Applegate Rest Area

Please remove letterbox. It is to be retired. Thanks!

While traveling up or down I-5, you'll frequently see me stop at rest areas either to sleep in my car for the night or to munch on lunch or something, and this is a rest area where I pulled over simply to kill time. So, I sat down, carved out a stamp, and placed the box right there in the rest area. It's the same exit as you'd get to for the Valley of the Rogue State Park (45B), but park at the rest area.

At the rest area is a nice interpretive kiosk about the area, including the history of the Applegate Trail that passed by. It was meant as an alternative for Oregon Trail travelers to arrive in the Willamette Valley without having to get through the dangerous rapids of the Columbia River.

Clue

Walk up to the front of the Applegate Trail interpretive center. To make the box slightly more challenging than "walk here, pick up box" and give you more than two minutes of entertainment, I'm going to give you a walking tour of the rest area unlike anything you've ever done at a rest area before. Below is a list of steps and compass directions in the format of STEPS @DEGREE. Take the number of steps at the indicated degree. You should end up at the base of a tree, ping-ponging from tree to tree until the end when you finally end up in front of the letterbox. After a while, you should get an idea of how big my paces are and be able to adjust your own paces to match mine--more-or-less. =)

I recently had the pleasure to try my own clue out and frequently found myself in the middle of several trees, not entirely sure which tree the clue was trying to get you to. But that's okay. If you find yourself in such a situation, first note if one tree is significantly larger than the others. I tended to use larger trees as points of reference. If there are a few really large trees around, then stand at the center of them--an "average" if you will--and continue on your way. Eventually you should get close enough to a lone tree to "reposition" and continue on your way. And finally, not always will there be a straight line to where you should end up. If a straight line is impossible, take the shortest path possible and you'll do okay.

At no point should you be leaving the rest area! Well, you can if you want to, but my clues will not lead you out of the rest area where the manicured grass is. If you find yourself wacking through bushes, poison oak, or rivers, you didn't do something right! =)

So, from the front of the Applegate Trail interpretive center (the side where the parking is), let the hunt begin!

     108 @185
      68 @45
     102 @280
     148 @30
     101 @345
      68 @230
      51 @145
      42 @75
     108 @185
      94 @290
      65 @225
      82 @350
      80 @95
     110 @130
      63 @80
      33 @325
      27 @240
      33 @200
      24 @180
      11 @275
      25 @170
      35 @330
      67 @280
      62 @120
      64 @330
      23 @190
      50 @320
      28 @25
      27 @320
      13 @245
      31 @40
      38 @295
      19 @20
      53 @245

If all went well, you should be standing in front of the letterbox, however children and other vertically challenged people might have trouble reaching the box.

Update: A geocache has been planted at the EXACT SAME LOCATION as this box earlier this year (2005). So if the first container you find is a geocache, keep looking! =)

Hike Length: 1.0 miles