Gettin' a Bite

Preparation:

You will need a canoe or kyack to get to this box. The trip will take 3-4 hours depending on your speed, efficiency with a canoe, and not going the wrong way too many times. The difficulty level of the trip will depend on the tides. When the tide is high many obsticles will be under water. You will have to get out onto logs to get the canoe across at least once even at high tide. The wind will also be a factor since the begining of the trip is across an open swamp. Boots made for the marsh would have been benificial to us had we thought of it (the overal kind shouldn't be necessesary though). The down side to high tide is that getting the boat to the canal gets trickier. In warm months watch out for gators and of corse mosquitoes- Horrible, nasty, aggressive mosquitoes. In other words brave the cold. The trip is beautiful and serene and well worth the trouble- if you like that kind of thing.

Directions:

The starting point is a bridge over marshes on 133. If you're coming from Wilmington it will be after the nursing home and before the first sign for Orton plantation. If coming from Southport it will of corse be just after the second entrance to Orton plantation. You will know it is the right bridge by the sharp curve at one end with arrows and a large white cross. You'll have to park on the side of the road if leaving your vehicle (which we did, and everything was fine when we got back). Careful if crossing the road. If the tide is high you'll have to put in on the right side if you're facing the deadly curve in the road.

Clues along the canal:

Head to the right (if facing the curve). You should soon come to a Y and head left. If after a little way you come to a dam you went the wrong way. If you come to the remnants of an old bridge you are going the right way. After the bridge you'll be in open swamp for a while. Pay no attention to the canals coming into yours. Studying a map before hand to see the path to Lake Mckenzie would be wise. You should see at some point a huge nest atop one of the spooky trees. You can see this a long way off. Eventually you will pass near to it. Some time after this the trees will become thicker and you will even see high ground from time to time. We saw fish jumping in the water, Robins Flying from tree to tree, and even a very unfortunate doe mostly submerged at the edge of the water. The only turn you should make will be to go under a thin tree making a sort of entrance across a large canal to the left . There will be a very large stump opposite the turn. It juts out into the water a bit with the roots of two upturned trees beside it. If you do miss this turn you'll hit a dead end and have to turn around. It is near the end of your journey so about 1 1/2 to 2 hours from the time you began. Just before you get to the lake you'll see an excellent place to shore and camp if you'd like. You'll know it's the right place by the old bridge support just past the place you'll pull the boat up. It's two large pillars with a log laying across the top, like the bottom half of "H".

On dry land:

Go up to the top of the incline. You'll see that people use this as a camp site. You'll see a tree with a white splotch near a tree full of holes. To the left of these should be a tree with black plastic tied around its' trunk. Stand in front of this tree with your compass. Take about 30 steps East and you should be looking right at a hole in a tall large stump that's leaning against a much smaller tree. Look inside.

Stamping in:

Stamp on the blank side of the index cards. You can write a note on the same side or the lined side. Don't worry about taking up too much space, as I don't really expect a lot of traffic to this box. Let me know about your trip there if you please. I'd love to hear your thoughts, and appreciate the effort you put forth to find my box. Please Hide the box better than found.

Thanks and be safe,

Weyrwoman