Kindness in the Woods

Day 193


Today was our first day as a family trying our new found hobby of letterboxing. I wrote a bit about it last week, and you can find out a little more here on Wikpedia.

It was an absolutely perfect fall day to be hiking through the woods in search of the hidden boxes which contained stamps. Although I have been told and read that it is meant to be a secret when hunting, apparently we weren't as stealthy as we could have been. A group passing us on the trail from the other direction noted the computer print out in my hand as we were staring at the “three sister tree” trying to find the "mushroom shaped rock" to the left under which the box was hidden. They asked if we were letterboxing and when we said yes they asked if we wanted to make an exchange. We sheepishly said this was our first time family outing and didn't know what they was referring to. We learned that when you meet fellow searchers on the trail, you exchange stamps in each other's log books.

One of the women in the group told us that this was her 1000th “find” and shared with us some of the trails and “plants” that she thought were both fun and in beautiful places to hike. They were such a nice group of people and it was great fun to discover the kindness of strangers in the middle of the woods.

When we finished our hike we decided to go on one more short one nearby. There we met a father and son who were searching as well and like us, this was their first day. I was happy we had the opportunity to pass along the information we had received and give them the directions to the trail we had just finished.

It is a good day when I can write about the kindness of strangers, coming and going.