Almost Heaven Update

I am back "home" in the valley. Nothing relaxes me more than being in this magical place. No snow, but it is in the forecast for the week. I celebrated a LBing milestone yesterday~ my first find was one year ago, right here in this valley.

We headed out this morning to the SP to check on the box I planted in Aug. No recorded finds on line. We were derailed. The road to the golf course and trail head is closed for culvert repairs. After some lunch and discussion with the staff at the lodge front desk, we headed back out and past the road closed signs. Parked right up with the construction vehicles. Guess the crew has off for the week. We grabbed all of gear and bundeled up (38 degrees and windy) and headed across the construction crew's bridge. We hiked about a mile down the golf course to the trail head.

No lush ferns this time of year, but it is a beautiful trail nonetheless.

Continued on around the trail and located the box. Opened it up and it looked as if it had never been touched. Everything was bone dry (love those LnLs!) and neatly in its place. I opened the logbook to be sure and WOHOO! 5 pages of finds. It looks as if folks were there in Aug. and Oct. I love that I was able to share this spot with others.

Boy, the beaver dam sure looks different in the winter!

Maybe this will help...

OK, so on our recent drive from West Virginia to Tennessee, we had our first opportunity to travel on the interstates in West Virginia. I must say, they are really clean! Imagine, you are driving through beautiful mountains, on a nicely paved high-speed interstate, and the view is not destroyed by litter. Well, I figured out why.

We're cruising at 60+ mph and I'm starting to notice the highway signs. So many miles to such-and-such a place, rest stop in so many miles, etc. Suddenly, a large no littering sign comes into view. I had to do a double take! (Of course that means looking expectantly for the next one to come into view!) Then I see it:

No kidding! (OK, I didn't take this exact photo while speeding down the road, but this sign is EXACTLY like the ones I kept seeing.)

$25,000!!!!!

Why don't we have laws like this here in Virginia? Clearly it's working in West Virginia!

BARF!

Well, if coming home from vacation didn't already make me want to barf...

Thursday night was the BARF! event hosted by BullDawg and Trailing Emmerson. (What a terrific event stamp!) It was a lovely, cool evening and we all had a great time laughing and sharing stories. If you missed it, you missed a real treat. The elusive Zodiac actually made an appearance. Maybe he felt comfortable joining us since there were only 4 of us at the table. He is a very interesting character!

Hopefully next time BullDawg and Trailing Emmerson are down for a visit they will have some time to do some boxing with us. Maybe BullDawg will post the clue to the box they planted this trip, too (hint, hint).

Final thoughts? Bobguyman46 said it well, "A great letterboxer is not judged on how many finds or plants he or she has; the true test of greatness is based on how many friends the person has made during the hobby." I have added 2 more letterboxing friends to my count. :)

100!

After leaving the valley, we headed south to Pigeon Forge. It was somewhat of a culture shock after being so thick in nature for a week. But watching Nathan enjoy Dollywood made the trip all worth it. We even saw Dolly herself!

I did a little boxing while in Tennessee. Safari Man has great carving skills and we loved finding his stamps. We also were introduced to a great BBQ restaurant called Nifty Fifties in the arts community of Gaitlinburg. First finders on that one, and boy, the staff sure was excited to have their first "treasure hunters."

We left on Monday, driving through the Great Smokies. It was a beautiful road to travel. We took our time and enjoyed the sites. Once on the other side, we visited the Little Foxes's farm. Mama Fox was very gracious and had all her farm boxes waiting for us to find. Nathan enjoyed playing with Baby Fox and together they fed the sheep. What an exciting day for a city kid! But for me, the highlight (other than meeting such terrific boxers) was to stamp in X-perience Wipe Required. This was my 100th find. If you haven't made it out to the Little Foxes's farm, you should add it to your list. We had a wonderful afternoon with the nicest people.

Hiking or Rock Climbing?

Tuesday was a great example of everyone seeing things a little differently. We followed a clue today which warned of steep hiking that "kids will love." It also said that "little ones will need some hand holding" along this trail. Well, not hardly. We hiked down the path a ways, and yes, Nathan did need so hand holding. We turned a corner and we were on a rock outcropping on the side of the mountain! One wrong step and you are history!

At this point, we all stopped, sat down far from the edge and discussed our options. The boys stayed at the top and I headed down the path, letterbox pack on my back, walkie-talkie in my pocket, and walking stick in my hand. The path continued to stay rocky and gradually got steeper and steeper. Finally, it went straight down the mountain side. I sat for a long time reading and re-reading the clue and determined that the box could not be too far away now. At this point, to get down the path, I had to sit on the rocks and slowly lower myself down them one at a time, keeping the pack on my back out of the way. After about 50 feet of that, I was on level ground again and feet away from my prize.

Found the box...with a store bought, tiny plastic stamp. Ugh!!! Now I must say here that I am not usually a "stamp snob." When kids and families are new at boxing and just getting started, by all means, buy a stamp! But to risk life and limb, I expected a little more.

