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'56 Fairlane LbNA #28281

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Jan 13, 2007
Location:
City:Amherst
County:Hampshire
State:Massachusetts
Boxes:1
Planted by:Molly Joe & Harvey
Found by: Fiddler of the Edema Ruh
Last found:Jun 30, 2011
Status:FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFa
Last edited:Jan 13, 2007
It will take a real sense of adventure to locate the letterbox we've place at the rusted out remains of a classic '56 Ford Fairlane. You'll need to cross fields and streams and venture through a forest of pine, oak, hemlock and maple.

The letterbox was placed on January 13, 2007

The Clues are EASY
The Terrain is EASY
Total round trip time is 40-45 minutes

The parking lot for the trail head is on Pelham Rd. which is the extension of Main Street heading EAST out of Amherst Center. The best landmark is the street sign for THAYER RD on the right (traveling east). The parking lot is on the left between THAYER and BAYBERRY.

Load up your gear and get the dogs out of the car and get ready to have a wonderful outing - no matter what the weather is like. Take a couple of minutes to read the sign explaining this portion of the Robert Frost Trail, then proceed northward along the beginning of the trail. After only 200 yards or so there will be a "Y" - be sure to stay to the left and keep the "community garden" on your right.

Once you have crossed through the meadow section, you'll enter into the woods and soon cross a bridge over Amethyst Brook. We'll call this bridge #1; it is this brook that gives the conservation area its name. Stay on the ORANGE blazed trail and ford a tributary stream or cross the log bridge. If you have your dogs with you, they will love the brookside beach area and if it is a hot July or August day, you may enjoy a dip yourself.

Resume your trip on the ORANGE blazed trail, semi-parallel to the brook. After a while there will be a fork in the trail, be sure to stay to the right and follow the arrow sign that says "RF TRAIL". Just beyond this you'll come to another bridge that crosses the brook; this is bridge #2. DON'T cross it but instead, take a left and continue following the brook and the ORANGE blazes.

After following along the WEST side of the brook for another few minutes, you'll see bridge #3. At this point you should see a path angling back to the left. This path leads up to a spiraling stone altar that is worth a few minutes of exploration. However, it is the WRONG way. In order to stay on the RIGHT trail, take the ORANGE blazed trail to the left at bridge #3.

Not far beyond the bridge, you'll see a sign saying you are leaving the conservation land but don't worry, you're still on the right trail. Just up ahead, on the left of the trail you'll see the semi buried, alomst completely rusted out remains of a 1956 FORD FAIRLANE. Look up inside the right front wheel fender. You should be able to find the box pretty easily.

On September 8,2008, a new stamp book (Volume II) was added to the box because there was no room for any more stamps in Volume I. Volume I was left in the box so that repeat visitors could see the entries they had made earlier.

Here is where you have to decide whether to continue the journey up the trail to the summit or turn around and head back. If you go up from here you might take a couple of hours depending on the weather. At the top, you'll get a wonderful panoramic view of all of the Amherst area including south to the Notch and west to Hadley and Northampton.

When you head back to the parking lot from the letterbox, whether you went to the top or not, you'll be able to go back on a different trail simply be taking either bridge #3 or bridge #2 to cross the brook and there will be trails on the other side of the brook that will rejoin the main trail back at the "community garden."