Arizona

DAY 1:
Tuesday, 3:30am and my phone is ringing. It seems that America West is letting me know that the flight I am scheduled to take at 7:45 has been delayed until 10:15. While that is NOT what I consider a good start to a boxing expedition, I suppose it is better than sitting at the airport for the extra time. Anyway, I only noted that since it was going to screw with the timing. I had plotted this trip out in excruciating detail, mapping driving routes and giving “search windows” for each box, so starting late would definitely cause for some reorganization on the fly. Now, fast forward to Phoenix.

The first box I went to look for was ‘The Lone Mountain’ in Scottsdale. It is a nice, simple, five minute walk. However, there does not seem to be a box here. 0/1, not a good omen.

I then drove a few miles to the Cave Creek Recreation Area to look for the four ‘Southwestern Skies’. Don’t tell anyone but I did not pay since I didn’t have change for the envelope. This is a really nice hike that I recommend for anyone heading out that direction. It took about 1.5 hours including stamping time, taking lots of pictures, and wasting 15 minutes looking for #2 in the wrong place (reading the clues more closely helps). There are lots of cacti, plus tons of blooming purple, orange, yellow, and pink flowers, sunny, 80 degrees. Remember that 80 comment. Plus I feel better now, 4/5 now.

Next on the agenda is to drive north. I am hiking down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon Wednesday. There is a bunkhouse down there where I was lucky enough to get a last minute cancellation, meaning I did not have to try a day hike down and back. Normally the place is booked up 18 months in advance (or more). On the way I am going to hit a couple of spots on I-17 and the I-40 since I don’t need to start the canyon hike until around noon. The first stop on 17 was for ‘Agua Fria’ and I will admit this is the first one that was a pain for me. The clues say something along the lines of “go to the mesquite tree exactly north, on the western slope of the ridge”. Well from where I am looking, there are about 20 trees in the generally north direction on the western edge. I admit I simply played “look for a letterboxing hidey hole” on this one and got lucky. 5/6

I then got back on 17 and went on towards Flagstaff. This is where my first change in the schedule will happen since I planned to be there about 4:30 pm but it is nearly dark when I arrive to look for Fort Tuthill. It is dark, cold (high 30s), and there is snow on the ground. So in three hours I went up about 5000 feet and down about 50 degrees!!! But since reading about the adventures of BoxDN, I wasn’t going to let a little darkness stop me. I just got out my light and trudged through the snow. I must admit, it is MUCH harder to follow/notice reference points when you can’t see anything. Plus I was supposed to find the “two foot stump next to the fence” and of course, there is more than one of those (once I finally gave up on the first one and kept hiking). So I don’t know that I will recommend unplanned night hunting regularly, I think everyone should try it once or twice. 6/7

Since I had such luck with this night hunt I decided to push my luck and try for one more on my way to Williams, where I planned to stay for the night. I went after the ‘Historic Route 66’ box near Bellemont but DEFINITELY fell victim of not being able to see very well on this one. The clues say to find the ‘Second Route 66 Auto Route Tour information sign’ and when I found it, I went through the fence as it said and started walking along the dirt road into the desert night looking for a culvert. Well after about 30 minutes I decided I was either lost or blind so decided to give up and go find someplace to sleep. 6/8

So I went on to Williams, which was almost the adventure of a lifetime; it seems that it is a very popular Spring Break location and there are literally no rooms in town. I spent an hour driving door to door before finding a hole in the wall place that had a vacancy. It was actually not a horrible place, but definitely a lower quality than most people stay in. Thank goodness I only needed it to sleep, because that is all there was room for.

