highlysung's letterboxing discoveries

Happy Day!

2006-02-22T20:08:00.000-05:00

In the past few weeks, I have received news of all of our planted boxes. All are in good shape with recent finders. What a wonderful blessing! Today I received word from a brand new letterboxer that our Hadley Mountain Fire Tower Letterbox is in good shape - all the way at the top of Hadley Mountain! That's a serious hike for a first letterbox! I was even happier to hear that the logbook is full - the box must have had many more visitors than have contacted me!

My poor four box series "Two-Faced" is waiting patiently in my pack to be planted. I have been so excited to have this series completed - I'm so happy with the carvings. If only I could get away for an afternoon to plant them. It is very hard when the baby is sleeping every afternoon!

The Blog is Back!

2005-06-02T16:44:00.000-04:00

I think I almost forgot that I had this blog! Well, I'm back, and it is good to be back.

The most recent exciting boxing news is that our Great Hitchhiker Race Participant, WWI Flying Ace flew in for a landing on May 13 at the South Mountain Hitchhiker Hostel in Allentown, PA to steal first place away from Lance Armstrong! Poor Lance had been languishing a short hike away in the mystery box Fibonacci Treegonometree. Wanda and Pete helped little Snoopy steer a clear course from Rhode Island. Thanks, Wanda and Pete! It was a close race, since Lance legged it up the mountain only a short 12 days later with Wisconsin Hiker and Martini Man! Snoopy and Lance will now travel together in the Victory Lap PLB, which Lightnin' Bug is preparing. I carved a bonus for the PLB - Snoopy's Happy Dance HH will be released into the wild after he makes his rounds on the Victory Lap.

Since it has been harder to get out on long trips to box (and I've already found the close boxes), I've turned my attention to planting. This weekend I'll be planting a 4-box series called Two-Faced. Our hitchhiker, Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged, has begun his long arduous journey to insult the universe, we wish him well, and pity those who find him. Other plants to come soon: Putting it Together, a three box series homage to Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George; a limited availability mystery box, also Sondheim related; a three box Celtic series in Hibernia Park, PA; and some other goodies!

Whole lotta boxin' goin' on! Part 2

2004-11-12T13:28:00.000-05:00

Eek! My computer crashed while blogging two days in a row. I'll continue the saga of recent boxing events . . .

Soon after hearing about WWI Flying Ace, I began work on the stamp for our Steely Dan box for the Battle of the Bands Series in Tyler State Park in PA. I was a little nervous about it, because I chose a funky photograph of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen to use as my stamp image. I was also using a new (for me) carving material - Mastercarve. They are right - it cuts like butter! Well, it only took an hour and a half, and I was thrilled with the result! It really is possible to take a photo and turn it into a stamp! Here's what I did: I started with a black and white photo and worked on it in PaintShop Pro. I drastically heightened the contrast until the image looked carvable, but still retained details of the original photo. I made some other small adjustments (but I can't remember exactly what they were.) I printed the photo and then made a photocopy of it. Then I simply ironed the image onto the carving material, transferring all the fine details. Lastly, I carved away everything but the black areas. It was surprisingly easy to end up with really nice fine detail in the final stamp image!

This past Saturday, Caite (Gwenllian) and I headed up to meet with other boxers for Plantapalooza. We enjoyed meeting Janila and Barney of Team Little Dog, and Mizscarlet's husband, Buckaroo Bonzai, and children, Nevermore and No. 6. It was great to see Mizscarlet and Raindears again and of course, our organizer, Irene and Dude from Hikers & Hounds. Tyler SP is really beautiful, and with all the great stamps that were just planted, it should become a real letterboxing mecca! At the end of the day, we ended up with 15 boxes planted so far and a few more still to come soon. My favorite part of the day was meeting up after planting to enjoy dinner together at Isaac Newton's Pub in Newtown. Since Eric had to miss the day of boxing fun, I took a growler home for him filled with Left Hand ESB, the favorite brew of the boxers at dinner. After dinner, we had a fun time sneaking around the back of the parking lot to plant Mizscarlet's fun box called Specific Gravity (get it?). Very cute!

