A Geocaching Adventure

I know that I have posted this blog a few too many times this week, but I need to talk about a wonderful experience that I had last week while camping of one of Lake George’s (New York State) beautiful islands.

I love exploring the mountains on the eastside of Lake George and I noticed before we left for the camping trip that there were a few geocaches hidden along a trail system that I wanted to hike. So without interest from my family I headed out solo from a lakeside trailhead located near Red Rock Bay on Lake George.

The trail going up was worn, but in good shape and the RED ROCK BAY VISTA geocache was an easy find. I then set out on the ridge trail that looked like it was hardly used and these are the ones that I like to hike, especially on a cool breezy day that I had.

The next geocache was The Narrows Lookout, which was located off the trail near old forest fire. This was a cool place, and I enjoyed the views.

The next and the last geocache that I found that day was In the Shadow of It's Tail , which is a really fun multi-cache. The first part I made a lot more difficult than I had to. When I was walking down a rock outcrop and the ridge trail again picked up it’s north-south direction I noticed that this cache may have been a little out of the way and it looked like some serious climbing get to it. However, after I descended off the outcrop and walked a bout 0.25 mi. south along the ridge trail, I noticed a trail intersection and it led in the general direction of the cache, so I went after it. Recorded the waypoint of this intersection and before set off. After awhile I noticed that the cache must be to my right up hill and that the trail was taking me away from the cache, so I bushwhacked for about 1000 feet until I hit a rock face. The cache was only 136 feet away from me, but it might as well have been a mile. This rock face ran perpendicular to the first 800-1200 feet of the trail I just walked down, so I headed back toward the trail, along this rock face until I found a spot where deer had gone up the face and even for a chicken like me I was able to scramble up and find the micro. This one will make you laugh, but I will not spoil it. The second and final part was easy, just maintain your elevation. I wanted to practice my compass skills so I took a direction on the trail intersection waypoint and compassed out, almost stepping on a yearling deer in the process. By coming up the rock face, I was able to get behind her with her noticing.
I made it to the intersection and set out to find one more geocache, but when I reached the spot where the first micro was, there was a group of muggles having lunch, so I decided that that one would have to wait.

All and all I had a fabulous 7-mile loop through some beautiful country that offers a wonderful array of habitats and a plethora of photo opportunities. The hike actually was not that difficult either. Fun Fun Fun!

Col Williams Monument is Back!

After I gave this one up for lost a persistent Letterboxer found it about 6 feet from the original place. I am not sure why someone felt the need to move it, but its was dry and in good condition. I brought it home and replaced the Rubbermaid box with a Lock and Lock and camouflaged it a bit and set out this morning to place it in a better spot. I spent about 20minutes searching and ended up near the original spot, but a little better hidden. Hopefully this new location will keep it safe.

The clues for this box are at the following letterboxing.org link

http://letterboxing.org/BoxView.php?boxnum=21263%26boxname

This poll is closed and here are the results.


Would you feel more comfortable on a longer hike with a series of boxes to bring you along?


Yes, it's like having trail makers 29 (59%)

No, I will hike anyway. 19 (38%)

Don't care, just want more finds. 1 (2%)

What this has told me is that from now on that I am going to use series and better trail descriptions for those remote letterboxes that I may place. I think that it is very important to help people who are looking for your box, feel comfortable and to have fun looking for your place. By using a series in an imaginative way, that is possible. My goal with my first series is to bring people to a fairly tame area, but wild all them same. To give them a taste of the Adirondacks.

Thank you to all those who participated in the survey and to those who left comments regarding this survey. I listened and really appreciate all of your input.

My Letterbox was Found

My Col Williams Letterbox was found the other day after I had retired it a month ago. The persistent letterboxer found the box about 5 feet from my original place. The irony is that I would have found it if I was searching for it, but since I placed it I knew where it was supposed to be and when I didn't see it I actually searched around for evidence that it was muggled, not that someone moved and hide it. I didn't think that another boxer re-hid the letterbox in what they thought was a better location. I will remember that if it happens again.

I have it ready now to be placed again. I am going to place it in a better, more secure spot as this box gets a lot of traffic, so I am going to try and find a hiding spot that will be a little more out of sight of possible muggles. It is in in a new lock and lock and has a 100 page logbook. I even camoed it. I hope to have it back in commission by this weekend.