DAY 2:
OK, I am excited. I am going to the Grand Canyon today. For this day only, boxing is a side note; not completely forgotten, just not the goal for the day. When I walk out of the motel room, there is fresh powder on my car. I knew this was high desert but never imagined it was this much different than the “regular” desert. Anyway, after a lovely Egg McMuffin I head west to Seligman instead of north to the canyon. In Seligman I snag two boxes hidden at the same place; ‘Here it is’ and ‘Route 66 Series: Delgadillo’s Sno-Cap’. They are located at an… interesting… touristy type place. If you are ever there you will understand what I mean about “interesting”. 8/10

I am still a little ahead of schedule so I decided that I am going back for the one that “defeated” me last night. I drove back on I-40 and followed the clues again and low and behold, it turns out I was at sign number 3, not 2 last night. It is a good thing I didn’t keep walking through the desert looking for it. Once I found the correct starting place it was easy to find, after trudging through the thick mud of the melting snow. 9/10 now.

The Grand Canyon. This place is beyond words. I have over 400 pictures to support this claim. I bought a fancy new digital camera before going and definitely got my money’s worth. I started down at exactly noon on the North Kaibab trail and got to the bottom at 4:00. The only problem with all this is that I hurt my knee the week before and can hardly walk so it is not at all happy with me at the moment. Not that I would let it stop me from hiking, of course. One of these days I need to get it looked at to see if I have a torn ligament or something like that. Anyway, I then went to the Phantom Ranch and looked for ‘The Phantom’, which is hidden down there. Unfortunately, the grass was very trampled there, the rocks are all scattered and the location was obviously not so secret anymore. Since this is a National Park I am guessing the rangers removed it. However, after this hike I don’t even care about the box not being there. After a meal I was in bed early. 9/11

DAY 3:
I was up before dawn, and hiking up the Bright Angel trail by 6:00 am. Let me just summarize by saying there is nothing like hiking uphill for six straight hours… I was really dragging that last mile. If anyone reading this ever considers staying at the bottom I recommend staying down there a day or two; there are a number of day hikes at the bottom worth doing plus that gives you time to recover before heading back out, which I probably could have used.

On the road again, and the only oddity is the red, rocky, barren desert with snow covered mountains close by. Something about that just doesn’t seem right. The next target is ‘Bonita Lava Flow’ and admittedly this is a simple hike, but you can’t go up to the top of the crater (how disappointing). It is an interesting area though since you don’t really expect lava flows in Arizona. 10/12

In the desire to manage my time the best, I decided to drive down toward Sedona and grab as many boxes as I could today then pick up the rest tomorrow. I first looked for Bassariscus astutus, for which the clue was a picture of a road sign but I did a little research before had so learned where I thought it was and it turns out I was correct. I actually liked this location as a hiding spot. 11/13

Next on the hit list is ‘Southwestern Duo’. I get out to the first location but it seems to be missing. I poked around a while to make sure but just had no luck. There is also a second one but it is about 2 miles each way from the first spot but unfortunately it is starting to get dark and I left my light in the car so decided to bail on this one and head back to Flagstaff for the night. I really wanted one/both of these because they were placed by Amanda from Seattle, and I liked the idea of finding a “famous person’s” box. 11/14

DAY 4:
Today I am actually going to look for some “Reported Missing” boxes on the way south today, since I will be near them anyway and heck, I am on vacation!!! First off is the one I skipped in Flagstaff, ‘Texas Tourist II’, which was a simple driveby other than the lady giving me the eye while drinking coffee on her porch. 12/15

Now, back down to Sedona where I verified that ‘Bell Rock’ is MIA and looked for ‘Mirastar Sedona’ but never found the actual spot. The clues involved finding the right tree and the right rock, then the right tree and the right rock, all in an area with lots of trees and rocks. It seems that all boxes in Red Rocks Park are missing so I wonder if there is something to that… Since I looked for them I guess I need to count them as “not founds” 12/17

I then drove on to recently rediscovered ‘Page Springs Fish Hatchery’ and logged it what turned out to be #50 for me, though I didn’t know that until I got home a few days later and counted them up. I knew I would get it on this trip, just not which one specifically. 13/18

