"Wonderland" at RED Top Mountain, Georgia

On 18 Feb 12, our oldest daughter Tiffany, her boyfriend Andrew, and our youngest daughter Ariel were out finding letterboxes most of the morning, while Heather and I were doing our normal Saturday routine of house cleaning and grocery shopping. They contacted Heather and I to see if we would like to join them for a letterbox hunt. Heather printed one of the clues from LBNA which was hidden at Red Top Mountain, Georgia. This clue is a series of boxes called "Wonderland." Heather and I finished up what we were doing while they headed to our house for our letterbox adventure. Once they arrived we decided to head out an grab a bite to eat at the local Steak and Shake. This turned out to be a bad idea since we sat down to eat at roughly 2:30pm and did not get our food for roughly 45 minutes. We arrived at Red Top Mountain's Iron Hill Trail were the clues had us starting. The park closes at dark so we had roughly an hour and a half to be out of there by park rules. Keep in mind that it is an over cast afternoon with certain rain heading our way. The Iron Hill Trail is roughly a four mile loop trail, so in my mind I thought we had plenty of time to get out and possibly find all three boxes. The boxes are labeled as "The White Rabbit, The Mad Hatter, and The Cheshire Cat," in that order by the clues. As we (Heather, Tiffany, Ariel, Andrew, and myself) all start down the trail the mist starts falling, none of us have any rain gear what so ever. The temperature is in the low 50's as we started our adventure. As we started trying to find the location of the White Cat the rain continued to fall gradually harder. Roughly 45 minutes into the hunt we found the location of the White Rabbit, and we rejoiced in our find. As the stamping and writing was completed, 3 of the 5 hunters (Tiffany, Andrew, and myself)decided that we had time to push on and find one more before the rain would certainly start pouring on us. While the other two hunters (Heather and Ariel), the reasonable minds in the group; told us to stop, go back to the car, and go home before we got soaking wet and cold. As Democracy would have it the majority ruled and we pressed on to find at least one more box. We start walking once again further down the trail trying follow the clues given and making absolute assumptions based on no reasonable explanation. We manged to get off of the main trail and walked down numerous other trails to find old campsites in which the next box was located. We walked and hunted until the sun light started to disappear, all of us were soaked to the bone by this time. The group was cold and wet, wishing we had listened to the reasonable heads in the first place. Finally the decision was made to head back to the car, as we started heading back in the mist of darkness the rain continued to fall, tempers and fear started to get the best of the group. As things would have it we took a much longer route back to the car than anticipated, for we started this hunt without a map. As blame and finger pointing started as did the fear of wildlife in the area. The Indians were restless as the thought of black bear, coyotes, mountain lions, and bobcats could potentially you us as food. One hour plus into our walk back to the car, my family was cold and wet; we were lucky to encounter the headlights of a vehicle approaching us from the rear. It was in fact the park ranger who had noticed our car still parked in the gravel parking area and came to find us. He pulled along side of us and I told him that I was a bad judge of time and thought that we had plenty of time to get back to the car before dark. He nodded, smiled and told us to get in the back of the truck and he would get us to the car. We were only .3 miles from the vehicle but being cold and wet would have made the walk seem further. So I must say thanks to the park ranger for getting my family and I out of the weather sooner than we thought we were going too. Once back to the car, Heather cranked up the engine and turned on the heat to get everyone warmed up. I couldn't drive at the time because of shoulder surgery so my lovely wife has been doing all of the driving. On the ride back, the anger and frustration the took place on the trail was soon over come with sarcasm and laughter. I can tell you this, as a step-father I could not be any prouder of the family I have so fortunately inherited. Thank each of you for creating another unforgettable moment in my life with each of you. This truly is a "Wonderland" for me!!