Year 2

Finds By State:


Finds By Month and Running Average:

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Lifetime Finds By State:

Lifetime Finds By Month:

Lifetime Finds By Season:

New England

Day 1:
We arrived in Boston in the early afternoon and considering the weather they have been having recently, we were concerned about being really wet for the next week. However, I had never been to Boston (Artemis had) so actually felt and acted more like a tourist than a letterboxer while here. We were staying out near Boston University so on that first afternoon we basically walked from the hotel along Beacon Street with a little weaving onto side streets to look for a couple of nearby boxes, passed Fenway Park (I am a Red Sox fan and they were in Atlanta at the time, go figure) to the Boston Commons then looped back to the Fens via walking along the Charles River and returned to the hotel. Knowing this was going to be a busy week, we actually bought a pedometer to have an idea about distance walked though today it said we went ~2000 steps, meaning OBVIOUSLY it was not working since that works out to something like a mile. Good job planning ahead to get a pedometer don't you think? Anyhow, I plotted the route on a map to learn we walked about 12 miles in reality. As for boxes, we found 3, missed 1. (Artemis Note: I had worked all night Friday night, arriving home at 6:20 A.M. to throw clothes into suitcases and go catch a plane. After about 1½ hour sleep on the plane, and almost enough time in the hotel room to wash my face, I was really up for a 12 mile walk!)

Day 2:
This was again a day of being a tourist. We walked into the Commons again and then proceeded to walk the Freedom Trail which weaves throughout Boston. There are many historical cemeteries, museums and building along the route and I really enjoyed it. I really like museums and had never been someplace that focuses on the Revolutionary time period. About 3/4 through the walk we made a spur of the moment decision to catch a ferry to look for a few mystery boxes but poor searching and bad timing got the best of us as we spent too much time looking for one which we missed due to user error and therefore did not have enough time to adequately search for the others since we had to catch the ferry back to the city. Next time I am there I know to dedicate a full day to this specific hunt, even with what I already know!!! While walking back from Bunker Hill (Artemis Note: Which was closed for construction, but we had a nice view from the locked gate) we got hit by a MAJOR deluge and were completely soaked. Luckily I had picked up a waterproof stuff sack before heading north too, to add an extra layer to the log books just in case of something like this. They did just fine, though everything else was rather wet. In all, we walked ~15 wet and dry miles (or 5000 steps according to the useless pedometer) though actually found only 1 box along the Freedom Trail, had a few we could not search for since they are only available on week days and missed 3.

Day 3:
It was time to pick up the car and leave Boston, heading to Providence, RI. We got a late start due to some "necessity shopping". We opted to get a new pedometer since the one we had still did not work, plus Artemis' water bladder seems to have sprung a leak (noticed last night). I guess that was not all sweat and rain she felt yesterday... (Artemis Note: It was raining and the wind blowing so hard, I actually thought the water running down my back was part of the ambiance of the city. It was only the next morning when I started to refill the water bladder that we found the hole.) Since we were at the store we bought Red Sox memorabilia too. We finally got started in the early afternoon and were targeting suburban parks along the route south. Another "highlight" is that I actually put on mosquito spray. They never usually bite me at all and they were driving me crazy today which tells you just how bad they were. They would bite so we would spray but it was so humid and muggy that we would sweat it off and they would be biting again in 30-45 minutes so we would spray again. This turned out to be an ongoing cycle for most of the rest of the trip. Also of note is that I can mark two interstates off my list. Mooky Dipper does highpoints; I do beginnings/ends of interstates. I used to have a job where I worked along the Canadian/Mexican borders a lot so was at mile 0 of a lot of them and started keeping track. Both I-90 and I-93 start in Boston so we drove through that first mile to make them "official". So far, I have been to 24 "ends" though still have a lot to go. And of course, they keep changing too so I have to go back (for example, I-26 USED to end in Asheville, NC but now goes all the way to Johnson City, TN). According to the new pedometer we walked 8+ miles, found 16 and missed 2. That brings us to a running total of 35 miles, 20F and 6A including my F500.

Day 4:
Today was a late start (Artemis Note: Late was 7:30 A.M. – departure time, not wake up time. I think this was the day I suggested he google the word vacation to check the meaning) and a very slow pace. Apparently the many miles from the previous days caught up with us. We spent most of the day boxing in Slater Park near Providence but quit early due to tiredness and lots of rain that started about 5pm. We did stop to look for one drive-by box in the rain at Brown University but it was freshly landscaped and missing. I also found a tick on me today. Being in Lyme disease country made me more aware of it for sure and like mosquitoes, I never have them normally either. I actually don't think I have EVER had a tick before even though I grew up in a rural environment. Today we walked about 5 miles, found 17 and missed 3. The running totals are 40 miles, 37F and 9A.

