READ THIS!

In the event you did not already know this, letterboxing involves turning off the television, getting off the couch, gathering the basic human necessities to survive for a few hours away from a refrigerator, and wandering off into the woods. This includes, at a MINIMUM, one protein-bar per hour per person, one liter of water per hour per person, a functional compass, an emergency radio beacon, and a map of the area you intend to occupy. You should also consider a first aid kit, an extra set of warmer clothing, a pocket-knife or utility tool, a GPS receiver, a cell-phone, and pepper-spray. Carefully observing the above will maximize, but not insure, your chances of returning home intact. Ignoring it can, and eventually will, get you lost, hurt, and or dead. Prepare yourself properly, and consider yourself warned.

 YOU SHOULD NOT CONSIDER THIS A SAFE ACTIVITY!

By following the directions included on this page, which neither RIBNAG nor any of its members present as wholly or even partially accurate, you accept complete responsibility for your actions and safety. You further agree that in no event will you hold RIBNAG or any of its members morally, criminally, or financially liable for any misfortunes that may befall you over the course of searching for this letterbox, including the return trip from said letterbox. By proceeding beyond this sentence, you certify that you have read all of the above, agree with it in its entirety and with no exceptions, and consider yourself mentally, physically, and chronologically competent to parse these two paragraphs, agree with them, and successfully undertake the task of finding, and returning from, the letterbox indicated herein.

 IF AND ONLY IF YOU AGREE, YOU MAY PROCEED

Copyright ©2000-2017 RIBNAG. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the Invariant Section being this disclaimer, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the GNU FDL is available on request, or from the GNU website.

Brown Beaver Letterbox (1 box).
 Confirmed Missing

Brown Woods, just outside Bangor, Maine, has a pleasant 1.5km loop with a variety of wildlife and makes for a lovely slow-paced one hour stroll to relax. This hike will take you on a counterclockwise loop all the way around the area, with a side-trip to a beaver dam (and letterbox, of course).

To get there, take Ohio Street off Hammond Street from near the center of Bangor, and follow it for 3.2 miles. Keep going until you pass Griffin Street (with a 7/11 at the corner), then go exactly two thirds of a mile further. The entrance, the second left after the Cyr bus yard, has an easily visible brown sign. We have no trail map for this one, but we do have a two-meter resolution satellite photo. Since the trails didn't appear obvious, we have marked the major ones. All trails will appear in either blue, or green. These do not correspond to the any physical trail markings (none exist). The green lines indicate the approximate route these directions give to get to the letterbox and back to your car. Your car will stay at the green blob in the top right corner of the map. Just as a warning, We do not feel extremely confident in the exactness of this map. It probably does better than many Audubon trail maps we've seen, but trust your eyes and compass over the map.

From the parking lot, take the path heading West. Keep going all the way to the back, ignoring both the three-way intersection. After you start heading NorthWest, ignore the four-way intersection that looks like a deer trail crossing the real path. At the next three-way split (actually four but you can't always see the fourth without going past the bench), turn left to head further West. Twenty or so paces further, follow the split left toward the small dirt embankment.

You will shortly come out on a large flat rock outcropping, with the path continuing to your left near the water, and the dam on your right (the DEM? cleans up the dam every year or two, so it may look somewhat pathetic depending on when you visit). From the lonely cedar in the middle of the rock, take nine paces due South.

At the correct spot, the beaver dam will lie at 310°, roughly 20 meters away. To find the box, you only need to move a single 10cm x 30cm flat stone, and then another slightly smaller stone to actually remove the box.

Please take care to re-hide the box so none of it shows without moving the top rock. Kids frequent this spot, and will most likely find it if not hidden very well.

After stamping in, head East back to the bench at the three(four)-way split. Follow the trail back to the parking lot, ignoring the path on your right at the next bench.

Please visit the RIBNAG homepage at http://users.tmok.com/~ribnag for more letterboxes planted by us, or just for general information about our group.

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