800. Wanda's Wanda-rings: MA Trails - Stroll
Location: Douglas, MA
Plant Date: December 26, 2018
A little MA stroll in memory of trails I backpacked long ago, with DCR stamp carved by arf!

It took me a while to figure out where I wanted to leave this box to represent the many miles of trails that I backpacked in MA while trying to recover from a fractured spine from an accident that nearly killed me years ago. Some people tend to forget that part of my story, and may think that backpacking miles are just like day hiking ones, but, because of the great difficulty that backpacking represented for me after my injuries, backpacking miles are the only miles that I have ever actually counted and are the real reason that I always make such a big distinction between backpacking and just plain regular day hiking (sort of like the distinction I make between actual letterboxing finds, which I count, and gathering day stamps, which I don't!;-), that plus just the sheer amazement that I was ever even able to do ANY backpacking after what I went through (the windshield, and landed on the median divider!), let alone over 30,000 miles of it!

Anyway, backpacking comparatively short MA trails like the Metacomet Monadnock, Midstate, Taconic Skyline and Crest provided some good preparation for the much longer trails I later went on to backpack multiple times all around the country. I finally decided to plant this box on the lower Midstate Trail because of its relatively easy accessibility and also because some letterboxers in that area actually seem to get the distinction that I made years ago between letterboxing ("hunting") and stamp collecting ("gathering"), and hurray for those who do understand that distinction (just like my distinction between backpacking and dayhiking!;-) because otherwise those stamp "gatherings" might already have brought about the demise of our beloved letterboxing hobby, and there might be no one left planting the regular everyday, non-gathering letterboxes that we so love! And, as we like to say, for us, anyway, letterboxing is not at all about the quantity or quality of stamps that some folks seem to crave collecting on gathering days, but rather about the individual adventures that we get to experience on any given day as we go along our merry letterboxing way. So, thanks again to all those who strive to keep that essence of letterboxing alive!.

Now, for this particular short little letterbox adventure, simply find the Midstate Trail trail crossing route 16 between Webster and Douglas, MA. From that MST crossing at gate 8, follow golden triangles north to the third set of boardwalks. This is the set with a curved boardwalk to the north and a straight 16 and a half plank section to the south. From the south side of the foot stone at the south edge of that straight section, take 32 steps south on the trail, then 15 steps off trail westwards to the backside of a fairly large tree, near a smaller hemlock, with three rocks on its southern side. There next to a rotting log under a triangular dessert plate-sized flat rock on the west side of the larger tree's base, find a round lock n' lock locking in a few of my old backpacking memories!

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