When "By His Grace" showed me her wonderful carving of an oompah band when I saw her down at Gatlinburg,TN back in April of 2009, and asked me if I knew of someplace special to plant it, it took me but a moment to respond that, yes, I thought I might have just the place! I still had some remarkably crisp memories of hiking a long section of the Appalachian Trail in Vermont one late November afternoon some thirty years ago, climbing Stratton Mountain, the top of which is supposedly the spot where Benton McKaye first got the idea for creating the Appalachian Trail all those many years ago, and afterwards discovering that an Austrian band was playing down below at the ski lodge. Well, I recently found out on the internet that that same group - The Strat-ton Moun-tain Boys - is still around and kicking after all these years, although not, of course, in its original configuration. So, I had the idea that we'd go back up there sometime and plant this box near the band's original Vermont "homeland", back when those players in the band "by night" were ski instructors on the slopes "by day"!

At first we thought we'd put the box up on top of the mountain or somewhere along the AT nearby, but then decided that easier access would allow more people to come and see the spot where the Strat-ton Moun-tain Boys actually used to play. To find this spot, park anywhere you can across from the Chapel of the Snows on the Stratton Mt. access road. Saunter southerly, perhaps easterly through the Village Square shops, then wander westerly under the clock tower, southwesterly up some cement steps towards the lifts, then westerly again to the big ski mountain map with "grizzly's" atop. Go in any door that you might find open and head upstairs to the top to find the Founders Room and the small corner platform where the Strat-ton Moun-tain Boys once played. Next go down two flights of stairs, out the door to another mountain view, and turn right for about 20 short steps to a long flat sitting rock at the south end of a short stonewall. Sit there, look around to make sure that no one else is looking around, and then - if the coast is clear - carefully remove a chunky triangular stone and two smaller flat ones from beneath your seat to reveal this fine memory to the oompah band, hopefully well enough protected from the snows to play on for many years to come!

Apologies for our taking so long to get this box planted. We had hoped to have it in place by May, 2009, but reaching PFX 25,000 sort of claimed priority back then, and Vermont, after its initial questing and early letterboxing "budding" years ago, has lagged far behind the other New England states letterbox-wise in more recent times, so we didn't have occasion to get up that way for quite a while! However, due to a fresh flurry of activity up that way of late, and after an aborted drizzly afternoon trip in June, we were just able to get back up there again on the spur of the moment after the 4th of July to plant this box and find over 60 other new boxes - including several mysteries - in just a day and a half! So, here is just one more quick and easy find to add to that recent flurry! Thanks again for taking the time to keep the "band" nicely "under wraps" and hope this box manages to safely weather the winter snows!

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