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Class Trip 2: Art of the Old Masters LbNA #20601

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Feb 26, 2006
Location:
City:Spokane
County:Spokane
State:Washington
Boxes:1
Planted by:The Fat Lady
Found by: SnowFire
Last found:May 4, 2015
Status:FFFFFFFFFFFFF
Last edited:Feb 26, 2006
[Important note: To find this letterbox, you do not have to step off the trail, which would break the preservation rules of this natural habitat.]

Eyes on me, class. Billy, are you listening? Today's field trip has brought us to an outdoor museum of art where disrespectful behavior of any sort will get you sent back to the bus. No littering, no shoving, no wandering off the trail. Most artworks like these are closed to the public or, like this one, fenced off because some modern humans can't seem to quell their destructive tendencies. What is it, Marcy? Quell? Look it up in the dictionary. Let's board the bus, everyone. And behave.

We're traveling north from Francis Street on Indian Trail Road. It's several miles, but we won't be making stops; there's a toilet facility where we'll be parking. On the right here, you can see the sign for Little Spokane River Natural Area, and just ahead on the left is the parking lot.

Here we are, then. While our driver pays the parking fee, we'll gather at the informational sign. Read about Indian pictographs, including the meanings today's scholars have inferred from them. Marcy, what? “Inferred” is in the dictionary, too. Okay, after reading the sign, step over there, onto the path which starts a few feet to the our left, and walk a very short distance, and now you'll see, to your right, metal bars against the rock wall. Behind these bars are the works we've come to see. Study them well, as after thousands of years they are fading, the stories they tell growing more obscure.

Most of the world's art museums allow students to copy great paintings, so long as the copy is a different size from the original (this helps prevent forgeries). You are encouraged to sketch your own copies into your workbooks. WHAT NOW, MARCY? You've forgotten your art materials? Has anyone else forgotten theirs? *Sigh.* Fortunately, the last time I was here doing copies--I was studying that human figure there, on the lower right of the main painted rock--I stashed my art box up the other trail, in a place I hope no other visitors have found. I'll wait here until you retrieve them.

Cross the parking area and take that trail leading past the restroom. Enough, boys; you're too old for potty humor. After about 350 steps, you'll come to a giant fallen log that lines the right side of your path. A large natural split about halfway up the log hides the box of copying materials under loose pine needles and other detritus. Yes, Marcy, “detritus.” Carry your dictionary everywhere.

Listen up, folks. Do not--I repeat, do not--leave the trail, and do not let anyone see you getting my stuff. Don't disturb anything except what covers the box, and hide it again when you're done. Artists--ancient or contemporary--shouldn't need iron fences to keep their works from being muggled.