We had so much fun taking photos today on our Letterboxing Adventure! I love this time of year!
Archive for the 'Letterboxing' Category
Happy First Day of Spring Break! Yes, Claire’s school is off today for Spring Break, and we don’t go back until April 2nd!
We used this as an excuse to go Letterboxing. Some friends from school joined us in our adventures today, so that we could show them the ropes of letterboxing, and we had a great time!
Today’s adventure yielded us box #173. Think we’ll hit 200 by the time summer is finished?
Sounds like a pretty good goal to me!
Granted, even if you don’t find the treasure you seek, the view is worth the walk.
I don’t want to give away the locations of the super secret letterboxes in Santa Fe, but I want to tell you one of our favorite adventures. (This one doesn’t involve Attack Lizards, like yesterday’s long-overdue update…)
I’ll try to do this without spilling too much of the specific details.
In my research of different boxes to find in Santa Fe, I stumbled upon one that didn’t have a specific starting point listed. It was just listed as “Santa Fe, NM.” This is not uncommon. In the text of the clue, the instructions are whimsical and written in punny code. This, too, is not uncommon.
After reading through it, and using my knowledge of Santa Fe, I was pretty sure I knew where the starting point was. Or at least, I thought I was close. I was sure we’d be able to figure it out when we arrived in person.
This particular location is not open to the public 24/7, so we had time on Friday night to do some recon. We took notes and figured out the best way to proceed the next day. After breakfast on Saturday, we headed out, our mission clear, even if the exact details were not.
Despite being very vague, this clue had very specific instructions.
For example (and the names have been changed to protect this letterbox), we were supposed to go see Mike and/or Dave. Once we’d located Mike and/or Dave, we were supposed to ask to see Patrick Henderson. We were warned by the clue that talking to anyone other than Mike or Dave could jeopardize the mission, and/or people would just think we’re crazy. It assured us that no one except Mike or Dave would even know who Patrick was.
We timed everything perfectly. It was right at Opening Time, so the crowds were minimal (practically non-existent, actually), and an elderly man was busy setting up for the day. He called over his shoulder from the back room, “I’ll be with you in a moment! Feel free to look around!” He came over a couple minutes later, and I said, “I was wondering if Mike or Dave are working today?”
He stopped. He got the funniest look on his face, and his eyes began to sparkle. “Mike or Dave!?” he said in an hushed, excited tone. “You need to go over that way,” and he pointed us through a different door, in the right direction. Without giving too much away about this location, it involved walking through an area that was usually closed to the public at large, and he told us what to tell Security if we were stopped!
We could hardly believe it! The excitement nearly threatened to overtake us.
Again, we go through another door and follow the man’s instructions. The same sight greets us: A man is working in the back and calls up to us, saying he’ll be with us in a moment. He then comes over to us, and I ask again, “I’m wondering if Mike or Dave are working today?”
He gasps out loud; his face bursts into a smile and he says loudly, “YOU MUST BE HERE TO MEET PATRICK!”
“Well, yes, we are!” I exclaim.
He then ushers us BEHIND a big ol’ sign that says, “EMPLOYEES ONLY.”
“It’s okay,” he tells us. “People aren’t usually allowed back here, but you guys are special.”
Claire is just beside herself with excitement, and even Daddy is impressed by this turn of events. Again, without giving anything away, we were then “introduced to Patrick” and then given a private tour of the behind-the-scenes of this particular place that we would have never been granted had it not been for our stealthy mission.
And we didn’t even have to use our cover-story with Security… 
I was looking through the posts I’ve written about our Letterboxing adventures and realized that I never finished telling you about our most recent trip to Santa Fe!
For those of you who don’t know, Letterboxing is like a treasure hunt. You solve puzzles and figure out clues that all lead to a hidden box (or pouch) that contains a carved rubber stamp. You stamp this into your Journal and then put your own mark (via a carved stamp of your own) in the accompanying log book. You can read more about this hobby here.
Anyway, Santa Fe is one of our all-time favorite destinations, so we went there for the long 4th of July weekend. As with any trip we take, I plugged our destination into the website I use for finding letterboxes and was amazed at the results! It was like hitting the jackpot!
I researched which boxes we were going to find. I solved clues that could be solved before hand. I mapped out the different starting locations.
What awaited us was better than we could have imagined.
We’d been to Santa Fe before, but we saw it in a whole different light. Letterboxing gives you an excuse to be in places you wouldn’t normally be or to search for things you wouldn’t even expect.
The letterboxes in Santa Fe were fantastic and so clever.
I’ll be sure to post more about our adventures (without giving away any of the secrets of the specific letterboxes), but the story that comes to the front of my mind is the day I was attacked by a lizard.
