4th International Letterboxing Week!!

From July 10-16, you find as many Traditional letterboxes as you can. Then from July 17-24, you email energystar with the amount of letterboxes you found. You do not have to tell me the name of every box you found. But, make sure you record your finds because I will be counting the number of boxes you found between July 10-16 in your logbook. Your email must be in by July 25 at the latest and results will arrive on Thursday. The winner receives a special prize! Last year's winner was veganf and the dolphins. Good luck to all this year. And remember, HAVE FUN!!

http://www.atlasquest.com/showinfo.html?gEventId=1808  You probably need to be a member of AtlasQuest.com to access this link!!

Letterboxing Week - World Wide event!!

The week of July 10, 2011 is known as Letterboxing Week. It runs through July 16, 2011.

If you want to participate in this event try to find as many letterboxes as you can during the week of July 10, 2011!

Then, between July 17 & 24, you send an email to EnergyStar with the number of letterboxes you found during the week and the names of the boxes you found. (Must be a member of atlasquest.com to send this email - info at the website linked through Letterboxing Week)

Your email must be in by July 25 and the results will be ready the following Thursday. If you win, your name will be announced on Atlas Quest. Also, the winner receives a prize.

Please contact all your friends on Atlas Quest and tell them about this exciting week!


Send questions to EnergyStar with the subject "Letterboxing Week Questions".

Also, please sign up by Saturday, July 9.

I so gotta try this!!!  May not win, but will have a blast finding letterboxes!!!

Combining three loves of my life into one adventure!!

First a newest love:

I headed into Hopland early in the afternoon to catch the four 'Letterboxes' that I found listed at atlasquest.com, A letterboxing community which is associated with letterboxing.org. I found that you can search for letterboxes at both sites, but that atlasquest.com which connects to letterboxing.org has more results!!  

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#3: Old River Osprey



Old River Osprey Stamp!

When I read the instructions on how to get to this 'Letterbox' I was pretty sure I knew just where it was. Upon arriving at the destination I was right!!!  I had been out here twice before!!  Last year I was led to this exact same outcropping of rocks to find a geocache!!  Then a few months ago as I was out geocaching again along this road to find the missed caches and get the new ones my GPS again brought me to this same outcropping of rocks.  I looked where I had found the previous cache -nada!!  Then read the logs and saw that it had gone MIA and that a brand new one had been placed here in a different spot!!  So I had to make the find for the second one too!

Now here I am yet again here for a "letterbox' Hmmm.  I followed the directions which led me directly to the hidden 'Letterbox'!  Can you believe it!!  There is, also, a geocache curently hidden in this outcropping of rocks too!  I wonder if the geocachers know about the 'Letterbox' and if the 'Letterboxers' know about the geocache!!  LOL




My siggy stamped in the 'Letterbox' logbook and the 'Letterbox' stamped in my logbook

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#4: Al's Box



Al's Box stamp



Next I headed out to the 'Hopland Cemetery'  where the next 'Letterbox' directions led me!!  And guess what?  Yes, there is a geocache here too - found it last year!!


Followed the directions which, again, led me right to the 'Letterbox'!!  Am doing much better today at actually reading and following the directions!!  Even on using the compass!!  LOL

Al's unique headstone and the 'Letterbox' atop it

After finding the 'Letterbox'which was completely saturated inside -- I laid the contents out in the sun to dry a bit and noticed a little observer nearby!!  He was pretty persistent wanting to check out what was in the 'Letterbox' too!!  Guess he wanted to see what had been living nearby his little haunt!

 I dried out the box and its contents as best as I could, the logbook was pretty damp on the outside, but inside OK!!  Put all backin the dried box and plan to send an email off to the owner about the situation!!

Two  for two -- I am so on a roll!!!

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#5: Alien Avoidance

Alien Avoidance Stamp



letterbox in hiding - the can with it in it was up in the tube

 Next I headed out to the next listed 'Letterbox' out a ways on Highway 175 a few miles outside of Hopland.  Again!!  Another spot where there used to be a geocache, now deactivated!!!

The personwho created all of the 'Letterboxes' that I have found so far is very creative in his stories/decriptions/instructions!!!  This one is all about alien encounters!!!  Thus the boxname 'Alien Avoidance'.  Found quickly by following the instructions closely!!  Everything was nice and dry in this one!!



I am so stoked and on a roll!!  Three for three!!

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Geocache # 390, #391, #392 & #394

Second love - geocaching!!!

Took a break as the last 'Letterbox' was in town very close to where I was headed for the evening -- or so the instructions stated!! 