Whew! There's a lot of updating to do - including Awaiting Baby and the Boxes Planted and Found pages!

Whole lotta boxin' goin' on!

2004-11-10T17:26:00.000-05:00

Well, relatively speaking! It has been a great month of letterboxing - and I really should have blogged sooner!

The first fun event was Bev's 2nd Annual SJ Letterboxing Gathering at Palmyra Cove on October 16th. Caite and I had such a fun day. We enjoyed meeting many other letterboxers. I loved hanging out with other boxers and exchanging while Caite hit the trail with NJ Carole and her son LuckyWolf and his friend Stamp Nazi. We also had a really nice time at Bev's carving class. Later, I planted the fruits of my labor as a Limited Edition Bonus Box for Saddler's Legacy - it will be available until Thanksgiving.

In late October, we received word from Starfish of Seattle that our Great Hitchhiker Race participant, WWI Flying Ace, had been found in Oregon! He had been moved there in early October by the Teachers who picked him up from his starting point at Schmitz Creek Park Letterbox in Seattle. Starfish reports that our lovable beagle will be travelling with them to Rhode Island for Thanksgiving. After enjoying his traditional dinner of toast and popcorn, he'll find a new temporary home and hopefully will start to fly south very soon! Soon after, we heard that Bon Jovi was on tour in North Carolina! The competition is heating up! Go, SNOOPY!

Saddler's Legacy is planted!

2004-10-07T01:45:00.000-04:00

It's done! Beyond that, I even managed a trip to Trader Joe's, Walmart, and the music store, and I still got the clues posted! I feel like Superwoman today! Oh, I forgot, I also did laundry!

Well, it's not beautiful - but the new box is posted. I have to figure out how Fleur de Lis managed to put those nifty bookmarks in to keep some of her boxes on one page. Welp, no matter how primitive, the box and clues are there now. Who will be the first finder of Saddler's Legacy?

looks like a perfect day for planting!

2004-10-06T11:50:00.000-04:00

Well, you know, if you put something out there for others to see, you end up committed to finally actually doing it! Here goes: my plan for the afternoon is to take the new box, Saddler's Legacy, and plant it. I mean, really, it's only been sitting, totally ready to go, for more than a month now, it's less than a 5 minute walk from my house, the weather is perfect - there's just no excuse for not getting it out there today! I only hope I can be as ambitious with getting the clues posted tonight! That's my plan - I'll check back to let you know whether it got done!

October - an active month for letterboxing!

2004-10-05T23:01:00.000-04:00

Wow - it has been busy lately, but I'm really looking forward to all the letterboxing in store for this month! Gwenllian and I headed out to find B & E's boxes in the Armentrout Preserve in Ambler, PA on Saturday. We had a wonderful morning, finding three boxes along with a bonus box and a hitchhiker!

A few weeks ago, we sent out our hopeful racer in the Great Hitchhiker Race. The WWI Flying Ace has been waiting for a ride at the Schmitz Park Creek Letterbox in Seattle since he was planted there by Amanda from Seattle on September 19, 2004. Eight other racers are raring to go in Seattle, too. The goal is for them to find rides home to the South Mountain Hitchhiker Hostel in Allentown, PA. We hope Snoopy will fly home fast!

I've just ordered a bunch of Mastercarve and can't wait for its arrival! I've got my stamp image all ready for my Steely Dan box for the Plantapalooza in November. This was originally called the Battle of the Bands, organized by Hikers and Hounds. There will be a ton of boxes planted in Tyler State Park in PA - all tributes to great bands. Caite is doing a Groovelily box to commemorate her favorite band. I'm wracking my brains, trying to figure out how to make some really cool clues using Steely Dan lyrics for my box!

Coming up really soon is the 2nd Annual South Jersey Letterboxing Gathering, hosted by letterboxingbee! October 16 is the date, and I can't wait to see everyone again and meet plenty of new people, too!

2004-08-25T12:45:00.000-04:00

Team SuddenTurkey letterboxing at Tenant Creek Falls, NY. From left to right: iplaytunes, Gwenllian, highlysung and Lunabar (my mom, letterboxing for the first time!)

