One More Day of Boxing in Parker

Yesterday I attended the 5th Annual Kick Off the Holidays - Gingerbread House event and Thomas and I had made plans to stay one extra day to some letterboxing in the area. So this morning we slept in and finally got moving around 8:30am.

After getting dressed and the getting some coffee and breakfast we headed out to do some letterboxing. Our first stop was to find Smiting Sprites - Tripping Trickster. I won't say where we found this box since it is a mystery, but it was a nice location and we saw two bucks and eight does in the area. It was a great way to start our morning. Once I had stamped in and replaced the box we headed to our next location.

We parked in the parking lot at Gateway Mesa Open Space in Castle Rock.  We took Chuck's Loop and walked in a clockwise direction. As we walked the 1.8 mile loop we looked for and found five boxes - Douglas County Open Space: Box 3 Wiley Coyote; Mayflower; Keys; A Mother Panda's Love, Two; and Flowers for Chanda's Panda. This was a great walk and we enjoyed looking for the boxes. After we left Gateway Mesa we headed to Parker Rd. and N. Pinery Pkwy. and parked in the lot for the Cherry Creek Trail. On this trail, we looked for six boxes but only found five.

We found Symbols of Colorado #3 (four boxes) and Scrat Gets His Nut! and we were unable to find Daisy...Bicycle Built for Two. By the time we finished this trail we were hungry and it was past lunchtime. So we headed north on Parker Rd. and ended up stopping at Takoda Tavern. We had a good lunch and a short rest before we continued on with our letterboxing.

The next and last stop of the day was at McCabe Meadows (which is part of the Cherry Creek Trail) to look for five boxes. We easily found the first box and while I was stamping in Thomas noticed that the area had gotten busy and he saw a woman heading our way. He said we may have to take the box with us to the next box and then replace it on the way back. Turned out that all the people cleared the area and the woman approaching us happened to be The Woodshed coming to check on the box I had found because she had gotten a notice that someone couldn't find it earlier that day. So it turned out we had nothing to worry about and we were able to replace the box and then move on.

We continued south on the trail and next found Symbols of Colorado #1: Colorado Blue Spruce. Once that box was back in place we headed back north on the trail where we found Old Fashioned Roller Skate Key, Musical Whimsy and Symbols of Colorado #1: Rocky Mountain Columbine. By the time we replaced the last box and made our way back to the car the temperature had dropped to 39° and the sun was starting to set.

We left McCabe Meadows and decided to fill the car with gas so that we could head out in the morning without having to worry about tomorrow. Now we are back in the hotel, showered and warm and we have packed some things for our trip home tomorrow. We both want to get an early start so we can get home and relax. We had a great time in Colorado and has some good weather. I also got to find some incredible boxes - thanks to The Woodshed for a fantastic event.