Next up was ‘Who Lived Here?’ in Chino Valley, which is on top of a hill at some native ruins. It was a really cool place though it took me a little while to find the correct “old bush next to the base”. It is obvious why they lived up here as you can see for miles in every direction over the valley. 14/19

It is time to head on to Prescott and look for two boxes at Lake Watson. There is an amazing amount of waterfowl in this relatively small lake and it is a very beautiful area. I found ‘Granite Dells’ pretty easily and went on to ‘Lake Watson View’ but never did find the “E” on the rock the clues referenced. However, I did notice a piece of tupperware sticking out from behind a rock as I looked around for it. Even when I backtracked, I never did find that silly “E”… I also grabbed ‘The Acorn’ on my way out of town and back to Phoenix. 17/22

DAY 5:
I got up nice and early to drive up and look for the three ‘Lake Pleasant Boxes’. These provided their own interesting side notes. The first one was at the marina and being the only person wandering around without a boat did kind of make me stand out. Plus there were two guys fishing in a small boat about 50 feet from the box who kept watching me. I think I took enough fake pictures to cover things up though. I then went on the second box and it starts at a campground spot. Well, of course, SOMEONE WAS CAMPING THERE AND WAS STILL ASLEEP SINCE IT WAS ABOUT 6:30 AM!!!. I had to play super, sneaking, wandering along the lake tourist to get to the spot and then still had to avoid the folks who were awake. This is not a good location at all and I would be surprised if it lasts too long. This is also supported by the fact that a whole lot of folks have stumbled across it and written in the log book. When I went for number 3 I was unable to find it but did find a hidden plastic easter egg in that same spot so I assume that went missing the weekend before when someone was having a picnic at the lake. Nonetheless, cacti on the hills surrounding a lake is simply pretty, and odd, or maybe just pretty odd. 19/25

Next up was ‘White Tank’ on the west side of Phoenix. I will be honest with this one and say I don’t have a great memory of the area. I decided to put on my headphones while I walked this one and pretty much tuned out the world apparently. Luckily it was a pretty simple hike. I also know I messed up stamping this one in my book and the middle half is missing. Oh well, it happens sometimes. 20/26

Now for a real change of pace; off to Tempe and Arizona State University. When I get here, there seems to be an art festival going on all over town so streets are closed, booths are up and people are everywhere. I was a little concerned about hunting until I got started and realized that it was mostly off campus. . I started by going for the four ‘ASU Memories’ boxes. The first box in the series was a challenge because once I finally found the right spot there was some guy just sitting behind/above me, about 5 feet away, and he just sat there. I couldn’t really keep turning around and checking to see if he left so I did one of those sly “lean down and subtly grab something” moves then “opened my backpack to get something out”. All I know is at some point before I was done he left. The next three are on the campus proper so down the hill I go. I must say I have always enjoyed walking on campuses and this one is fabulous in the spring with EVERYTHING blooming. There are colors on top of colors beside other colors here. I also thought the second box was hidden in an interesting fashion and will remember that whenever I get around to planting some. Let me say that I looked directly at it and still didn’t see it until I went back the second time. And it isn’t like there was some other place to put it. That was obviously it, just well camouflaged. The third one was also a challenge since the area where it was hidden seems to have been closed in preparation for some sort of banquet. Not that I let that stop me of course. I just wandered in, camera in hand, and made up some lame story about just aimlessly wandering around the campus and I wanted to take a couple of pictures before leaving, sorry to intrude, all that stuff. Well needless to say I was stamping in under a few sets of narrowed eyes but I think I was sneaky, considering the situation. Again, I had to do that “get something from the backpack” routine. But heck, I needed a snack anyway. I then went off for #4 and thankfully it was uneventful. Of course, there was a second box, ‘Sun Devil Letterbox 1’ as well and this was one of the kind that had me walking in circles all kinds of different directions. Go one way, back track another, go way left, come back halfway right, I will say I got to see a lot of the campus for sure. And of course, when I finally get to “the spot” I again have someone sitting on a bench about 5 feet away. He is reading and obviously not going anywhere soon. I “tied my shoe”, left, then “dropped something” as I was leaving. These were the only boxes that really screwed up my fancy schedule; they definitely took longer than I had expected them to but that is ok, it was a nice day. 25/31