2004-08-25T12:44:00.000-04:00

Sinclair Point, NY. Can you imagine beach full of these?

back to the real world!

2004-08-25T12:22:00.000-04:00

Well, it's good to be back. We had a wonderful vacation, even though the weather wasn't stellar, it was just good enough to let us do everything we wanted to do. On our last day at the lake, the sun broke out and it was perfect for laying on the beach, getting sweaty playing tennis and then jumping in the lake again! The rain held out long enough for us to have a very relaxing 3-hour campfire before the heavens opened and didn't stop until we reached NJ the next day!

Letterboxing was great - we had a wonderful group hike to Tenant Creek Falls with friends, where we introduced a bunch of newbies to letterboxing. Everyone was very excited when mom and I emerged from the hiding spot with the box. Later in the week, we went to Sinclair Point on the Great Sacandaga Lake. That was an interesting box to find. There were literally thousands of spiders on the beach there! They had the smartest camouflage, so you couldn't see them until they moved! I'll be posting a picture of one of the little beauties soon to gross you all out.

The big news is that we planted our first letterbox! After a pretty strenous hike (for me!), we made it to the summit of Hadley Mountain to plant the Hadley Mountain Fire Tower Letterbox. Luckily, it was a beautiful day, so we had incredible views of the Great Sacandaga Lake and many nearby and faraway mountains. Eric designed an excellent stamp, and I carved it in the morning before we set out. We're so pleased with the way the stamp came out. I have to say it was really exciting to leave a little something of ourselves on the top of a mountain for others to find. I can't wait to hear from a finder! I hope they won't be daunted by the climb - it's totally worth it!

We're headed for the North Country!

2004-08-13T12:34:00.000-04:00

I'm saying goodbye for a week, as we head up to the Great Sacandaga Lake for our vacation. We're looking forward to doing a lot of nice hiking and relaxing around the lake. We're also planning to head up to Montreal for a day. Hopefully, we'll be picking up letterboxes along the way - we also plan to plant a box on Hadley Mountain. See you when I return!

back to the carving board!

2004-08-10T21:28:00.000-04:00

Well, now the ideas have come and I am back to carving furiously! Our "Great Hitchhiker Race" participant will be the WWI Flying Ace (as in Snoopy's Sopwith Camel!) We're also planning to plant a box on Hadley Mountain (NY) next week when we hike to the top - I'm working on a carved depiction of the fire tower at the summit - we'll see if my carving skills are up to the task! If I have success, I'll feel a lot better about the Steely Dan stamp I'm hoping to start carving soon for Hikers & Hounds "Battle of the Bands" series. I'm hoping to do a carved portrait of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen!

Gwenllian is planning to plant a mystery box in Texas when she visits her grandparents at the end of the month. She's got a great location picked out, and Nana is excited to go letterboxing for her first time. Silver Eagle pointed us to a nice list of boxes she should try for. I love the way letterboxers help each other out!

The Watcher has been seen!

2004-08-09T23:41:00.000-04:00

Today, we finally found the time to go and find The Watcher! We had a great walk to a really nice spot and were the first finders. Fleur de Lis really planted a terrific box with this one. It was a perfectly beautiful day for it, too! Thanks, Fleur, for a wonderful afternoon outing!

Our long dry spell ended on Saturday, when Gwenllian and I snagged eight boxes - the most in one day for us! We took a short trip between a meeting and a party to pick up both boxes in Graeme Park in Horsham, PA. Later on, after the party, we went to Doylestown to do the Who Is the Author series. My sister-in-law came along and enjoyed her introduction to letterboxing. She plans to come out with us again. Wednesday Bowler and Celtic Cat planted a wonderful series with very nice stamps and great hiding places. Considering it was in the mid-seventies and completely beautiful outside, I would say we had a perfect day!

I'm in letterboxing withdrawal!

2004-08-03T11:03:00.000-04:00

It has been so busy that we haven't gone to look for any letterboxes recently. We keep trying to schedule a time to get over to pick up The Watcher (we know where it is, we just have to get there.) Eric's schedule is mired up with his show right now (Miss Saigon), so our evenings have been impossible.