Oh well, it was a beautiful, although dangerous trail. Boy, I was glad I had my gloves! I put them on, put the walking stick around my wrist by the strap, and starting climbing back up. I had to use thick tree roots that were exposed like vines and ran along the rocks to help pull myself back up. Talk about a work out! I though my heart would beat out of my chest. I could barely talk to check in on the walkie-talkie. Climb, catch my breath, climb, catch my breath, I finally made it back up.

Got back to the boys, and Swamp Fox wanted to see what all the fuss was about, so down he went. We waited for him to climb down and back up. When he got back, he agreed, this is not a trail for kids, but it would be a fun trail for adventurous adults.

Spruce Knob

On Monday we headed down to Spruce Knob, the highest peak in WV. There is a tower at the top that gives 360 degree views and there are (you guessed it!) 4 LBs at the top. We heading out toward Seneca Rocks and stopped there for lunch; then, over to the visitor center for trail maps.

Sad news! :( At the visitor center we learned that the road up to the tower was closed for culvert replacement and paving and wouldn't be open again until late Sept. :( No LBs for me today. I was really looking foward to getting two boxes by Hikers and Hounds. His Windmills of Backbone Mountain stamp was beautiful and I looked forward to seeing what he had carved for Spruce Knob. Fortunately, we are in the area often enough that I will get there some other time.

Since we were there, we decided to go ahead and drive around the rest of the park and see what was there. Spruce Knob Lake is very pretty and there is a nice hike all the way around it. I'm thinking this could be a nice place to plant a series of letterboxes.

Almost Heaven

We hiked the most beautiful hike Friday. There are many trails here in the park. Some are long, some are short. Many can be connected together to make hikes of your choice length. There is one down by the golf course that looked interesting. Part of it follows along the Blackwater River. It is ¾ miles long and has self guided interpretive guide to go with it. I had to check it out for to see if it would be a good location for the letterbox I put together for this trip. It was perfect! You begin in what looks like a scene from a fairy tale. The forest floor is covered with ferns. You walk along and out into a small meadow. Then the trail turns and follows the river. The creek runs along the valley floor, so the mountains are in the distance. It was a spectacular site. We found an appropriate place to leave the box and the clue can be viewed here on Atlas Quest: http://www.atlasquest.com/showinfo.html?gBoxId=86725.

Wild and Wonderful

Yes, West Virginia is wild and wonderful. We arrived in Canaan Valley on Wednesday. The campground here is quite and peaceful. The views are outstanding. Having visited here every winter for 15 years, summer here is very different. Daytime temperatures hover around 68° and nighttime lows are around 55°. (That being said, last night got down to 49°!) It’s hard to believe this is August. Within the first 24 hours here, I committed myself to make reservations for next year. There are so many things to do here that we will not do them all this week. There aren’t too many letterboxes here, but I don’t think we will get to all of them either, since most are on hikes.

Our first full day here, Thursday, we did go and find two boxes in Thomas. Both boxes memorialize the windmills that dot the mountain ridge here. One box was a social studies project for a middle school student. The other was a beautiful stamp. I was glad I had all my colors with me to stamp it properly in my logbook. I’m now up to 88 finds. (Ignore my AQ count; most boxes around here are LbNA listed only.)

Wildlife is abundant here. We’ve had many deer right around our picnic table, including 3 bucks of varying ages (and racks!). Black bear have been seen in the area, just not by us! There are really so few bugs to speak of, so we decided not to bother with the screen room. Oh, one food note: we made steaks with Chimichurri SauceThursday night. Along with that we tried a new recipe I found on the internet. I cut a Vidalia onion in 8ths from the top down almost to the bottom, but not quite. I laid it in a double layer of aluminum foil that I folded up like a bowl. A pat of butter went in the center and then I sprinkled it with red pepper flakes. Finally, I poured Italian dressing over the top until it puddled around the bottom. Then we wrapped it all up in the foil and put it on the hot coals for 30 minutes. It was the hit of the meal! We will definitely make that again on this trip. Yummy!!!

Would you like fries with that?

So, orders for boxes keep coming in. It's strange, really, since this all started with me getting permission. The one for Back Bay is done and planted and they are talking about planting another. The Lynnhaven House was planted today. The two Norfolk boxes are still in the works. Nelson is building the actual boxes to fit the locations and I will make the logbooks once I know exactly how much space I will have inside.

But the most interesting "order" of all came from Portsmouth. There are four museums which are run by the same organization and they would like two boxes at each location; one outside and one inside. Outside would feature my carves and inside would have their own custom made stamps. (Would you like fries with that?) I was already stressing over the gas to drive back and forth ("Remember, this is a hobby, Jennifer!" Nelson keeps saying.) until my contact tells me that they plan to pay for the materials (carving material, logbook, and boxes)! Woohoo! I can go for that!

Nelson says to be careful about losing control of my own plants. I think it great that they want some ownership of them because it means they will look after them for me. What do you all think?

Permission is better...