It all starts with an Arroyo and a Hitchhiker Hostel.
Yes, really.
An Arroyo is a stream bed or gulch. It’s dry most of the year, but seasonally fills with water and then recedes. A Hitchhiker in letterboxing is a little carved stamp that moves from permanent letterbox to permanent letterbox by the next letterboxer who finds it. A Hitchhiker Hostel is like a little hotel for Hitchhikers, and prior to our trip to Santa Fe, I had no idea something like this existed. Basically, you leave some hitchhikers at the hostel and you take some hitchhikers from the hostel, and it keeps them moving around the country.
I wanted to see this for myself! I even carved a special Hitchhiker for this very reason!
Colorado Dragonfly: She's TINY, as you can see by the quarter in the photo.
For this particular letterbox, we figured out where we needed to be. Daddy decided to stay up on top of the arroyo with Claire while I went down to check it out.
It was steep and rocky. I was wearing my garden gloves, so I wasn’t too worried. I was careful to look for any snakes. I’m gripping the instructions in one hand and trying to keep my balance with the other. I make it to the bottom of the arroyo without any incident!
I figure out where I need to be and see what I’m supposed to see. It’s here! I’ve found it! I reach down to clear away some pine needles and a rock, and this lizard jumps out at me!
I scream!
(So much for being stealthy and discreet. Granted, the area was deserted. Literally.)
Then, I had a heart attack and died. The End.
Miraculously, I start breathing again. Meanwhile, Daddy and Claire are distraught. I can’t see them, but I can hear them call down to me. Claire thinks I’m hurt, and Daddy is wondering how on Earth he’s going to remove my body from the bottom of the arroyo without attracting attention. Ha. Kidding. He swears he, too, was concerned for my safety and not the logistics of the whole thing.
I assure them that I am okay. Physically.
After I stop shaking, I uncover the rest of the hostel and do my transfers.
Meanwhile, that poor little lizard has bolted back to his loved ones and is telling a chilling tale of how he was just minding his own business when this crazed redhead tried to attack him! She came out of nowhere! The poor guy will never be the same. “Twitchy” will tell this tale to his grandkids when they ask him how he got his nickname.
I love this photo. Right now, it’s the “cover photo” of my personal Facebook page (I change that often, but this one spoke to me, so I put it up last week, and as of the time of this post, it’s still there…). It’s also the background on my phone.
We took this photo in Hawaii, on the island of Maui. We’d stopped to explore the Black Sand Beach (yes, there is one on Maui!) while exploring the road to Hana.
It’s at a park called Wai’anapanapa.
Just saying it is fun.
Side Note: This weekend, Claire was looking through a calendar we got from a conservation organization. March’s picture is a beautiful shot of this very Black Sand Beach! I showed Claire the photos WE took of that beach, and when she saw they were the same, she was in awe! “Look! I see those three palm trees, right there!” Fantastic!
Anyway…
This was a trail we would have never found if it weren’t for letterboxing. We were thrilled to discover that there was a letterbox hidden at this very park, and the clues seemed easy enough. Needless to say, the start to this particular letterboxing adventure was just as rocky as the shoreline. We could not find this trail. We did not understand what some of the clues meant. None of it was making any sense. We traipsed off in the totally wrong direction, all the while pretending we were on the right track. We tried to force meaning out of the things around us. ”Surely this is what they meant!? Maybe they meant that!?” No. When you’re right, the answers to the clues slip into place. Usually.
We knew the rules, but decided to blatantly disregard them.
Although completely frustrated but not wanting to give up completely, we decided to stop for lunch and try again.
After a bite to eat at the park, we decided to try one more time. This time, everything fell into place. (We also agreed on how WE would have written the starting point of the clue, but that’s neither here nor there. Details, details.) With this renewed energy, we found it! It’s one of the coolest trails we’ve ever explored.
The picture doesn’t show how dark and mysterious this all was; the camera has lightened it up quite a bit. The canopy was so low that my husband had to crouch while under some of it. It was so thick, you could barely see the bright blue sky through it.
We’d stumbled into another world.
Secluded.
Secret.
Steps worn by other adventurers and the passage of time.
Such a great reward for not giving up, for going back to the beginning and trying again.
This photo inspires me in so many ways.
Our view yesterday while on a Letterboxing Adventure! We found #168! (Click the photo to learn more about Letterboxing!)
This is a photo of the sunset we captured after our day of adventure on Sunday night. This was a reminder that all’s well that ends well.
The title of this post, on the other hand, is part of a quote from Tommy Boy. It is one of my favorite movies, because it makes me laugh.