Day 5:
This is the day we entered the letterboxing US Motherland. (Artemis Note: This was the second day of the week that my alarm went off at 4:00 A.M. By now I’m asking if I can just go back to work.) We were driving from Providence to outside Hartford, CT. We plotted a few stops along the drive just to break things up but essentially were heading for Goodwin State Forest in CT as our big stop in the middle of the day of driving. This was our first exposure to the ubiquitous fieldstone walls that are all over the place, which are GREAT for hiding boxes in by the way. One of the stops on the way was really cool because it was a REALLY old cemetery, including French Indian War vets which is pre-Revolutionary for those who don't remember their history. There were a couple of "first" today as well; first Geocache found (somehow, I just never do that even when they are close); first box found with no clues (I saw a suspicious pile of stones next to one of the fieldstone walls so looked and it was a box that we had clues for but did not get back to for about 3 hours); first official Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection box found. This is cool. The CT DEP (forestry department basically) has created and planted one letterbox in each of the 32 CT state forests. If you find 5 of them you earn a patch from the state and if you find 30 you earn a walking stick. One goal on this trip was to get our 5 for the patch at least. We also tried for a second one at a different state forest but it was missing. Another trend we are seeing in boxes here is that many series only have log books in the first and/or last box which really helps with stamping time. Of course, with our system, that means Artemis had it easy since she stamps their stuff and I stamp our log books. Today's totals are ~12 miles (Artemis dropped the pedometer and it reset at some point so we are not certain) found 34 (new personal one day record) and missed 3. The running totals are 52 miles, 71F and 12A.

Day 6:
There are a lot of 2-4 miles trails around the Hartford area and we spent the day boxing on a number of them in and around the Meshomasic State Forest which is southeast of Hartford. I think we could have spent the entire trip here walking and boxing the many such trails in the area and may have that on the "future to do list". The trails we walked were fairly hard hikes and again we had a sluggish day overall just from tiredness catching up with us. We also unfortunately blew it on a mystery that has 9 nested bonus box mysteries so even though officially it is one attempt, we knew it was a lot more. The idea of a bonus with a bonus with a bonus with a bonus... is interesting but problematic if one goes missing or like in our case, we messed up on the first one so basically walked a dead 3-4 miles since we did not get the boxes on the hike (you hiked in and boxed out on the same trail) and could not just skip to #2. (Artemis Note: But it’s all about the hike, right?) In spite of ourselves, we still walked 10+ miles, found 26 and attempted 6 for a running total of 62 miles, 97F and 18A. We also got DEP boxes #2 and #3. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, we also found and photographed a “Purple Skull Guy” stamp in a log book today that has been well discussed on AtlasQuest. Now at least everyone in the SE will finally have a clue what it looks like.

Day 7:
This is the planned crazy day. We started about 5am as we were going to do a lot of boxing and still had to drive 150+ miles too. (Artemis Note: Is this the day I drowned the alarm clock?) In a perfect world I have actually plotted out over 100 boxes for today, though it would take a LOT of luck to be able to actually do that when considering missing boxes and actual time versus theoretical time to hunt. Just the fact that I could plot that many into a long day was scary enough. Had we not been driving too, I have no doubt it would happen. As it was, we hit a few parks heading out of Hartford on our way through Avon and to "Mookyville", or Winsted CT, which is Mooky's hometown. There is a series of 45 boxes here that someone has hidden around town at or near various businesses. Some are inside and you ask, some are outside and you hunt (nothing complicated) but they are scattered over 3-4 miles of walking through the little town. We were plugging right along with them but then the rain started. And did it start... Knowing that we had to go back out into it for an extended time still, we killed 30-45 minutes getting some food and buying another umbrella. It did eventually slow down but it ruined our hopes at getting them all so instead we focused on only the indoor boxes to save both us and our log books. Late in this day is also when I literally fell to the ground while walking down the sidewalk with major low back pain. Once I got home, I learned I had not pulled a muscle as thought but rather had a kidney stone (lucky me). (Artemis Note: You mean it wasn’t just a trick to get me to carry your back pack?) After the back pain hit we stopped boxing in Winsted, even passing known outdoor boxes on the way back to the car (the rain had stopped) because the pain caused me to lose a lot of interest in boxing for some strange reason *grin* However, we were leaving the state today so still had to do two state forests pretty late and in the rain. Luckily two sort of on the way to Vermont were semi-driveby (for DEP boxes) so we still went to get them to get our #4 and #5 and qualify for our patches (yeah!!!). Then came a very painful multi-hour drive north. We are staying just across the state line in Vermont since the hotel was half the price of staying 25 miles closer to the event. Even with rain, a kidney stone plus 150 miles of driving in the rain we walked 9+ miles, found 62 (yes, 62, so that shows you the 100 estimate probably was possible) and missed 8. The running totals are now 71 miles walked, 159F and 26A plus F600 at some point today.