I still had some time to kill so I headed out Mountain House Rd to catch the 4 fairly new geocaches not far out that way!!

All very easy caches either hanging in trees or near posts/trees hidden on the ground and not far from the road near turnouts!!  Found all 4 within an hour. 

BTW when I was at the Dam yesterday I looked for a geocache that was very near where I found the 'Manzanita Blossum Letterbox' but it looked like it was MIA as all I foud was a mutilated logbook near Ground Zero!!

Broke my stride with 'Letterbox' 4 for the day!!  I parked at SIP and grabbed my bag and walked the block to where the directions told me to go!!  I did get a little confused as to exactly where the planter was directing you to go at the end.  I looked around for a while, got a few questionable looks and decided to head on over to my 3rd love!!

Yep!!!  It was 'Thirsty Thursday' and tonight they were tasting different Sauvignon Blancs!!  Had a blast!!  Too bad I had to go alone tonight!!  But everyone else had other plans!!  Maybe next month for the Red, White and BBQ wines!!!

I emailed the owner of the 'Letterbox'that I was unableto find, he gave me a few hints, but coudn't be sure that the 'Letterbox'was still there and would check on it within the next few days!!

All in all a nice day!!!  At least, my legs didn't ache after this bout of 'Letterboxing'  Guess for the first day I picked a couple of far off the beaten path 'Letterboxes'!!!

Happy Geocaching and Letterboxing!! 

Wine improves with age. The older I get, the better I like it.



Letterboxing!! My newest addiction!! (I can do it along with geocaching)

For what ever reason I was unable to post these on the day that I found them due to what I think was site maintenance!!  Although this site was unavailable for almost 2 days ---- hmmmm. . . . . .

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OK, so your trying to figure out what Letterboxing is?!!

Well, it's a lot like geocaching, but no GPS and no tradables. As in geocaching you find a hidden 'box' in this case they call them 'letterboxes'. Instead of using hints and GPS co-ords. You go directly from the planters directions, which I have found to be very informative. But still had to do some looking -- so it can be a bit of a challenge too!!

Letterbox items



My Angel Siggy Stamp!

Now when you find a geocache you sign the log and if its big enough you trade some tradable items. In 'Letterboxing' you pick out a signature stamp ie as in a rubber stamp, (looks like a lot of the people make their own) I used an angel stamp that I have used in the past as a siggy stamp,---> and then you stamp the log book in the 'Letterbox' with your signature stamp and date it!!

<-----The 'Letterbox' will contain a logbook for the 'box' and a custom made stamp representing that 'Letterbox' for you to stamp into your own logbook - See the coyote for the 'Coyote Overlook Letterbox' decribed below!! How cool is that?!

So Wednesday I went out looking for 3 local 'Letterboxes' at Lake Mendocino Dam. Found 2 of them, I think I needed to go a little further down the trail for the last one -- I guess that will be a trek for another day!!

So. . . what did I find? The 'Letterboxes' actually looked a lot like geocaches . . . . LOL

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#1: Coyote Overlook - found at Lake Mendocino Dam

a view of the Lake from atop the dam

I must say I looked and looked for this one, guess if I had better knowledge, or at least used the knowledge I do have of how to use a compass, I would have found it sooner. But I did finally make the find!! So here's what I found:

The picture above is this actual 'Letterbox' and it's contents. 

Logbook with my siggy stamp!

'Letterbox' in hiding!!

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#2: Manzanita Blossum

Manzanita Blossum stamp!!

So I finished crossing the dam and followed the directions to the second 'Letterbox' which I did not find :( -- but did notice that I might have tried to look for it a little too soon, so will have to go back another day and try to find it as this was quite a trek for me and I am sooooo out of shape, my legs were a-hurting when I got home!!!  Had me a nice long soak in the bathtub with the jets running on the aching muscles!!



The correct Manzanita Blossum



So for the next 'Letterbox' that I did find - I continued to follow the trail and instructions -- here's where it's important to follow the instructions!!  I took a quick look at them and pocketed them, then headed up the hill and towards what I thought the instructions had said.  Wondered around for quite awhile in the manzanita brus, going from one large manzanita tree to the next.  Finally decided to headback to the top of the trail and pull out the instructions again.  Low and behold when I followed the directions I was led directly to the correct spot and found the 'Letterbox' right away!!! 





Letterbox in hiding!



Signed logbook!

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Heading to Hopland tomorrow evening for 'Thirsty Thursday'  I think I need to head over early and catch the four 'Letterboxes' that I found listed there!!

Happy 'Letterboxing' and 'Geocaching'!!!!!