I’ve never been afraid of bees. They are such interesting little creatures and provide such a service…as in, you know, keeping the entire human race alive.
I’ve never been stung by a bee.
Until now.
Claire has never been stung by a bee.
Until now.
My husband HAS been stung by bees before, but he was spared this weekend.
So, what happened?
Well, we were out letterboxing. (Of course, we were.) Some friends had invited us to stay with them at a friend’s cabin near Fairplay, CO. In preparation for our weekend getaway, I searched for Letterboxes in the area, and sure enough! There was one near a tiny little town right where we needed to be! Sweet!
Our friends had never been letterboxing with us, and we were going to show them how fun and addicting this is.
*cue the ominous music here*
After getting turned around a couple times, we finally got back on the right track and the clues fell into place. The only problem we found was that “the gravel road to the left” where we were supposed to turn was barely a path that wandered off into the underbrush. It fit the clues perfectly, though, so we knew it was right.
Rather than “drive” down the road as instructed, we parked and were going to hike in. We were supposed to go a tenth of a mile for the next portion of the clue. Easy peasy!
As we’re walking, the “road” turns less and less into a road and more into a barely trampled path. “Probably by other letterboxers wondering why they called this a ‘road,’ right?” we joked.
All of a sudden, Claire starts crying.
“I don’t want to be here! I’m scared!” she screams.
“A bee just hit her in the face!” our friend says.
Claire is so upset, and this is very uncharacteristic of her. I bend over to console her and get her somewhat calmed down. I think she’s scared about being smacked in the face by a bee, and this is causing the brush to seem like it’s closing in around us.
She is visibly shaken, and still teary. Should we turn back?
As a distraction technique, I start pointing out the plants around us. “We’re standing on some wild strawberries! See their leaves? Look at these flowers over here? I wonder what kind they are? They sure are pretty.”
All of a sudden, I feel a searing, white-hot flash of pain in my wrist. What the…?!
My wrist immediately starts to puff up, and there is a welt forming.
At first, I’m so confused and have no idea what happened. Then it hits me: I’ve been STUNG BY A BEE. I’ve never been stung by a bee before! This sucks!
I try not to panic; the guys have gone on down the “trail,” and my other friend asks if she should just take Claire back to the car. I think that’s a good idea. Claire is way too upset to get much value out of more bushwhacking, and the guys yelled back to us that it opens up a bit.
My wrist is starting to really hurt…but I’m breathing okay, so I just fight my way through the brush. I decide to press on.
It does open up a bit more, but something is not right. Either the flooding has caused issues, or things have really overgrown since this box was planted. My wrist is killing me. Claire is upset. It’s time to bail.
We fight our way back and then hurry past the section with the wild strawberries. We’d been minding our own business the first time, and I certainly don’t want there to be any more misunderstandings!!
As we break out onto the gravel road, we discover that a bee didn’t just smack Claire in the face…IT HAD STUNG HER.
Her top lip is all swollen, and there is an obvious welt. (She hadn’t reacted as quickly as I had, so I hadn’t even noticed her lip when consoling her.)
We also discover that the first aid kit in the car is neatly packed UNDER THE ENTIRE CONTENTS OF THE TRUNK. Very convenient! Rather than unpack and repack the car on a gravel road, I have cream in my purse, but it’s not benadryl or cortizone, it’s a type of lidocaine. We opt for that and an ice pack. I slather some on her face and my wrist and we hold our respective ice packs all the way to the cabin.
As we’re driving, Claire has stopped crying, but there are tear tracks down her cheeks. Her mouth is so swollen she can barely speak without a lisp, and her voice is muffled under the ice pack anyway. “I do NOT like bee stings, Momma…but can we find more letterboxes on this trip? Please?”
That’s my girl.
One year ago today, I posted this as my FB status: “First Letterboxing Adventure a HUGE success & even more so when Momma remembered how to read a compass. Can’t wait to find the next one!!”
Isn’t it handy that it tells me that?
Today has been on our radar for a while now…our One Year Anniversary for Letterboxing. When we started, I was just happy to find one. I thought finding 50 seemed really far off.
Today, we wrapped our yearly total at 130. (We’ve planted a dozen!)
That’s a lot of adventures.
I’ve shared some of those stories, and I plan to share some more. With school starting on Monday, we’ll go back to our “finding only one or so a month” routine. I wonder what kinds of adventures the next year will bring?
I have lots to share about our adventures in Santa Fe! Stay tuned!
In the meantime, here is the newest addition to our carving collection:
Colorado Dragonfly: She's TINY, as you can see by the quarter in the photo.
This is a Hitchhiker I carved and we released at a Hitchhiker Hostel (yes, such a thing exists!) in New Mexico!
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