I've been doing some planning for our Great Hitchhiker Race participant - I think we'll have our theme chosen by the end of the day! I'm also getting excited about our upcoming vacation to the Southern Adirondacks! I'm making up a book to keep LB clues in and we'll hopefully plant our own box up there as well. We'll be staying on the Great Sacandaga Lake. We may also buzz up to Montreal for a day - I know there are a few letterboxes there!

land of 10,000 letterboxes

2004-07-30T22:35:00.000-04:00

Wow! I was just reading on the letterbox-usa talk list that sometime this afternoon the 10,000th letterbox was placed in the LBNA database! Silent Doug noted that in November of 2002 there were only 2,500 listed. Letterboxing seems to be growing at an amazing rate! I saw that Wanda (famous letterboxer) reached her 5,000th find this past week. Gee - I wish I had time to find 50!

We have to help a friend out in the morning - hopefully we can get that out of the way pretty early. If so, we might take a ride to finally pick up The Watcher. We know where it is, but with all the rain lately, we just haven't been able to find the time to get there!

Here's a silly note: as I was spell-checking this post, spell-checker really wanted to replace the word "letterboxer" with the word "litterbug"! After seeing recent posts about the way some letterboxes have been found lately, I found this pretty amusing!

Welcome to my blog!

2004-07-30T12:24:00.000-04:00

We stumbled onto letterboxing in an interesting way. (To learn about letterboxing, click the link in the sidebar for the LBNA Website.) In November 2003, Eric, and I spent a weekend hiking in the Catskills. We had a fantastic hike to Kaaterskill Falls and when we got home, wanting to find more information about the local lore of this neat site, we started searching on the Web. One of the most interesting links we stumbled upon was the clue page for the Kaaterskill Falls letterbox.

We were so excited to see that we had been only feet away from a hidden treasure! We found out more about letterboxing and determined that after the holidays and when weather became a little less cold, we would give it a try.

Strangely enough, in February 2004, I was browsing my local bookstore and came across a new book on letterboxing "The Letterboxer's Companion", by Randy Hall, so I picked it up and we immediately started preparing for our first search. We set out on Valentine's Day and found our first box - a mystery box!

As a special treat, we returned to Kaaterskill Falls in April to get what we did not leave with last time!

Since February, we have become letterboxing addicts - always coming up with new ideas for letterboxes. Of course, we've been a little slow turning our fun ideas into actual planted boxes, but we'll get in gear soon! We are planning to plant our first box within the next week or so, the stamp is carved but not yet mounted, the logbook is still undecorated, and the exact location and clues are still unset, but we will plant!

We sent out a lovely little hitchhiker, Fortune Cookie, in April. This HH was inspired by the chinese dinner we shared on the evening of our first find. Hopefully, we'll hear about its travels someday!

Our letterboxing activities slowed considerably during the months of May and June, as I was going through first trimester zombie syndrome. That's right, we're expecting our second child on Christmas Day! Our daughter is 14 now, and it's been so long since I was pregnant that it feels like the first time! After complaining to my mom that I didn't remember being SO TIRED with my first pregnancy, she reminded me that I'm "much older now" !!! That's just what I needed! I'm not really that old - only 34, so I can't really complain. Happily, my energy returned in full force by the beginning of July and we are speeding along again! I'll be posting thoughts as we await the birth in the "awaiting baby" link.

We were so lucky to get to attend the Washington Crossing Gathering on July 10, and get to meet so many creative and fun fellow boxers. I'm really looking forward to more gatherings, and am so excited about the creativity in this Mid-Atlantic region of letterboxing. Lightnin' Bug has a Great Hitchhiker Race in the works (we haven't yet figured out what our racer will be, maybe "The Heart of Gold" from the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"), and Irene of Hikers and Hounds has just suggested a great series tentatively called "Battle of the Bands." Now I've got to figure out how to pay tribute to my favorite band, Steely Dan, in stamp form - an excellent challenge!

Other letterbox ideas in the works -

"Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged" who may travel the letterboxing universe distributing or collecting insults.

Some sort of series based on the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Caite is working on a series based on a fractal, perhaps Sierpinski's Triangle.