REHIDE THE DAMN BOXES

I went letterboxing in upstate New York this weekend past with Tamsyn. We did Sahalie's Cranial Pursuit series in Oakwood Cemetery in Troy. Great series! And of course I was happy to be roaming around in an interesting old cemetery on a dreary day. Somehow cemeteries are more fun on dark and gloomy days. Yes, cemeteries are fun. And I'd like to think the residents appreciate the visitors that appear from time to time to punctuate their lonely hours with some lively talk and laughter.

After lunch at Dinosaur BBQ in Troy we went to the Dwaas Kill Nature Preserve in Clifton Park to do a lovely series named after the park. It consisted of five wonderfully carved images that you put together to form one image. Though this is a nature preserve, you can tell from the garbage that has been dumped that people obviously come there for reasons other than hiking.

The second box location was about twenty-five feet from an abandoned car and right beside the trail. I thought it was a bad choice for a location since other garbage lying around meant that people obviously hung around there. That being said, it was missing. But we found the third box completely exposed so it's not hard to see why number two went missing. We were especially disappointed since this meant that part of the whole image was not going to be there.

Granted that it was a poor choice for the hiding place, but it didn't help that whoever was there last obviously wasn't that concerned with making sure all the boxes were well hidden.

Like the title of this post says, REHIDE THE DAMN BOXES.

Perky Perkasie

Although you might not think so from this photo I had a really fun time last Saturday boxing in and around Perkasie, Pennsylvania with Lightinbug, Pink, Sheba, and Lightinbug's son Thomas.





We found a really nice series that was a tribute to the planter's great grandmother, Walking With Great Rose. If you're ever in that area you should do this one. It's a lovely series with a lovely and loving thought behind it.

As It Turned Out

I didn't make it to Connecticut until today and rather than a burger at Five Guys I went to another great local eatery that I found on my still favorite site, Roadfood.com. I have just fallen in love with this site. So many times when letterboxing I am in an area that I have never been to before and I hate to eat at places like Arbys. Bleh. This great site has pointed me to some really outstanding local favorites. Today I went to the Olive Market in Redding, about three miles from where I was hiking in Devils Den Preserve. I had their special chivito sandwich. This is a Uruguayan style "Dagwood" of thin-sliced filet mignon with ham, bacon, a fried egg, lettuce, tomato, and melted provolone cheese all piled into a focaccia bread and toothpicked together with an olive on top. It was very yummy.

I had a really nice hike inside the preserve and snagged some tasty boxes. The trail was an easy one and the boxes were far enough apart that I was able to maintain a nice brisk pace and a healthy hike between boxes with no huge rocks to scramble over or streams to ford that can break up the pace. I had been there on March 5 and only gotten one of the boxes. There was still so much frozen snow and deep soft snow that I was not having a good time and had to go too slow. Today I found the rest of the series with no problems.

Sunny, windy and mild. Good day.

Spring Has Sprung. Sort Of.

Though the snow and cold temperatures seem to keep trying to hold on, I did see some little green things sprouting up in the mud at Blue Mountain Reservation this week, along with a few remaining areas of snow in shady spots at the side of the trail. The weather was chilly but sunny and it was good to be there with mud instead of snow. While hiking the trails in February for Winter Blahs 2011, we were sliding and slipping on frozen snow and it was COLD.

All our snow is gone but folks in some parts of New Jersey still seem to be making much use of their snow shovels.

I hiked my middle-aged rear end off near Shelton, Connecticut recently and managed to get a few boxes in between getting just a tad lost and a lot tired. But it was a good day for hauling the aforementioned rear over some huge rocks. And I and my rear were proud of ourselves for doing so with great enthusiasm if little dignity.

I'm hitting the trail near Weston, Connecticut tomorrow and some tasty boxes, followed with a tasty burger from Five Guys. I seem to have become addicted to hitting them for a juicy burger each time I go to Connecticut. I know they're in other places but I saw them there first so have come to think of them as my 'Boxing In Connecticut Burger".

Hummmmm......Burger In A Box......sounds like a good name for a little hidden treasure.