Would you feel better with a series of boxes on a long hike.

This is something that I am curious about. I have noticed, and I have talked about this before, that many letterboxes are located in nature trails, close to the parking area when they are solo, and also, even of easier hikes, if I locate a single box more than 1 mile from the road that it does not get visited very much.

I thought that it was more of a physical thing, but I thought a little and I'm am thinking that maybe a may be a comfort thing. That is hiking in on a new trail that takes you into the WOODS, may be uncomfortable to some. I didn't think about this as I grew up in the woods; raised by, well not wolves, but close; and I am very comfortable going in to new places. I just know how to prepare.

So my thought was, and I have posted a poll that asks if a series of boxes will make you feel more likely to go on a longer hike of not. I am figuring that if I gave detailed descriptions to the boxes along the trail, that other boxers will be more likely to look for them and enjoy these areas as they will have a "trail of breadcrumbs" to follow. But, maybe I am way off.

Please cast your vote and if you have more to say, please commit on this subject, as I would like use this information to customize my series a little better.

I will also post the fianl results on the Yahoo group so that we can take a look at the results.

Thank you.

Thoughts on Series Plants

Over on the LbUSA Yahoo group there was quite a discussion on whether or not there needs to be a logbook in each box in a series. There were a few people who stated that if the box is to be considered a letterbox that it must have a logbook. Many others stated that they felt that in a series that there did not need to be a logbook in each box and that there only needs to be a logbook in the final box. There were yet a few more that thought there should be a logbook in the first and the last letterbox. This discussion generated a lot of heated discussion, and there are a few ideas that I took from this discussion.

First, and foremost that letterboxing is all about fun and that there are really no rules in how to go about planting your boxing. Also, from this discussion and from reading the FAQ's on Letterboxing.org and the book The Letterboxing Companion that the most important item in letterboxing is the stamp. That is what makes letterboxing what it is; what makes it unique.

So, my personal thoughts on whether there should be a logbook in each box in a series are that it really depends on what you are attempting to do. I think that if you are locating a series and that each plant is really independent of the other then yes I think that having a logbook in each in important. However, if you are using the boxes to bring people to places or along a trail with some sort of theme and these boxes are dependant on one and other, then I really think that you don't need to place a logbook in each; I feel that the experience becomes too redundant. You must have a logbook in the final box and maybe one in the fist box, again that really depends on what you want the finder's experience to be.

What makes this activity so interesting is seeing how creative people can be with their stamps and their plants and that is why it is important to not have a set in concrete rules, that would kill this hobby faster than anything else.

Black Mountain Letterbox is Placed

I had a great day yesterday! We had great weather and it was perfect for a hike. I love hiking Black Mt. from the lakeside as it offers the so many opportunities to see Lake George from different perspectives. My reason for this hike was to finally get my Black Mountain Fire Tower letterbox in place. Which I did although there really weren't that many places to hide it as I needed to stay away from an in place geocache. But I was able to place it is a fairly secure and semi protected location. I used a lock and lock container that I camouflaged to help keep it away from the muggles.

I also upgraded my Black mountain Point letterbox with a lock and lock container also...I feel so secure now!

Today I picked up a letterbox, Orra Phelps, and a geocache, Orra Phelps' secret at the Orra Phelps preserve in Wilton NY. It is a nice small nature preserve with a stream running through it. It is known for its large variety of ferns.

Well anyway I really had a nice letterboxing and geocaching weekend.

Fort George Letterbox Maintanence

I finally was able to find some free time to replace my container at my Fort George Lb place. I found the box in great shape, well hidden and dry. My logbook was full, so the timing was perfect. I am using the Snaplock brand container to try it out in the field. The size is what I like, maybe a little large. I am using a 100 page sketchbook, instead of the 24 page one that I have been using as this box is getting a lot of traffic.

What has pleased me the most is that there seems to be a lot of young letterboxer finding this box as it is easy, but has a lot of clues, and the box has been very well taken care of! Baker Happy!!!

I have camoed this box like I have with my newer ones and I plan on doing this to all my plants from now on. My camo technique is simple. Just a light coat of black plastic adhering spray paint. It helps to make the box a little less obvious if it is not re hidden with care.

Now if they will just invent muggle repellent ;-)