Finally, off to chase down the last two on the list; ‘Superstition Wilderness Letterboxes’. It was a heck of a way to end, as you will soon read. I got to this last desert hike and started about 5:30, giving me about 1.5 hours of daylight, which seemed like plenty of time based on my reading of the clues. Well, like I said, SEEMED to be plenty of time. I started down the trail. The clues said I should get to a trail sign after about a mile saying “Second Water” and “Black Mesa”. Well after walking about half a mile, if that, I get to a sign and I am feeling pretty good about my pace. Unfortunately, the sign says “Second Water” and “Lost Dutchman”. I decide I must have started on the wrong trail but since this is the dead-end of trail I need, I just take it anyway. After 30 minutes or so, I do arrive at the CORRECT trail sign and proceed to get the first box. Then it is decision time. I know this is my last box of the trip and there is still probably 30 minutes of light left, so I decide to go for it. I start up the trail and follow it along. To summarize this part, it was MUCH further than I guessed (new pet peeve; don’t give a distance to the first box in a set and not the second) so by the time I found the box and stamped in, I already had my light out and the sun was basically down, though with a pretty pink sunset, so I at least got a picture of that. Then I started the mad scramble down the hill, through the cacti and back to the trail. Word of advice, don’t try to navigate through cacti when it is dark. At some point I had five or six very large cactus needles jammed rather far into my fingers, and pulling them out was no picnic either!!! I am in the desert, wilderness, alone, and in the dark. I do what any smart person would do; I start singing out loud. I want to make sure all the critters know I am coming so I don’t startle any of them. I then get back to the intersection and it is time for the real adventure. The clues say “after you return the box… you can continue on the trail in the way you were heading and eventually end up back at the parking lot or you can turn back and enjoy the scenery as you continue down the west side”. So this begs the obvious question: was “continue on the trail in the direction you were going” the first trail or the second? I decided it was the first, mainly because I had already decided I had not started in the correct place and therefore it must only be about a mile back to the start, or over two in the direction I came originally. I therefore head off to take the shortcut since it is not twilight now, it is night. There is nothing more nerve wracking than following a trail at night only to stop suddenly and realize you are no longer on a trail, then backtrack and try to find it. This happened a few times, which did NOT make me happy. Anyway, I kept following the short route back but after an hour decided either 1. I was STILL on the wrong trail, 2. I was lost, 3. The clue writer has no concept of “one mile” or 4. I was an idiot who was lost in the desert and going to be eaten by a cougar. So by now, I bite the bullet and turn around to backtrack all the way to the split, then back the way I originally came. Well I finally got out of there about 9:30 pm, a good 2.5 hours after the sun went down. And the funny thing is, I STILL have no idea if I was on the correct trail and if not, where the one I was following would have taken me, and this is after I looked at some trail maps once I got home. But at least I got the boxes, and I definitely feel I earned those two. I also realized that I set a personal one day find record with 11 boxes today and a total for the trip of 27/33

There were also two mystery boxes on this grand trek that I found but won’t be more specific than that, for obvious reasons. One was hard to find only because the clues were not the easiest to follow but I did eventually find the correct spot and also saw my first and only large, brown snake while looking for this one. I don’t know what it was but 1. it was bigger than me and 2. it would not stop for me to take a picture and since it was heading my way, I decided to move. The other was cool because it is a falcon nesting area, though I didn’t see any to take picture of while there.

So, 29 boxes, 35 attempts, 1500+ miles, one snake, one big hole in the ground, one time lost in the desert, lots of beautiful scenery, many pictures and my first night box. All in all, not a bad trip.