1249. Charming Old Letterbox Chain Gets New Lease on Life from Young Boulder

Arcadia Management Area, covering a rather large portion of southwestern RI, has long been one of our favorite local hiking areas, where over the years we have led numerous hikes for seniors, planted many dozens of letterboxes on a variety of different trails, and hosted southern RI letterbox gatherings in at least four different locations within this large preserve!

Well, one of those locations is now attracting quite a bit of renewed attention after Thomas Dambo and his crew from Denmark recently returned to our state to build a few more recycled trolls here! The first one we had ever seen was when we were taking a cruise out of Copenhagen years ago and were delighted to spot a large troll dragging a boat out of a nearby pond! Now there are well over a hundred of them all around the world, including five in our own little state, the first two of which were actually built in our own hometown!

Anyway, this particular new troll is called Young Boulder, and he sits on a boulder overlooking the northeastern shore of Browning Mill Pond, just a few hundred feet from the north pavilion where we had held one of our southern RI letterbox gatherings in 2010! Back then Mim had carved a charming charm bracelet of backpacking and camping items that we had planted on a half circle chain around the pond because the bridge at the far end of the pond was out at that time. Now , however, although the bridges are back in place and this new troll is waiting to greet visitors, several of the old trail landmarks have changed so much as to be unrecognizable and several boxes have gone missing. So, when we visited Young Boulder recently to choose a spot to plant a new letterbox in his honor, we decided to refurbish the old charm bracelet clues as well, to include some of the changes over the course of 15+ years, and to make the remaining stamps at least somewhat easier to find for potential new visitors!

So, now the clues read like this: 1. Take dirt driveway west off Arcadia Road to old north pavilion on northeast side of Browning Mill Pond and park nearby. Pass pavilion/shelter going towards pond, turning right near large boulder with old grill on back and very soon reaching Young Boulder. Continue past along the yellow-blazed trail to eventually stand where there is an old stone wall descends diagonally across the trail toward the water, about 10 to 12 steps before a prominently mismatched pair of trees trailside right (a yellow-blazed white oak and white pine forming a "V" together). Carefully take 10 to 12 steps up along the diagonal stone wall to its corner and then another dozen or so steps (12 large stones) easterly to look in the stick-covered space behind and between the two large rocks that are just to the right of a cluster of small trees for a fairly large but hopefully well-hidden lock and lock box containing the chain-link bracelet stamp and logbook.

2. The next three charm stamps leftover from the "charming backpacking and camping series" are all in micro film canisters, so to find the first one, cross a few boardwalks (long/short/medium) and continue to a bit before a very large white pine off trail right, where there is a 1'-mossy rotten stump seven stamps off trail right with its mossy downer being whittled away by time stretching beyond. The backpack charm to link to your chain is under a stone behind the small stump.

3. Now continue past the remains of the old stone shelter to where there is a flat mossy rock encroaching on the trail from the right and a small boulder mid-trail ahead. From standing near the flat stone on the trail, go six steps off trail diagonally right to a mossy-based bump-out oak near the corner of a stone wall. The lantern charm is under the left of two stones tucked under leaves beneath the low bump-out.

4. The trail now continues around the pond with a double bridge over the outflow falls below the dam, so you have a choice of what to do. You can either continue the counterclockwise loop, passing through the large parking lot on the pond's southeastern side to get to the peninsula, or backtrack from the lantern the way you came, passing the troll and curving pondside over a couple of small bridges to reach the peninsula. In either case, once you get onto the piney peninsula, look for the second set of "double-burner stove" stumps about half way out on it. (You want the set with one burner slightly tilted.) There on the southwestern side between the "burners" is where we left the cook store charm under a small flat rust-red ceramic "hot plate". A picnic table may be in the general vicinity in season, so hope you have a charming day whichever way you go!

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