Early April 2015 saw pretty light traffic on the trail near my place, so I decided I could afford to do something really lavish: set up some special treats for Easter weekend. I had a stuffed animal chick that I set up along the trail and left a note inviting hikers to some treats left by The Easter Bunny. I bought several quarts of fresh strawberries and raspberries, several pounds of grapes and bananas and some baby carrots and left them along with the “usual” thru hiker season treats (ice water, sodas and oranges) in a cooler under the picnic table. A came back a couple hours later and met several hikers hovering over the cooler. — Success!!

While I was at it, I bought a bag of those hollow plastic eggs and filled them with little hard candies — sour balls, fire balls, root beer balls, butterscotch disks — and hung them from the redshank next to the picnic tables, inviting hikers to “find” an egg.

Responses in my notebook shows that these special treats were appreciated.