Yesterday evening, Hubby, Sarah and I took Coby the dog for a LONG walk on the rail trail.
We parked at Brillhart Station and headed two miles to the Howard Tunnel to find our next letterbox (this was No. 6), then hiked back.
What a walk! Even the dog was beat by the end. Here are Coby and Sarah at the tunnel (halfway point).
The good news is, while walking, we ran into my doctor and a friend, also walking. So next time he says I should exercise more... Hahaha!
Of course, if you've been following the ol' blog here for a while, you'll remember our family's quest last summer for all 30 "letterboxes" in the "Catch the Activity Bug" summer library program.
Yes, we found all 30, and WOW, was it a great way to spend the summer.
This year, the program continues again, with the kids being asked to make rubbings from 30 "creativity stations" instead of collecting ink stamps. (If you've got kids in your life - I really encourage you to take part; visit goyork.org and your library for details.)
So far, we've found our first three - one Wednesday at Farquhar Park in York, where we also found tons of ducks and geese, a beautiful heron and what we think might have been a baby hawk or vulture - and two Saturday at our favorite place, Pinchot State Park.
Here's a shot that Hubby took of Sarah and I on "Pinchot's Rocks," a formation along one of the trails.
And here's Hubby's own blog post about our adventures so far. I was so happy; I think it was the first time I made HIS blog!
We're looking forward to many more hikes this summer. In fact, by the time you read this, we might have found even more!
Did you all miss me last week? I'm back. I had been sick. Feeling much better now, though.
I've got sooo many e-mails and comments to get caught up on, and I've got lots of pictures to show off. I did get those off the camera and onto the computer today, so I'll start with some of those.
Back on April 5, Hubby, Girl and I took The Dog to Pinchot Park.
Here he is hangin' partway out the window:
We took a hike and played toss-back-and-forth with a football as we walked. After strolling for about half an hour, we had wandered from one parking area to the next, and at this one, there's a little "peninsula" that looks out over the lake, so we sat there and took some photos.
Chris took this one of me:
Then I took this one of them!
All of the third-graders at Norman A. Trimmer Elementary this year had to do two hours of community service, preferably with their families.
Many of the kids in our neighborhood took the fundraising route - making snack mix or brownies and selling them in baggies, door to door. (Which was yummy, and which we decided to partake of several times!)
Sarah, though, wanted to do something a little different. Since we're such big fans of the county's parks, as evidenced by our many summer hikes, we talked to her and came up with the idea of picking up litter in the parks.
You wouldn't believe what we found! Lots of socks. Some condom wrappers - eww! An abandoned fishing tackle box (pictured below) at Pinchot Park in Warrington Township.
Also, enough empty soda bottles and soda bottle lids - and a few full soda and water bottles - to keep the recycling center busy for a while.
The bag below was collected in about 20 minutes at Dunedin Park in West Manchester Township.
On behalf of my daughter, myself, Hubby and all those who use the parks - BE NICE! PICK UP YOUR LITTER (or someone's else's, if you see it.) If my little girl can do it, so can you!
Last Thursday, a group of us from the newspaper company took part in the United Way "Day of Caring," where instead of just providing cash donations to the United Way, you provide community service too.
Our project: Helping with the gardens and trails at Nixon Park. Our small group was me; my boss, Randy; and our office's executive assistant, Donna.
Now, Donna thought she'd signed up for mulching. Unfortunately, we got "trail maintenance" instead. The good news? It meant I got to use a scythe. The bad news? Pretty hard work. Lots of bugs. Many things with thorns. Did I mention the bugs?
It was all going well until Donna thought she got bit or stung by something as she lifted her head through some leafy branches.
Well, guess what we found on the underside of one leaf?
Well, it's official; our Keystone Activity Zone Kids summer challenge to find 30 letterboxes hidden in various parks around the county is over - and we got them all!!
The picture above was taken in late July or early August, by Hubby, when Sarah, he and I found the 20th in our letterbox quest. I believe this was at Kain Park, near Lake Redman.
And this one was from our very last letterbox, in Rocky Ridge out in Springettsbury Township. This one was a HIKE AND A HALF. But we did it - and the girl was so proud!
All in all, I can't say enough about this way-fun summer activity. I hope the libraries and the parks get together to do it again next year.
The good news is, I might talk about food a lot, but I also talk how I like to hike a lot. One would hope that balances out?
Recent hikes looking for letterboxes took us around southern York County. We found the lost stamp at Apollo County Park, collected three more around Lake Williams and Lake Redman at Kain and Nixon parks, and hit the rail trail to find a fifth.
That's Hubby and Kiddo (aka Chris and Sarah) pictured along the rail trail, just past the Railroad parking area.
Like a couple of our other park adventures, this marked the first time I'd really gone any distance on the rail trail. It was fun! We still have another letterbox to find, this one near Brillhart Station, so we'll be out along the trail again soon.
Any rail trail hikers/bikers out there? One of our Exchangers is keeping a Rail Trail Journal of his biking experiences - you should check it out!
Our quest for letterboxing stamps with daughter Sarah led us all around southeastern York County last week. We did good, finding stamps at the Hopewell Rec complex, Red Lion's Fairmount Park, Lower Windsor Township's Rexroth Park, and Samuel S. Lewis State Park overlooking the river, also in Lower Windsor Township.
But we couldn't find the stamp at Apollo County Park in Chanceford Township! It was rainy, the roads were gravel, and it was basically not a good day to go thrashing about the underbrush! But, we did find one cool thing...
A turtle! Hubby saved him from the middle of the road (though if another car would have come along that road that day, I'd have been shocked...) But we took him into the car first to see if he'd stick his head out and say hi to Sarah. He didn't, so we put him down on the side of the road and went on our way.
Cute, though!
One of our recent Eight for Eight hikes took us to Raab Park in North Codorus Township, home of the former York Iron Co. iron mines - and a lot of bats, who hibernate in the old mine adits in the winter.
Besides seeing views like this, of huge drops made from the remains of former quarries, we saw the results of some recent archaeology camps for kids. The stuff they found was pretty neat - pieces of old buildings, old railroad tracks from the railroads that served the mines, all sorts of neat stuff.
It was one of the county parks that I'd never been to, so it was doubly neat. I'd definitely like to go back!
In our ongoing summer quest, we spent an evening last week up at Pinchot Park, planning to look for the three letterboxes hidden there.
We only got to do two, because it ended up getting dark (boo!), but we had a great time. This time, we brought Big!Fluffy!Dog! (also known as Coby) and let him "hunt" with us. Poor thing. He's very furry, and he got VERY hot and lazy about halfway through, but he was a good sport.
During our second excursion at Pinchot, the letterbox clues indicated we'd pass a rock shaped like a big cube. Never a family to resist a challenge, we (OK, they) climbed on up! (The top of the rock was about even with my shoulders, so I stayed on the ground with the trusty cameraphone to be the recording secretary.)
First, we had hubby plus dog (THAT was an adventure, getting 90+ pounds of dog up there!)
Then, the girl joined in...
Just found out that yesterday's post was my 200th. Somewhat appropriate, as our country marked its 232nd year... Shame I couldn't make an extra 30-some posts yesterday, huh?
We're doing another of our Eight for Eight hikes today, weather permitting, in Rocky Ridge... I'll keep you posted on how it goes. I've also got an update coming on my daughter's search for letterboxes around the county... this time, we took The Dog on our adventure. I've got pictures, too, but they'll have to wait till tomorrow!