Day 8:
This is the day of The Greek Myth-Story Gathering, which is the point of this entire trip. And of course, it is raining still. Unlike a lot of other gatherings, there really were not other boxes in the area which allowed for more time to meet and greet since those who did come were not running off to hunt in nearby places too. There were a lot of really great people and it was nice to put some names with faces of people who we had been seeing in log books all week. The carvings for the gathering were really awesome too. Almost all of them were carved by the organizer (SapphireBerry) and she did an amazing job. Plus the clues were creative and the area was just beautiful. I just wish she had not pulled them all after the event since she did such a great job of populating the park with wonderful carvings of various creatures from Greek Mythology and others would be sure to enjoy them and the park. Probably 2/3 of the boxes were stamped in using umbrellas since the rain did not stop until afternoon but we even worked out a stamping system for that with the small boxing crew we had. It was Artemis and I, CPAScott, Music Woman and Littlemonkey (two of them). They also did a little night boxing session using glowsticks and marked out a walking loop around the camping area to get you to the correct areas and the boxes were wrapped in aluminum foil with reflective tape on them. They were all saying they had never done any type of night boxing. We told them they could have used a tutorial from us on how to do it since we just came from the Creatures of the Night gathering the weekend before *grin*. We walked 5+ miles today, found all 26 boxes planted for the event plus another 19 event stamps, 28 exchanges and 19 PTs. The running total is 76 miles, 185F and 26A plus 64 "other" stamps. We also got a token box at a rest area in Vermont at about 1230 at night on the way back to the hotel just to mark another "boxed state" off the list. What makes this interesting is that it is a driveby, right? I mean, it is a rest stop after all so we figure it is worth grabbing even it late. Well, of course, it turned out to be something like a mile walk down a dog walk path out the back side of the place!!! The things we do for a "quick and easy find"... (Artemis Note: The gathering was extremely well organized, and must have taken weeks to prepare. We were made very welcome, and enjoyed comparing boxing stories. We also got some great tips, such as Plexiglas backing, and molded multicolor ink pads. Eidolon is already dropping hints about the “Pirate from Every Port” event in Groton Ct in September.)

Day 9:
This is it; the last day of boxing on the trip and I never thought I would say this but I am about boxed out by this point. (Artemis Note: Never thought I’d hear those words from his mouth. And all it took was a kidney stone.) Plus it is still raining pretty steadily so in the last minute preparations for the day, we edit out a LOT of potential boxes. We started by getting our token New Hampshire box (which actually was a two box set) then headed back towards Boston. We only ended up making one stop on the way back to do a set of boxes from a previous gathering. I specifically wanted this series just because there is a Der Mad Stamper carving among them. What is interesting is that somehow, which I still cannot explain, we missed a box. I don't mean we did not find it, I mean we literally just skipped it in reading the clues and never saw it at all. We only walked about 6 miles today and found all 18 boxes that we realized we were searching for (I won't count the other since there was no attempt involved other than blindness while reading). That brings the final totals to 82 miles walked/hiked, 203 boxes found, 26 boxes not found, one kidney stone, two pedometers and a total of 267 new stamps for the 9 days. (Artemis Note: Other averages include 4.5 hours of sleep per night, one meal every two days, and several dozen mosquito bites on every trail. Even though most of our hotels served breakfast, their 6:30 start times were too late for the obsessive boxer. I considered just throwing away our dirty clothes, with the extreme humidity, the rain, and the mud, rather than taking them home and trying to get them clean. Do these count as extreme boxes, since the conditions of the hunt were so extreme?

In spite of our exhaustion, we had a great time. For those of you who have spent a marathon boxing day with Eidolon, you’ll be glad to know we worked on the flaws in his time estimates, and have resolved some of the biggest problems. For example, he now understands that while it may be possible to walk 5 miles in 1½ hours, he really needs to add a little time to pick up the box, take out the stamps and log books, stamp in, and rehide the box. He’s even factoring in a little time for “trouble in locating.” There is still no time allowance for eating, however.

It was a pretty incredible trip, and we are already planning next year’s vacation. Anyone interested in joining us?)