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(GONE) World of Creve Coeur Park BONUS LbNA #39935 (ARCHIVED)

Owner:RandomChimp
Plant date:May 19, 2008
Location:
City:Maryland Heights
County:St. Louis
State:Missouri
Boxes:1
Found by: Not yet found!
Last found:N/A
Last edited:May 19, 2008
Alas, the waters have risen and claimed this continent, lost once again. So sorry!

Note: if you are unable to get all the clues from the other boxes because of insurmountable reasons (i.e. bees!) let me know and I'll help you out. - RC

This series of boxes is planted in the part of the world where I spent my single and low-two-digit years of life. I may live a hundred miles away now, but I still consider Creve Coeur Park and surrounding woods part of my home.
I’ve hidden the world around this park. More specifically, I’ve hidden the seven continents… oh, and one “lost” continent. You can probably find all seven boxes on a good day’s outing. Most of the sites are suitable for sure-footed kids, but there are some steep spots. One in particular is noted as including an especially steep bit.
The main boxes are in three regions of the park so I’ve divvied the clues into three parts. The clues should be descriptive enough that you can plan out your expedition to find them all with minimal backtracking.
Along the way, you’ll encounter trees and birds and even some local history. You may also encounter snakes and poison ivy (although much less than I remembered) and mosquitoes. We found a 5-foot snake skin on the bonus box plant. I’m not sure it was the whole snake either…
Oh, regarding that “lost” bonus box… It’s got a different challenge to it. You probably won’t get it on your same outing unless you happen to have special resources available and a lot of luck on your side. You’ll also need the “Bonus Codes” from each of the main stamps. Because the bonus stamp is significantly more challenging, I’ve given it a listing to itself.
Some resources you may find handy…
Map of Creve Coeur Park trails: Here
Google Map centered on the “Trolley Trail”: Here
Park information: Here
Also, I found this document handy insofar as reaching concessions between my memory and historical fact when describing some of the sites. It won’t really help you with your quest, but it’s an interesting historical overview: Here
Oh, yeah… one of my steps is about 3 feet; maybe an inch or two shy.

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Bonus Box
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This is the "bonus" box for the adventurous folks who find the main "World of Creve Coeur Park" series and who feel seven continents are just not enough. What makes it more difficult to find? Well, two things.
First, getting to it. When I was a kid, my family would walk around Creve Coeur Lake, skipping stones and watching the barge dredge out the silt. (It's only the largest natural lake in Missouri because a lot of human intervention went to keeping it so!) I could always see, out across the water, an island. Mrs. Dalton, the local-history super-expert and grade school teacher told me it was called Deer Island. At one time my parents canoed around it. I always thought it would be exciting to explore the island, but never did get the chance.
These days, it's not exactly an island. It's more of a wide, short peninsula or bleb. My understanding is that the land connecting the bulk of it with the main land is marshy, but I don't really know. The gist is, while it's not truly an island, I'm going to continue calling it one and treating it as if it is. That being said, I suggest you make use of a boat to find this box. In my case, a 16' canoe worked well.
The second reason it's more difficult is because the island turns out to have almost no distinguishing landmarks. It is a place of tall straight trees with very few nooks or crannies. So most of the clues are of the orienteering variety. Certainly there are a number of interesting dead trees on the ground, but given the likelihood of high water on the island, they seemed poor candidates for hidey holes. Also, since the island is so homogenously treed, having a second person to walk out your compass sightings might be a good idea. Chances are, your assistant will be more recognizable than an arbitrary tree at 50 steps away.
This box was placed when water levels were high, but not flooding. That may affect some of the ease (or otherwise) of your quest.
For some of the clues, you will be given numbers in the format "x[continent]z", where x and z are explicit digits. The bracketed continent is where you fill in the missing digit by counting the letters in the Bonus Code from the specified continent in the main WCCP series. For example if you are told to go "[Africa]0 degrees" and the bonus code from the Africa box is "Water buffalo", you'd get "120 degrees" because "water buffalo" has 12 letters (spaces do NOT count). Some clues will use expressions, such as "3 times [Africa]", which in this example would be 3x12=36.
The clues:
Start out at the shoreline by the Taco Bell pavilion.
Target a course 23[South America] degrees across the water to the island's edge. If you approach the island to the right of this course, then skirt along it with the shore to your starboard (marveling at all the herons and egrets), you should come across a metal depth marker sticking out of the water a couple feet from the island edge. At the time of planting, "18" was visible above the water. (I'm thinking it indicated 18" where it stood… maybe, maybe not, but that'd be about right.) Make land by this marker.
To confirm your location, you should note, directly across the water at about [Europe]0 degrees, an exposed bench and sign on the walking/biking path.
Now look into the island. Head about [South America][Australia] steps at 2[South America]0 degrees until you come to two side-by-side trees leaning way over a creek/drainage. If you see flowing water in this creek, you may be out of luck.
Follow the edge of the creek 4 times [Europe] steps to the southwest from the two leaners. You should come to a low, decaying stump. Cross over the creek bed here. It's a little mucky, but as you might observe by the many deer tracks, passable. We were able to cross without leaving any more evidence than the deer did; less actually.
Once on the other side, head 34 times [Europe] degrees, roughly 3[South America] steps to a dead trunk sticking up, much used by woodpeckers.
Head 31 times [Asia] degrees from there to a moundy root ball of two fallen trees.
From the root ball, look 2[North America]0 degrees. Appropriate to the St. Louis area, you will see an arch. It's one of the few really distinctive features in this neck of the woods.
Go stand directly under the arch. Face 20 times [Africa] degrees. Go approximately 2 times [Antarctica] steps to a large dead log with a dead trunk upright to its left. Straight ahead, in the crack of a tree, guarded by driftwood and planks, find your lost continent!