Hello Darkness, My Old Friend

This past weekend I spent a lot of my waking hours hiking in the dark. RGBisMe and I set up a series of night only letterboxes for anyone in the Elysburg area the evening of 9/11. We knew the date itself conjured up images of darkness but there is a lot we can do to take back that date. We wanted to celebrate things that are enjoyable in the darkness and at night. We had some folks pitch in and carve stamps that could be inked up in colors other than black yet were indicative of images that were pleasant manly at night.

Are you noticing no photos? The entire day and evening we set this series to be found it poured buckets, pretty much non-stop. We had one unique way of hiding a letterbox that required the finders to lower the box from a branch 30' up. The twine was so waterlogged from when we left a trail run rock in place weeks before that it would not allow us to lower it to put the box in place. We had to replace the twine and RGBisMe spent 10 minutes looking up into the pouring rain and trying to trow a rock over the branch. All that time he was getting rivers of cool water pouring down his sleeves. We laughed and laughed.

We took a break and met Maga11 to set up camp and have a hot lunch before heading back out to activate over 100 little colored glow bracelets that acted as blazes along the trail. Until about 5:30, we hung out with her at Mossy Point Camp Ground. I must say that place is NOT for everyone.The owner is friendly and low key and the woods are nice but the ground were really trashy and quite expensive for a wet lot to crash in. Maybe next time we will just camp in Weiser SF.

Janila, Sepia Slipper, Tracdc and the unnamed RumiKube boxer joined us at the camp ground right before we had to cut out. Back we went into the pouring rain and from 6 - 7:45 PM we activated the glow bracelets and placed them in sometimes very specific places according to their colors and the clues that had been set up on the trail earlier. I forgot to mention that the clues were not visible during the day but I will hopefully be able to use the idea in the future for when they are replanted. I would hate to spoil future fun for anyone.

We finished blazing the trail just at dusk. Having worked from the far end of the course back to the parking lot, we were a little surprised that no one was waiting to start finding the boxes. It was good to have a break and we grabbed our left over Chinese food from lunch and ducked under the shelter of the out house for a romantic supper.

The food and break were welcome, I had at one point broken down into tears in the middle of the trail about 45 minutes earlier. I could tell it was going to get dark soon and I was starting to get disoriented as to exactly where I needed to put a yellow blaze that marked where a bonus box was hidden. There were just too many shaggy barked trees near dense pines on that stretch, my personal notes nor the gps that was refused to keep sat' lock were totally helpful at all at the moment. I couldn't even find the darn bonus box we had hidden 8 hours earlier. RGBisMe was less than .10 mile away and I found myself crying, "I have no idea what I am doing or where I am! I can't find the Luna Moth! Where am I!?"

As we waited for letterboxers to brave the rain and darkness, we enjoyed a few bites of food and looked back onto a moment we had just experienced. Having been so focused on completing the task and because it had just finally gotten dark we hadn't really looked down the trail to appreciate our work. Near the end of the trail but before the parking area, we turned to check back to see if we had placed enough blazes to lead the way around a turn. Lovely glowing little rings spaced along the now dark trail looked like magical Will o' the Wisps. The muted colors in the mist were something to behold and we agreed that if the evening ended there it would have been gratifying.

As gratifying as the view down the trail was, we couldn't really consider the evening a success unless someone actually came out and found at least one of the 12 letterboxes we had hidden along the mile of wide gravel road. It was looking more and more like everyone had decided that it was just too rainy. There were sections of the trail/road that were puddled up and we knew that it was probably flooding in places around the region.

I think it was pretty well after 8PM until the first car pulled into the SF parking area. I had been assured by the ranger that we were allow to park there for our night hike and he was fine with the little additions we made to the trail as long as we cleaned them all up the next day. Mososo Kruppe were the first to arrive and they brought the intrepid Barghest who was recovering from Lyme Disease. The joined us under the outhouse shelter and soon Lotus, Leaf Cutter, Dolphin Lover and Horse Whisperer pulled up. I thought it was Maga11 and Tracdc so I started making weird noises at them to get them to come over. That poor crew hustled down the trail, not knowing it was us being goofy.

Maga11 and crew came along and soon after that Janila with Sepia Slipper. We felt compelled to make sure people were interpreting the clues correctly. With the pouring rain the last thing we wanted was for someone to be frustrated at clues that we may have messed up.

We walked with one group, then another and then headed back toward the trail head with yet another group who chose to start at the end and work their way backward. It was closer to the parking lot than not when we met up with the Booshmen, Ralph Spoilsport and the GrizzlyCats! That made 15 brave letterboxers giving the night series a go on a very wet night.

We were exhausted and fell asleep very soon after returning to the camp ground. Close to midnight we heard Janila and Sepia Slipper pull in but I had no energy to even get up to see how it went for them.

Morning came very quickly and it was about 6:30 AM when we grabbed a quick coffee at Sheetz before mounting up onto our bikes one last time on the trail. Our 4 panniers were filled with soaked twine, spent glow sticks, clues and 12 letterboxes after 2 hours of tearing down in the morning rain. We were gratified to read in the final logbook that everyone who had set out on the trail that evening had made it to the end.

A dark evening in less than perfect conditions might make for some carelessness but we saw none. Every clue and letterbox were returned as intended, no logbooks were waterlogged, every stamp was replaced and the land that was walked upon looked fresh in the morning light. The most telling sign was the one section where the clue required walking off trail for a bit. There had been a delicate mushroom right on the heading the clue asked seekers to travel. In the morning light,as we collected the letterbox at that location, stood the same proud mushroom. It witnessed a careful group of adventurous souls who warmed our hearts on a date that could have been filled with bleak thoughts. My thanks goes RGBisMe and to those 14 who made it a success.