Terrors At Telge

Today SoccerChik and I went to Telge Park to search for the Halloween-themed letterboxes. She invited a couple of friends -- her best friend MY and her boyfriend JW. She told her best friend, "You have to learn how this works, because in a couple of years when we leave for college you have to be my letterboxing partner." Not sure if MY quite got it or enjoyed it, but she was still a good sport. We also decided that letterboxing is the de facto test of a boyfriend. If he can keep up with us, then he might have a chance. To his credit, JW seemed to have fun and was a quick learner on how to be stealthy and how to re-hide well. I'm not sure if those are traits you want your teenage daughter's boyfriend to have, but he'll make a great letterboxer.
For the first two boxes we found, you had to leave the developed area of the park, cross a bridge along Telge Road, then go into the woods. Easy finds, and a good warm-up. We went back to the main part of the park and began our search for hidden tupperware! Near the restrooms, we came across a woman who was trying (unsuccessfully) to catch one of her dogs that had gotten loose. JW managed to catch the wayward pup, and we talked to her for a few minutes. She told us that she had seen rather large wolves the night before, down by the creek. Wow! I didn't know there were wolves in Houston!
We found three more boxes, including Frye Team's "A True Goblin", which sadly contained 2 inches of water, with the logbook completely ruined. I removed the logbook and took it home, hoping that I could dry it out and save the entries. After that we broke for lunch at a nearby McDonalds before returning to the park. Although there were two boxes we couldn't find, we did manage to find another three boxes, including Mother of Five's fantastic Haunted Hotel that had 4 micro boxes nearby, which contained the "guests". Very cool box! We headed back to the playground area, and the kids declared themselves worn out.
I realized that there was still one more box back across the bridge that I hadn't looked for at the beginning of our day. The kids decided that they'd rather hang out in the car and listen to music, but die-hard that I am, I just HAD to find that last box! I took off by myself, crossed the bridge, and reached the edge of the woods. I began following the clues... "Take 155 steps from this point. You should be at the beginning of an incline. Go 90 steps up and down to the base of another hill. 38 more steps will take you up the hill. To your right you should see a pine tree with a large animal hole at its base and the swamp behind." Yup, that sure is a large animal hole; wonder what kind of critter lives there. I continued with the clues... "To your left should be a small and a medium pine tree right next to the tree. Continue 55 more steps." As I start counting steps I see another very large animal hole at the base of a tree on my left. Now what had that lady said about wolves? Come to think of it, it's starting to get a little dark here in the woods. A twig snaps somewhere close by and I about jump out of my skin, wondering if a middle-aged fat woman could still climb a tree! Don't think I've ever found a box, stamped in, rehidden box, and hiked 1/4 mile so fast in my life!
And that is my tale of Terrors at Telge!
Oh, one small PS to this story. After a nice dinner, I took the teens to Phobia (5 haunted houses, for the price of one!) One of the haunts is "The Haunted Woods". Not sure if I'll get those kids out letterboxing again anytime soon.