Morning Monster Mash

The 3 letterboxes in this series are part of a 15-box collection of boxes originally planted for the 2006 MI Fall Mystery Gathering (Cereal City Circus). The boxes are located at Fort Custer State Park in Battle Creek, MI.

A few additional notes:

• Much of Fort Custer Recreation Area is open to small game hunting this time of year. The ranger assures me they have not had an accident with a hunter and a hiker, but please be careful out there!
• Many of the trails at Fort Custer are shared with bicyclists and horses – watch for road apples and step to the side of the trail when bikes come through (or they will run you down).
• There is a lot of poison ivy in some areas of the park, so be careful as you hike and seek the letterboxes.

Clues…

On a sunny fall afternoon Frankenberry, Boo Berry and Count Chocula took off in search of a spot to hold their annual Monster Mash. Since they were sure the party would be rowdy, they headed as far away as the park road would take them. There they found a beautiful lake and a sandy trail heading from the parking area at 130 degrees.

They walked along the lake for a while before the trail turned away and took them through various landscapes – meadow, pine forests… After some time, they reached the intersection with a paved trail that looked like it had at one time been a road. Thinking that they had come back far enough, they started looking for nice hiding spots. Hoping to get lucky, they left the intersection, following the horseshoe and followed the trail until they came upon another horseshoe. This time a side path off to the left looked promising so they followed it as far as they could go. They looked around a little and decided it was a good spot. Boo volunteered to stay back while Frank and the Count looked a bit more. Boo spotted a fallen log at 325 degrees and slipped inside the hollow end, waiting for the others to return.

Frank and the Count headed back to the horseshoe intersection. They decided to follow the path at 275 degrees to a place that looked familiar, where they took a left. They walked through an area of creepy hanging evergreens, came out into a meadow area and then entered back into an area of brightly colored deciduous trees after rounding a hairpin turn. A short distance up the trail, they spotted something not natural to the forest on their left. Proceeding to the place on the trail where this object lay at 60 degrees, they noted a clearing on their right. They followed the clearing path 50 paces to a place where a 3-trunk poplar tree stood on the left and agreed this would also be a great spot. Frank volunteered to wait here while the Count went further up the trail. Frank spotted a fallen log at 155 degrees and slipped under it to wait for the Count to return.

The Count headed back out to the main trail and continued in a southerly direction. After passing through an area of large evergreens he could see the lake through the trees on the other side of the open field. The trail turned to the north and then rounded a hairpin turn as it headed up root steps. He walked for a while in a southerly direction until he came to the intersection with a less defined trail on his right. At 255 degrees he spotted another good spot and headed over to investigate. Hmmm, I think I’ll just rest for a minute right here in the end of this fallen tree.