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!