, here, I need you bold boys to put it under the twigs and leaves so that my paws don't get soiled. Those are nasty sticky bushes. . .and who knows what might be under there. . .but you are so-o-o-o brave!"

"OK, Fifi," B&E said self-consciously, and, despite the pricky bushes, they stuffed her box under some sticks and bark at the end of a fallen limb.


B&E's Dog Day Box

"Let's hurry up and hide our last box," E urged, "Fifi is making me nervous."

They all trooped to the end of the field and turned the corner.

"Sometimes it's muddy here, Fifi, so watch your dainty feet," B said gallantly.

"Ah don't like mud either. It makes my lovely eahs all draggly," Tallulah commented.

"Bah, ve are not afraid of a little schlamm," Bubba and Izzy announced together.

"Whee!" said Buddy.

At the next corner, they found an opening on their left, went through, and took the path right, crossing over a little (sometimes vanishing) stream.

On the other side of the streambed were tangles of vines and trees on both sides of the path.

B&E chose to place their final letterbox among the debris on the right, under a dead leaning tree.

A few paces more and they came out to the field with the parking lot, with the picnic tables ahead to their right.
Buddy scampered toward the tables, Tallulah strolled and and Bubba and Izzy marched side by side.

Fifi, still flirtatious, danced along beside B&E.

"Did you know, garcons doux, that if we had a puppy together, it would be called a "golden doodle?" Fifi smiled seductively, "maybe sometime we could. . ."

B&E were shocked, but they drew themselves up with dignity. "Not us!" they said in unison. "We've been tutored!"