Gone - Toasted by a forest fire!

Gone as of Nov 5, 2006 - This box was found laying on the ground, empty. so it is destroyed.

Located in a park in Richardson, near Dallas, Texas. From Arapaho Rd, running west from a FLOCK-it-to-ME #4 placed by Celtic Lions, go north on Woodland Way to Woodland Park on your right.

Walk due south to the playground (not the elementary school playground). Begin walking on sidewalk between playground bench and tree towards restrooms on right, about 30 steps. Leave sidewalk and proceed 120 degrees SE diagonally across the field to opposite corner. The alley driveway with a gas meter box will be on your right. From edge of alley take about 28 steps back towards the school along the tree line and enter bushes on your right. Take 8 steps towards barbed wire fence. Note the fence pole straight ahead of you. On your right is a two-trunked tree with larger trunk leaning slightly forward towards field. Camouflage microbox is attached by camo Velcro to tree limb at bottom of smaller trunk. Please replace exactly where you found it, with Velcro secured!

Note: Placed in this new, safer home by the Celtic Lions in May 2005.

Where else to plant a flower than in an arboretum, right? So, after we flew into Houston in the pouring rain and realized that many of the trails we had hoped to hike to the northeast of there would be flooded, off we headed to Mercer Arboretum, just north of the airport on Aldine Westfield Rd. Even there, some of the trails were flooded, but walking along on a dry section of the West Oxbow loop, suddenly we were surprised to find ourselves stepping on little golfball sized yellow-orange orbs that spurted out what looked like kernels of corn!

What were those things we wondered? Well, it wasn't long before we had our answer! Rounding the corner, we just barely noticed the remnants of a sign on a post marked #11. "Trifoliate Orange" it read. "How perfect", we said - "we have a little box with an orange lid!" So, about 15 steps away from that sign at a bearing of 110, we left that little orange box with its RTRW flower in the right side of a rotting log, well tucked into the pithy middle. We hope that folks will replant it carefully in that spot for a year or so, and then, when the log becomes too rotten, perhaps transport it to a sunny new location! Thanks.

Well, imagine our surprise to hear that the "Lone Star Start" letterbox that we had planted in March of 2005 had melted due to a fire near the beginning of that trail in the Sam Houston National Forest in 2006! "No problem", we said. "We'll just plant another, but this time we'll add a surprise twist". So, on our 2006 Texas trip we planted a microbox very close to the western trailhead terminus of the LSHT about 4 miles east of Richards and just south on forest road 219. However - here's the important part - we hope the box won't stay there! We're actually hoping that all those Texas letterboxers we met, as well as those we didn't, will little by little walk it the 126 miles or so east, so that by the time we get back out there to hike the rest of the trail ourselves, our little black film container will have already covered the whole distance!

So, here's the deal: it's like a relay! Each person who goes to find the box can carry it further along the trail as far as he or she wishes: a quarter mile, a mile, 5 miles, or whatever, as long as it's all done on foot! (No fair taking the box and driving it around to the next trailhead, although creating "shuttles" to hike through to the next road crossing and meet another car there would be heartily encouraged!) Anyway, after the box gets planted in its next temporary "camping spot", we will update the clues here so that the next searcher will know where to pick it up to carry it along on the next leg of its journey. Hopefully, no two groups will decide to do the same leg on the very same day, but to help that not happen, we'll be happy to keep a projected schedule here, as well as listing each hiker's completed walk, and where to find the box next. (Please feel free to take that piece of concrete along to cover the box, too!) Hope this works, and everyone gets a piece of the "cheese"!

Dec 25, 2006 Will's World

'Twas the day of Christmas
Along the Lone Star Trail
Not a creature was stirring
Not even a snail
Well, now that I say it
That's not quite right
'Cause me and my family
Made quite a sight
We sloshed and we stomped
Through the forest with care
Wondering where the end was
And when would we get there
It had rained the day before
And the day before that
The ground was soggy
And mom wore a hat

Lone Star Surprise,
It's journey begun,
Hitched a ride with us
To join in the fun
3 miles we went
Or maybe some more
At the end of our travels
We were quite sore
Soon the December sun
Down Texas way
Dipped below the horizon
To end a very good day.

The new location of Lone Star Surprise is at the trail head of the Little Lake Creek Wilderness section of the Lone Star Hiking Trail. The parking lot for that section is 2 miles south of the junction of FM 149 and FM 1791 on FS 211 (also called Bethel Rd). After you go through the hiker's gate at the trail head walk along the path for 12 steps toward a rise in the trail. Turn left and look for a large Loblolly Pine with two white metal trail markers attached to it 18 steps off the trail. The microbox is located between the pine and a smaller oak tree behind it. The small slab of concrete also made the journey and is proudly sitting on top of the box.

Jan 15, 2007 Catitude

The last we saw Lonestar Surprise
It was doing well
Waiting patiently
To tag along on the trail
Along we came
Me and Catitude
To leave it behind
Would have been rude
The day was cold
The day was wet
But when you are racing an arctic front
That is just what you get
We rambled on
Along the muddy track
Slipping and falling and knee twisting
Till mud covered my back
We finished the trip
Just before the rain
And parted company
With just a little knee pain

Lonestar Surprise is now near the North Wilderness Parking Lot located on FM 149, 9 miles north of the junction of FM 149 and TX 105 in Montgomery County. The parking lot is on the west side of the road. You will have to back track a little. From the trail head in the parking lot follow the trail for 125 feet. You will see a tree on the right with a trail marker on it. Look to the right of the trail and you will see an isolated burnt stump that stands about two and a half feet high. Lonestar Surprise is located at the base of the stump underneath the well traveled concrete slab. To send Lonestar Surprise on it's way, you will have to return to the parking lot and cross over FM 149 onto the Kelly section of the LSHT.

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