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Traipsing Through the Trees LbNA #46247

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Mar 29, 2009
Location:
City:Hopkinton
County:Middlesex
State:Massachusetts
Boxes:1
Planted by:Phineas Spaulding
Found by: Honey Bear Clan
Last found:Aug 29, 2010
Status:FFFFa
Last edited:Oct 19, 2015
Verified active on 6/25/09

Distance: 2.5 miles
Time to complete: 1:45 – 2:30 hours.
Target age group: 16 – 75.
Degree of difficulty: 7 on a scale of 1 to 10.
Operation of a compass is essential; also, rudimentary map-reading skills.
Pick up a map at the Park entrance or the boat dock, but be warned that it does NOT show all trails or paths. There are also a few minor errors.
A “pace” = one of my steps = 26 inches.
All compass headings are magnetic unless otherwise noted.
The magnetic variation (declination) for the Hopkinton area is 16º W.
A pencil and paper will come in handy and, obviously, you’ll need a compass. A calculator might be helpful, also.
To save time in the field you are strongly advised to read the whole hunt at home before you start – no sense lugging text books, atlases, computers, encyclopedias, sextants, GPS receivers, shovels, etc. through the woods.
My e-mail address for complaints, suggestions and desperate pleas for assistance is: PhineasTS@comcast.net



Traipsing Through the Trees


Go to Hopkinton State Park and head for parking lot A (bear right at the fork and it’s the first lot on the left), marked as such on a yellow stake at the lot’s entrance. Park your car and go to the east end of the lot looking for the beginning of the Wachusett Trail and follow it in a northeasterly direction. When you come to a fork in the trail pull out your Roman math book and follow a heading of CCCV degrees.

Continue on at a blistering pace until you see a large boulder to your left, then take up a heading of D degrees where D = 6 x (no. of pints in a gallon of rum). Follow that until your boots hit asphalt. You’ll know you’re on the right track if you see a large cube straight ahead with the number “200” inscribed in an oval on its top center.

From there take up a heading of CXXX degrees to a yellow stake, then S degrees, where S = {(no. of yards in a football field) – (5 x [no. of pecks in a bushel])} to a big red octagon with the numbers 5693534805 on its north side. Head for the nearest white stake, then another yellow one on a course of 195 degrees.

At the last stake pull out your trusty spyglass (you did bring one, didn’t you?) and look due east for a large boulder deposited there by last year’s glacier. Take the trail to its right on a heading of S degrees. At the first intersection go right if Blackbeard was a better pirate than Phineas Spaulding; otherwise, go straight to a blacktop road and another octagon. From its east face go S degrees once again to the head of another trail and follow it on an initial bearing of 120 degrees. After several hundred yards you’ll come to an intersection with another named trail. You could flip a coin or, like any intelligent pirate, you could go:

- South, if M pounds of silver weighs the same as ½ ton of gold bullion
- 070 deg., if CDXLVIII > LD

Follow this trail until it intersects another. Go (S – 80) degrees if the sun sets in the true west in Boston on June 21st or F degrees, if F = [{no. of hours between sunrise and sunset in Havana, Cuba on June 21st} x (20)] to another blacktop. After looking both ways for traffic, cross this hazard at a brisk pace on a heading of CC degrees to the head of another trail.

Follow this one to the first T and go right if a squid has 12 arms; otherwise, take a left and follow this trail past a boulder on the right, riddled with bullet holes, to its end at another hardtop road about 3-400 yards away. If you see a red hydrant and a sign nearby you’ll know you’re still on track to the letterbox, but you may want to go home and rest because you’re only about half way there.

Assuming you’ve still got some gas left, gird up your loins and head 010 deg. to a broad wooded road and follow that a few hundred yards till you burst upon a 4-way intersection. Ignore the flashing red light and go:

- straight, if the Tropic of Cancer is exactly 22 deg. above the equator
- left, if the Windward Islands are south of the Leeward Islands
- right, if Hispaniola is due south of Cuba

Continue on your chosen path several hundred yards to a fork in the trail. Go straight if the moon is really made of Parmesan cheese; otherwise, veer to port on a heading of 220 deg. to a blacktop surface, then 190 degrees to another bloody octagon. Go to its west side and trudge a short distance on a heading of 260 deg. before steering 320 deg. on a new trail. When this trail hits asphalt take up a heading of 265 deg. to a yellow stake a short distance away. From there go left on the blacktop to the second sign on the right.

Stop and admire the clever design and unusual lettering of this masterpiece of modern art. If the first letters of each word spell SLAPMBL you’ve found the right sign, so continue 40 paces to a small trail on the right. Follow it to a defunct water fountain, then go right up the hill to the first intersection. Take up a heading of:

- 25 deg., if Puerto Rico is directly adjacent to Jamaica
- 210 deg., if Grand Cayman is SW of Little Cayman

Proceed on your chosen heading until you stumble onto a dangerous 5-way intersection without any traffic lights. Make a note to bring this to the attention of the local police before running to the island (with its one lonely tree) in the middle of the intersection. Next, in a clockwise direction, take the bearings of each of the 5 trails, starting with the one closest to north. We’ll call these headings (and trails) A, B, C, D and E. Enter them in the worksheet below:


A=______ B=______ C=______ D=______ E=_______


If the bearings of:

- (E – D) > (B + 62), go back to Parking Lot A and start over
- (E – 45) < D, take trail A
- [B x (number of feet in a fathom)] > C, take trail D
- [C x (number of bottles in a 6-pack)] > 1000, take trail C

Follow your chosen trail to another intersection and go right if Guantanamo Naval Base is at 62W longitude; otherwise, steer to port. Stay on this through the next 3-way intersection and at the next sharp left take up a heading of 265 deg. Follow this to another fork of two named trails. Go:

- Straight if the British surrendered at Yorktown in 1782
- Left if (40 deg. centigrade) = (104 deg. Fahrenheit)

You’re on the right trail if you pass between two huge boulders after P paces, where P = (number of inches in a foot) x (number of pecks in a bushel) – (number of sides in a hexagon)/2.

Breathe a sigh of relief and continue on for another P paces to a double oak on the left and a single pine (with trail markers) on the right. Plod ahead for another CXXVIII paces to a skinny double tree on the left opposite another lone pine on the right.

Keep going (P + 15) paces to another double oak on the left opposite a scrawny pine on the right growing out of a split rock, about ten feet apart. (Who designed this park, anyway?) Go about L paces more to single oaks on the right and left only 7 feet apart.

Wipe the sweat from your brow and take up a heading of 350 deg. to a split rock sprouting a triple black birch from its center. Look behind the tree in the split for your letterbox. Record your find and replace the box as you found it.

Congratulations!

Phineas T. Spaulding
Pirate First Class



If you want to go home to rest (and boast to your fellow buccaneers that you solved a Class 7 hunt), return to the previous trail, take a right and continue on until you intersect a broader one. Hang a sharp starboard turn and trudge along until you recognize your surroundings.