April is Box Maintenance Month...

... so J did a little check in on one of our boxes, A Rose By Any Other Name. Given that it is in a popular park and has pretty easy clues, she was expecting the logbook to be completely full (and, in fact, several 'boxers had implied to her that it was). So she headed out with a new book... and was pleasantly surprised to see there was still quite a bit of space left in the original. It will probably need to be swapped out sometime this summer, but is fine for now. It was fun going through the logbook and seeing all the 'boxers who have found it; some were "boxing buddies" that she knew, and some were complete strangers ~ more people to (hopefully) bump into on the trail some time! The box and stamp were in great shape.

B is putting the finishing touches on the second stamp for the SpringFling mini-gathering in a few weeks. It just needs a coat of varnish on the back and we can pop it in the mail. We are really looking forward to the event... sounds like lots of folks are going to be there!

Pre-Easter letterboxing fun

After a ginourmous breakfast (B made his famous homemade potatos, pancakes, eggs, and bacon!), we decided we needed to burn some calories today! And as it was just beautiful out (not a cloud in the sky and very warm), it seemed that letterboxing would fit the bill perfectly.

We started with PennyPenny's South Lyon boxes. Boy, is she a great carver. Very detailed stamps; loved them. We found Witch's Hat Depot and South Lyon Rails To Trails; unfortunately, we had to skip South Lyon Junior League as there were a ton of people basically two feet away from where the box was hidden! We'll need to come back on a day with crappier weather, so less people will be out and about! :-)

As both of these boxes had pretty short walks (and J really likes long walks), our next stop was Horseshoe Pond in Brighton. The clues promise a 2-hour roundtrip walk. It didn't take us quite that long (about an hour), but it was a nice, long walk. The pond at the end is great. Very clear water...we spent a few minutes 'fish spotting' from the shore! J was soundly kicking herself for not bringing her camera, as it was really lovely near the pond.

Sadly, even though there were more boxes in the area, we decided to head home after these three. We will be back for PennyPenny's other box, as well as the rest of the Brighton boxes, very soon!

Buckeye in Ann Arbor

Hurray! Our first "First Find" of the year! We were very happy to find Trail Troll's Brave Little Buckeye this evening after work. We didn't expect to be FFs on it, as it was placed 5 days ago and there are quite a few boxers in the area. So... whew! :-) It was a cute little stamp. The only frustrating part of the experience was that there was a woman exercising (i.e., running up and down the hill) right where the box was. It took a lot of patience and stealth to get the Buckeye in and out, let me tell you!

Bingo update: We finally got a word this week, after a dry spell of... probably a month or so? We are currently at 21, I think.

Introducing more friends to 'boxing...

Despite the overcast day and slightly chilly weather, we hit the road at 10 am. We brought our friends Brett and Amanda along for their very first letterboxing experience! (Their temporary and hastily carved stamp is "B & A" but they will probably carve a new, more personal stamp soon.) (That is, if they liked boxing enough to go again.) (Which we certainly hope they did!)

We decided to start with some "sure fire stamps"... i.e., stamps we knew would be beautifully carved and not missing. Hmmm... who would fit that description? Doglvrs, of course! :-) We visited Turkey Day Treat and Boogie Woogie and were not disappointed. The Howell Nature Center, where TDT is located, has an animal rehabilitation center which I am sure kids would love ~ we certainly liked seeing the fox and raptors. We also had three white-tailed deer run by us as we headed towards the box. Our next stop was The Broken Key Letterbox which has a cute little story behind it. Then it was on to Flowerbox (where the frogs were almost as loud as those at TDT!) and Giant Coaster. We had a bit of a problem finding Giant Coaster, as the compass headings were a little off. We ended up rooting around for a bit, but eventually found the box. It is certainly a cool way to commemorate the history of the park. We finished up with Patriarche Park, whose stamp was beautifully carved and had a surprisingly high amount of "first time boxers" in the logbook, and The Red Cedar Box, which is on Michigan State's campus. This was a bit scary for the four of us, as we are all Wolverines! We survived... barely. :-)

We had intended to continue our trek into Holt and Lansing, but Brett and Amanda needed to get home and it was already past 4pm. We will make another trip out to Spartan country some time later this year, I am sure.