Poor Island

We just returned from our camping trip on one of the little islands on Lake George in New York State. This island is about 125 by 225 feet and it lost 26 trees from a freak local thunderstorm last month. All of the large tree are gone. They either snapped in half, half way up the tree or they where simply tipped over as the soil is so shallow.

When we arrived on the island, I was struck with how different it looked and it took me a moment to grasp the violence that occurred here. One tree was blown apart by a lightning strike. I am glad that I was not camping they on that day!

Now all the old 100 year old plus trees were cleared out, but almost all of them were rotted inside and really should have been cut down years ago. Also, with some of the smaller trees now in full sunlight, their time now has arrived and they now will be making the shadow instead of living under one. Thankfully this storm happened outside of the busy camping season and nature must had felt that a little pruning was in order.

I think that it will be interesting to visit this Island in ten years to see how it is progressing. I hope to visit it every year for a long time.

Good times for Letterboxing

I was looking through the list of letterboxes on LbNA and realized how much letterboxing has grown in the last couple of years. When I starter there were only a few letterboxes in my area, now there are a ton and they are growing as more people find out how fun this activity is. Just in my immediate 4 county radius I have been brought to some beautiful areas that I would never have heard of, and now I enjoy visiting again and again. I personally enjoy carving and placing as well as finding letterboxes.

A couple of things that I am noticing is that I am seeing Lb’s being placed in so-so locations and I am seeing Lb’s that are not being maintained by the placers. One of the things that I try to do to help other boxers is to help them maintain their boxes that are close to me and far from them. I think that this is important to keep the interest going and we must make sure that the prizes out there are in good shape to make sure that the finders experience is a good one. My Col. Williams Monument Letterbox in Lake George NY has had 3 boxers find it that it ended up being their first experience finding a box. That is why I feel that it is all of ours responsibility to maintain boxes. Similar to when you stay at a lean-to in the Adirondacks, when you leave you must leave the site better than you left it and do things like leaving a nights worth of wood for the next camper. That is the type of thing that I like to see and see from many other boxers in the Letterboxing community. I would just like to see a little more. Many times my boxes are not re-hidden well and sometimes left open or the Ziplocs are not zipped and the logbook gets damp. Same junk all placers have to deal with, but would like some help with. I think that when teaching a new boxer, you really need to emphasize the letterboxing ways.

Rubbermaid Premier Containers

Current Rating: Not Yet rated

Rubbermaid Premier Containers

I would like to have people from the letterboxing community to take a moment and write a review about this product if you have used it. Then please give it a rating of 1 to 5, with 1 being the worst rating.

Please write your comments in the comment section at the bottom of this post.When I get five responses I will post the rating on my sidebar for easy review.Write your experiences with this item and what size you used and please give any recommendations so that other boxers may learn from your experience.

Thank you

Baker

Rubbermaid Flex and Seal Containers

Current Rating: 4-Stars

Rubbermaid Flex and Seal Containers

I would like to have people from the letterboxing community to take a moment and write a review about this product if you have used it. Then please give it a rating of 1 to 5, with 1 being the worst rating.

Please write your comments in the comment section at the bottom of this post.When I get five responses I will post the rating on my sidebar for easy review.Write your experiences with this item and what size you used and please give any recommendations so that other boxers may learn from your experience.

Thank you

Baker

Product Review Rubbermaid Durable Containers

Current Rating: 1-Star

Rubbermaid Durable Containers (Red Top)

I would like to have people from the letterboxing community to take a moment and write a review about this product if you have used it. Then please give it a rating of 1 to 5, with 1 being the worst rating.

Please write your comments in the comment section at the bottom of this post.When I get five responses I will post the rating on my sidebar for easy review.Write your experiences with this item and what size you used and please give any recommendations so that other boxers may learn from your experience.

Thank you

Baker

Product Review Lock & Lock

Current Rating: 5-Stars

Lock & Lock

I would like to have people from the letterboxing community to take a moment and write a review about this product if you have used it. Then please give it a rating of 1 to 5, with 1 being the worst rating.

Please write your comments in the comment section at the bottom of this post.When I get five responses I will post the rating on my sidebar for easy review.Write your experiences with this item and what size you used and please give any recommendations so that other boxers may learn from your experience.

Thank you
Baker

Product Review Snapware

Current Rating: 4-Stars

Snapeware

I would like to have people from the letterboxing community to take a moment and write a review about this product if you have used it. Then please give it a rating of 1 to 5, with 1 being the worst rating. Please write your comments in the comment section at the bottom of this post.

When I get five responses I will post the rating on my sidebar for easy review.
Write your experiences with this item and what size you used and please give any recommendations so that other boxers may learn from your experience.

Thank you

Baker

Fishbrook Pond

I really love this little pond. The hike in from the Lake George Shore Trail is short, but steep. We ended up following a moose all the way to the pond. I don't believe the trail was more that an hour old. At one point I thought we could smell him/her.

I also checked on our Fishbrook Letterbox and it survived the winter, but was a little damp. I will bring a lock and lock up on the next trip. This is one of the boxes that is really located in a very nice area and it is worth hiking in and enjoying this little slice of paradise.

Nature's Destruction

We were sad to find out today that our favorite camping island on Lake George was the scene of a large blow down that closed the island for a while. We are sad that we are going to miss our camping trip, but it is so sad to see such a nice island wrecked.

It looks like this island will be closed for half the summer. The island next door lost 100 trees! The storm was just a small localized pop up that generated 82 mph winds! A warning to us all to be aware always when in the outdoors.

Fortunately no one was hurt.

Plan ahead

Today I had a good morning of letterboxing and geocaching. I picked up two letterboxes and one geocache. I was hoping to get more, but I had to plan B two of my locations as there was too much company. The Story of Micky and Lasher Letterbox and the Karner Blue Lb at the Wilton Wildlife Preserve was going to bag me 6 boxes, but when I rolled up I saw a school bus dropping off kids. So I plan B'ed it and went and 0 found a quickie at Bryants Bridge (LbNA#31441); I went on to the Starks Knob Letterbox and met with success. It really is a quick find, but a really neat place. Mookie had also hidden one in the same area, but she stumped me. I could not find it for the life of me.

I moved along to the Lock 5 Lb, but there was a whole bunch of motorcycles parked there, with about 50 people milling around where I thought the box was.

Plan B time, I whipped out my GPS and lo and behold there was a geocache located about 0.25 mi away. A few minutes later I had a geocache and yet another nice place to go for a little walk. I saw huge carp jumping in the old canal there, something that I didn't expect to see.

That was it. When I go out know I bring a loose leaf binder full of nearby (within 20 mi) boxes and I load up my GPS so if some of the places that I want to search are loaded up with muggles I always had a Plan B.