Our Letterboxes

Dog's Life

Travel to North Bennington, Vermont. From the library, take Knapp Drive west past the Park - McCullough House. About a quarter mile up the road past the house there are two stone gateposts to the left. There is room to pull off and park on that side of the road. Please do not block the drive.

Follow the road through the gateposts across a small brook to a fork, take a right up the hill. At the top you will pass between another two stone gateposts. On the left is an interpretive sign and sign-in box, and straight ahead is a trail map. Instead of taking the Mile Around Loop, take a right at the gateposts and follow the road along the edge of the woods. You will cross a small brook and start up a hill. There will be a standing barn off to the left and an old barn foundation to the right. Keep straight ahead until you come to where the bedrock shows through the ground. Take a breather and admire the view. Then take a left and follow the field road in a south-south westerly direction. (These roads can be easily seen or hard to follow depending on what crops are being grown and how much farm machinery uses them, but they are part of the Mile-Around trail system and it is O.K. to walk them). The trail will skirt a patch of woods on the west side, then cut through and meander through the center of a small meadow, exiting through an opening with a large dead tree on the right side. Continue on across the fields, across a small weedy ditch and a hedgerow. At the next hedgerow the road turns sharp left to the East at the end of the row. Follow it. At the end you will come to a junction with another trail map. Take a left. There will be a wooden walk across a swampy place, then you will come to a seat at the edge of the woods. Take another break if you wish, then follow the trail into the woods. In a minute you will cross a stone wall and come to a trail junction (1.10 miles from the second gateposts).

Take a right at the junction. Just a short way along you will spot a large tree with a larger rotting stump in the woods behind it. From the base of the tree follow a course of 240 deg. for twenty paces. Look in the hollow log for the box. Please hide the box back where you found it, making sure it is closed.

To get back to your car, follow the trail you were on until it comes out on the main Mile-Around Loop, then go either way to get back to the main gate. The total trip will be about 2.5 miles from your car and back.

I am experimenting with a new method of making stamps. This box contains the first successful attempt. It is pretty primitive, but now I know it works I hope to be able to improve the detail.

Clues are also at:http://tkrice.tripod.com/letterbox.html#a1