The Event: Magical Gateways in the Whispering Woods

Discovery Park was the perfect space!

The day was blue skies and a breeze.  Perfect in the sun, cool in the shade.

Our beautiful 3 faery hostesses!

Yours truly won a door prize!  The coloring books are my favorite part, I love to color- it relieves stress!  Seriously, no one ever believes me.  I love, love, love to color. 

One of the fairy habitats, I wish I'd gotten pictures of them all- but I didn't. 

I had boxes to find after all!

A great, great, great time!

Boise boxing!

 We were not able to spend as much time as we'd hoped out boxing, but we found all we looked for and had fun.  RocktheNater especially loved the series we looked for.  He thought it was "sick" or is that "sic?"  Not sure, but whatever it is- he loved it.

It's good to recheck your clues!

It's good to recheck your clues.  Want to know why?  So you can be sure the letterboxes are still ACTIVE!  We were 0/6 and were feeling pretty bummed.  However, when we got home and emailed the planter, she told us they'd been part of the attack on her boxes.  Duh!!

So next time we take a trip, I'm going through my printed clues.  On the plus side though, we found some great places to hide boxes!!!  And we still had fun looking, even if we didn't find!

SNAKE!

While letterboxing today we came across 3 snakes!!!! One was crossing the sidewalk just after we had found a box too.

Handcuffs, 'boxing & illegal activities



There are only 2 boxes in this area where we've moved that we have not found.  This is one of them.  Last summer there was a huge fire.  We had hoped to find it, but the area was closed.  Yesterday we went back to see.  The fire got the area pretty good.  Burned over 100,000 acres- huge fire- and we wanted to see if the box survived.



I made CowboyJoe go down the path to see how far the visual point was.  Yes, he crossed the orange tube.  But just a little look.  He came back quick, here is a camera there snapping pictures with a motion detector.  He said the area was pretty damaged by the fire, not sure if the box could survive.  But it was a fast moving fire, so there is a chance.  We joked that if he got arrested (RocktheNater & I stayed off the trail) would I pay his bail.  Thankfully someone volunteered to sell his kidney- so no fear in bail postings.

Hoping that the work they have started will be finished soon, so we can go back and see about the box.  With no worries about pictures and handcuffs.

Sacajawea finding got me a MOOSE!

I love moose.  Imagine me finding a letterbox & a moose all at once!!  I was completely elated.  And super bummed because my dang camera was in our suitcases and not up front with me!  We were on our way to Boise, and spotted him just south east of Salmon, literally 100yrds or less from where I had nabbed our first box of the weekend.

A-Maze-ing Event! (Boise, ID)



This was our official first event ever!  What a great time to have it take place in a city with so much history for us.  We had SUCH a crazy good time, and if I wasn't already hooked, I certainly am now!  Funny side story?  A fellow boxer worked at the same place I worked so many years ago.  She was hired not too long before we moved away, but we recognized each other.  Though it did take a minute to know why.  :)



The meet up in Boise!

We had a great time meeting everyone!!  Joe (CowboyJoe) was excited that there were guys-- hasn't happened very much.  :)  Nathan (RocktheNater) loved that it was in a park, and there were ooooodles of kids to play with.

That was probably the best part of it all.  We hid, we found, we ate and we had a BLAST!!

I really hope we can get back there for a big meet up.  As badly as we want to go to the A-MAZE-ing event, 8 hours away and potential bad weather keeps us back. 

But maybe...   :)

Headed to Twin Falls & Boise, Idaho!

And there is gonna be a mini-meet in Eagle, ID at 5pm in Merrill Park.

Wahoooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Super excited.

Planting & Finding: Boise & Kuna

Going Biking on the Hiawatha

We did the Hiawatha trail (pictured is our friend Mountain Sue & my husband) and what a blast!!

We had one stamp ready to go and hide, but plan to go back and hide even more along this bike trail. It was AWESOME!!!

For those of you who might be traveling to ID & MT- you can rent bikes & lights should you not bring yours. It's worth it- I promise!

Whirlwind Wyoming 'Boxing

Well, those 2.5 days of letterboxing, mixed in with rain, snow, more rain, more snow, wind, cold, and even more rain- made for a not so happy letterboxing adventure. However, perhaps we could be called HARD CORE letterboxers now!

We boxed with Nater's dad, which we were meeting in Cheyenne, WY, but got switched up some due to weather & vehicle issues. Mostly weather. But we had some interesting experiences- including almost getting our cars towed and a very angry chef. Getting soaked to the bone and barely being able to stamp because we were so wet and cold our hands wouldn't work. We split up and Nater went with his dad to places unknown for the summer & we continued up and around to get back to Monatana.

Balance Rock

The guys did go all the way up and tried to push it off. J said that a guy once tried to blow it up and they had to go in and fix it. Which led to a discussion on what we'd do if it did fall over.

I think the box would survive though, one of the entries said it survived a fire!

Cute green troll

Well, wouldn't you know it- I didn't go out prepare, and this one needed help I couldn't totally give. Water logged! But, the book was there and so was the stamp. I turned everything inside out and tried to dry the book up as much as I could. Yay for a paper towel and a windy day! I didn't stamp the book, but I did write in it, didn't want my ink to stain the other pages.

It was a great spot though- and a nice little walk. Even with the wind, cold and snow!

Hell's 1/2 Acre

How could you not want to put a box here?! It screamed for one- and since I didn't want to go off the trail, it's not hidden where you might think it would be! I would suggest walking the trails though- too bad our puppy wasn't welcomed (no pets) but J stayed with the dog and the kid and I stuck to the pavement. It was an awesome walk- I wish more rest area's had walking paths.

Elephant Cave

I have to admit, this kind of freaked me out. So I decided to be the look out in case any crazy people came to celebrate their Easter Sunday in a cave!

We had no luck finding anything logable here, there should have been 3 boxes. We found parts of one- with shot guns shells all over the ground. They blew it apart, literally. We covered the area hoping to find the log book or just the stamp, but no such luck.

The kid was upset that someone would do that. I agree, bring your own targets and leave our game alone!!

God Blessed Texas!

No, I didn't get to make a trip home for Easter weekend, but I did leave a symbol of home in one of my favorite parts of the drive to Twin Falls. I love this area- and I am always amazed that it literally looks like you are going to drive into the mountain instead of going on a road!

My husband thought the road should have gone a different way- but I am glad they didn't do that!

While hiding this we also found a geocache, right where *I* wanted to hide ours. :)

Boxing road trip #2!

The road trip took us from our home in south western Montana, to Twin Falls, Idaho-- and all around. We went down one way, and home part way differently. Lots of boxes found, more boxes hidden.

Only one place was a bust. We'd planned on going into Boise, but it just wasn't to be. Next time. We also got our 1st FIRST FINDER!! I was told we'd been a FF before, but I honestly don't recall that... so for now- this one was it. Was thrilled, because it was hidden a long while ago.

Roadside caves, machine guns, rain, snow, mud, animal skeletons and so much more! What fun times. Stay tuned-- eventually I'll be putting up all the pictures and stories to go with them. But first-- we need to type up the directions for the boxes we hid!

ICM- under snow!

This was one of our first letterboxes that we found. On Christmas day we decided to go up again to Cross Country ski, knowing there would be snow, but wondering what the LB would hold. We laughed over the depth, though not as deep as last year by any means. I thought about digging for it, but then decided against it. Will have to check on it when everything thaws, and see if it's been found since us.