Here's the proof. Comments from finders on one of my boxes:

"The gal behind the counter was thrilled to see "a letterboxer doing his thing...never seen one before, actually doing it..." I guess that's opposite of seeing a letterboxer not doing his thing and not realizing he's a letterboxer because you never even knew people like that existed in the first place :)"

"It was fun going into the gift shop and chatting with the two ladies at the counter. They are both quite into the whole boxing thing for not being boxers themselves!"

"Loved the location. Met the director and staff. Had a wonderful time!"

Well, that speaks for itself!

It's easier to get forgiveness than permission

Or is it? I recently planted 3 letterboxes. The first was at the Thoroughgood House. My contact, Starr, gave me the names of contacts at the Francis Land House and one other location (which is a mystery box, so I can't tell you where :) ). My contact at the mystery location, Kate, had many ideas of locations for boxes. After chatting back and forth in email, she offered to pave the way and send an email to her contacts for me. And quite an email it was!

I recently learned of a new activity called Letterboxing. Letterboxing is an intriguing pastime combining artistic ability with delightful "treasure-hunts" in beautiful, scenic places. Participants seek out hidden letterboxes by following clues placed on a web-site, and then record their discovery in their personal journal with the help of a rubber stamp that's part of the letterbox. In addition, letterboxers have their own personal stamps which they use to stamp into the letterbox's logbook. More information on www.atlasquest.com/
Recently (location removed) was approached to be a letterbox site and we agreed. A letterbox is discretely hidden outside the building (and a bonus one inside.) There is no work to be done by any museum staff or volunteers as it is self-contained. The people who participate letterboxing appear to be nice and courteous, and a great many are families with young children - the sort of people many of us want attracted to our museums and parks.
If you are interested in learning more about letterboxing and possibly becoming a letterbox site, please let me know, and I will put you in touch with my contact.
To see our "Clue" go to www.atlasquest.com/lboxes/showboxinfo.html?gBoxId=72150or
* Go to www.atlasquest.com* type "Virginia Beach" in the location box* Click "SOS" for our box (we have a puzzle clue - harder than most)
* Click "The Francis Land House" to see their clue or "The Adam Thoroughgood House"
And please forward this to anyone you think might be interested.

Well, the response has been incredible! I am getting requests from all over Tidewater. I feel like I am taking orders for boxes (would you like a bonus box with that?) and I am really excited about placing boxes in all of these wonderful locations. Tiderwater has so many interesting educational and historical locations to share with our visitors. We don't have many locations that provide beautiful hiking since our area is so urban, so I feel that this might be a better tact to take for boxing here. Nelson is preparing to help me make more urban boxes than the typical lock n lock (thanks to a great meeting with "X" Marks the Spot this past weekend) and I am looking for images to carve. Already in one day I've had half a dozen requests! We are going to be very busy!

Big Buck

Here it is! Nathan's sig stamp is finished and I must say it looks good!

New Signature Stamps!

Well, we got our sig stamps! Yea! Blonde Bunny and Swamp Fox have come to life.

Of course, we'll still use our Casa del Sol VB stamp, too, when we all box together.

So now, Nathan has FINALLY agreed he needs a trail name to, which is a welcomed change from, "I'm just Nathan!" We thought Lil Buck would be great, since his great-grandpa is Buck Hodges. But NOOOOO! He won't be Lil Buck! "I'm Big Buck!" So Big Buck it is. I didn't have the confidence to carve our stamps with all that lettering, but I think I am going to try my hand at carving Big Buck's.

I've got 2 carvings under my belt so far for my black bear/zoo boxes that I plan to plant this spring. I have found 2 different deer pics and I will be carving next weekend. Stay tuned! :)

What is Letterboxing?

This site is basically devoted to the Hodges family letterboxing adventures. We plan to list our plants here (which are currently in progress) and possibly our finds, too.

What is Letterboxing, you ask?

Letterboxing is an intriguing mix of hiking, puzzle solving, treasure hunting, and rubber stamp artistry, topped off with the thrill of discovery. The basic idea is simple. Clues, usually posted on a web site, lead to the secret location of a hidden "letterbox." Inside the letterbox are a unique rubber stamp and a logbook. When the letterbox is found, the finder stamps the box's logbook with his or her personal stamp, leaving a record of the discovery. Then the finder stamps his or her own personal logbook with the box's stamp, creating a passport-like collection of hand-carved stamps. The letterbox is then secreted away again for another searcher to uncover. (taken from The Letterboxer's Compainion, by Randy Hall.)

To find out more about this fasinating hobby, check out this article:
Letterboxing: An Interesting and Inexpensive Form of Recreationhttp://www.savingadvice.com/blog/2008/01/02/101988_letterboxing-an-interesting-and-inexpensive-form-of-recreation.html

Or check out these sites to get started:
www.letterboxing.org
www.atlasquest.com
www.stampinthebox.com (great site for info on getting into letterboxing)
www.letterboxing.info (yet another info site on what it is all about)

The Hodges family blog is here!

The Hodges family has a blog. Soon to come: Letterboxing finds and plants.