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Hike or Bike to the Pike LbNA #30630

Owner:Walkabout
Plant date:May 4, 2007
Location:
City:Delaware
County:Delaware
State:Ohio
Boxes:2
Found by: Goofy Gooberz (2)
Last found:Oct 17, 2021
Status:FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFOFF
Last edited:Nov 6, 2020
NOTE: The second box in this series "went missing" and so was recarved and replanted in a new location on 6/27/2010. These clues have been revised to reflect the new location.

Bring along your own stamp pad and pen.

This letterbox is located at Alum Creek State Park. You can find a map of the park here.

Park in the picnic and mountain biking parking lot on Africa Road just north of the intersection of Africa and Cheshire Roads.

Enter the mountain bike trail across Africa Road from the parking lot. Follow the trail to the right (east). Be sure to step aside for all mountain bikers! The letterboxes will be 5-10 minutes down this trail. To get the whole fish story you will have to locate both its head and its tail.

Pass several houses on your right, and then cross a little bridge over a very small inlet stream. At this stage you begin to see several side trails (actually trail shortcuts). Stay on the main trail as it rounds the peninsula which juts into Alum Creek. The main trail follows the edge of the peninsula with the water on the left side. The trail will be curving to the right the whole time.

Heads

Shortly after you round the point of land, you will come upon a very large downed tree (pointing southward, perpendicular to the trail) on your right. Walk 11 steps along the trunk; you will come to a fork of 3 branches. One limb goes up into the air; two branches lie on the ground. You will find the letterbox concealed in this fork, covered by some bark and leaves.

Tails

After stamping in and hiding the box as you found it, continue on the mountain bike path. Walk 30 steps and up a slight rise, and you will be going round the right hand side of what was, when we first planted these boxes, a trash heap. There remain a few pieces of rusted steel and steel cans. Pass by the trash. Thirty three steps from the furthest (eastern) edge of the trash pile, look for a broken black cherry tree (dark flaky bark) 5 steps to the right of the path. This tree has 2 trunks and a stump.

Continue on the path, which goes in an S-shaped turn down a slight hill. As the trail starts up a slight rise and swings right, look to your right for a clump of 5 trees about 9 steps from the path, just after a downed log. (the tree on the left is dead, the 2nd from left is medium sized, then there is a small tree with a stump in front of it, then another medium sized tree on the right.). You will know this is the right spot if you also find remnants of an old wire fence with the trees--this is the key to finding this stamp. Look at the small right hand tree stump. The fish tail is buried behind the tree. [Update: if you pass a big twisted fallen tree on the left of the path, you've gone too far.]