Thank you, Deborah, for filling us in on some that were newly planted in our area. The directions said to begin in a park close to our home, but as we re-read the directions, we realized that the letterboxes were along the SAME trail we took yesterday in Peter's Canyon! So off we went to find the series of 10...planted on 10.10.10.
We found 3. Some were just not there (no doubt washed away by recent rains); others we avoided looking for due to the necessity of going off-trail. Too much grass in some areas and we've been warned about rattlesnakes and poisonous spiders.
We saw a brilliant orange & black spider hanging in a HUGE web near the possible location of one letterbox and decided to leave it be. AND during the second passing of an older gentleman who was going the opposite way on our loop, he stopped us and asked if we'd "seen the rattlesnake."
Surprised, we asked where and he said we'd walked by it seconds before he passed us and heard it hiss at him. We knew the location to which he was referring and Yikes! We'd walked so close to it and never saw or heard a thing. He said it was small (just a couple feet long) and didn't rattle...just hissed at him. He said he's walked this canyon for years, always hoping he'd see a rattlesnake and this was the first time...he was very excited.
So! We'll know the next time we're on the trail to be even more alert when walking along the trail's edges.
This picture reminds me of a time that my parents and I visited a Ghost Town while on vacation in our motorhome. There was a wooden box sent upon a platform and the worn, handwritten sign on it read Baby Rattlers. Daddy took a look in there and laughed and told me to go ahead and take a look. I was terrified. I didn't want anything to do with rattlesnakes, baby or otherwise. Finally, I trusted him to pick me up and look inside. The box was full of baby rattles, not baby snakes!
