Letterboxing, Bugs, and Cliffs Don't Mix Well

Last fall Marley's 4th grade class took a field trip and hiked up Mt. Holyoke to the Summit House at Skinner State Park. We decided it would be fun to go letterboxing up there. I printed out the clues, and this afternoon Paul, Marley and I "rode" up to the Summit House to find it. With all of the rain we have been having, we were so happy that the sun was out and it was a nice day. The only problem, BUGS, BUGS, BUGS! They were everywhere.

Also, Marley kept wanting to climb up cliffs to look at the view and I nearly had a panic attack. Needless to say, I wouldn't let her do much. She said to me, "Grandma, no offense, but it was more fun when I came up here with my class." Yikes, how in the world did the teachers keep track of all those kids. I would probably have passed right out. She did tell me that one of the kids fell from something and they had to have an ambulance come get him.

She tried to find her name that she wrote with the kids from her class. She couldn't find it, but wrote her name again with a rock.







The view really was incredible.




One of the highlights of the day for Marley was seeing this snake. Definitely not a highlight for me. It was only a garter snake, but we saw signs that rattlesnakes and cooperheads were known to be on the Mt. Holyoke range.



Anyhow, this letterbox was not easy to find and between the bugs and the cliffs, we didn't stay too long.

Mental note to self - don't pick any more letterboxes that are anywhere around high elevations, and wear bug repellant!

276/365 - Letterboxing "Among the Leaves"

This afternoon Paul, Marley and I went letterboxing. We went to Southampton, to a trail that went along an abandoned railroad track. There were five boxes, each one with a hand carved leaf stamp with an animal carved in the middle of the leaf. At the fifth box there was logbook. It was fun trying to find five boxes at one place. It was a beautiful fall day with leaves falling in the woods.









Paul made Marley her own walking stick.



There's nothing like walking in the woods on a fall day; finding a letterbox there is the icing on the cake

261/365 - September 18, 1924

Today is Dot's birthday. Paul and I went over to celebrate with her. We brought her a Mum plant and a couple of little pumpkins for her patio, a birthday balloon and a little cake. I guess at 86 your birthday isn't a big deal, but she seemed happy to celebrate with us!

After we left Dot's we went over to Westfield to do a little letterboxing. This one was called Home of the Brave. It was in Apremont Park, named after the small French town of Apremont, which was defeated and saved by the 104th Infantry.







I love it when they give you some history of where the letterbox was hidden. It was getting dark when we got there, so we didn't spend too much time but we did find the letterbox. The stamp was a handcarved ribbon that said Home of the Brave on it.

I really love letterboxing.

255/365 - Letterboxing at Pine Hill Cemetery

This afternoon Marley, Kristen and I went letterboxing. This is the first time Kris has gone with us and I think she really enjoyed it.

This is part of our "hunt" in Pine Hill Cemetery. The description was written by an 11 year old girl, Whangdoodle A:

"Travel straight down the lane until you come to a "T" intersection. Take a right and drive to the back of the cemetery until you approach another "T" intersection. Wangdoodle G and I like the bowling ball and various urns reaching for the sky."



"At the second "T", turn right and pass some older stone. One has the same name of Wangdoodle G's BFF Josie."





"Park here and walk to the "mirror". Facing the "mirror" look to the left and notice a decaying stump; there hides our little angel playing hide and seek."
(the stamp was of a little angel)






We also did another one in the same cemetery, and in talking to a friend at work, there is also a third letterbox halfway up these stairs.



Marley was quite enthralled with these stairs. We walked up not knowing what was at the top, to find another part of this HUGE cemetery. We'll be back!

236/365 - Letterboxing and sneakers

On my day off today we had two agendas: buy new sneakers for me and go letterboxing. My sneakers are at least 11 years old and I really need new ones - half of the soles are missing. The reason I haven't bought new ones is because I couldn't find any that are comfortable. A few months ago the people in the shoe department of LL Bean in So. Windsor told us of a New Balance store in the same shopping center that has a scanner that shows "hot spots" on your feet. This shows them what type of shoes you need.

So....I thought I would try LL Bean one more time for sneakers and if nothing, try that New Balance store. We decided to look for a letterbox in the same area just for fun.

We did the letterboxing first (in case it started to rain later). Union Pond Park is very close to the LL Bean store in So. Windsor. There were two letterboxes to be found there. We found the first one.





The second one, we think, is missing. We followed the clues, but....no letterbox. We'll e-mail the owner and ask if they know about it.


Then we headed off to the New Balance store. Within fifteen minutes of walking in the store I bought these. I can't believe how comfortable they are....pricey, but comfortable. I couldn't believe it. I have tried on lots of sneakers, and none of them were comfortable until these. I guess they know what they are doing in that store!

Fairy Houses

Today after church, Paul, Marley and I set out to go letterboxing. I had three picked out, all in the same vicinity. One that I knew she would love was called the Woodland Fairy Houses. One problem. It also said it was down for maintenance.

The letterboxes on this hike were inspired by the book "Fairy House" that I bought for Marley back in 2005. It was after she read that book that we made a couple of fairy houses in the back yard.

On this hike there were supposed to be four fairy houses, but the letterboxes were under reconstruction. She didn't care. She wanted to see if the fairy houses were still there (and I did too). To our delight they were there, albeit a little under the weather from the winter. We plan to go back after the letterboxes are restored.

Starting out....






If you get tired, you can always lean on your walking stick....




Paul helping Marley make a raft with a birch bark sail....




The raft and sail....



A totally fun day!

333/365 - Letterboxing at Metacomet-Monadnock Trail in Southwick

This afternoon Paul, Marley and I went letterboxing. We started off at Springfield St. Cemetery in Feeding Hills. The clue was Jane Chatfield November 22 1881 to August 21 1935. Under the tree. That was it. Do you know how big Springfield St. Cemetery is? Anyhow, we walked around there for about an hour and a half and never found it. We gave up for now (to be continued later with Paul and I eventually checking every grave stone), and headed out to Southwick to look for another letterbox. This one was on the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail in Southwick near the CT state line.



It took us a while to find the trail, but the rest was rather easy. Except for the fact that you had to cross a swamp on 2x6 boards. That was a little scary.


We found the letterbox hidden underneath a rotted out tree. I love this hobby!

319/365 - Letterboxing in Laurel Hill Cemetery

This afternoon Paul, Marley and I went letterboxing. I wanted to take Marley to the place where I had come upon the first letterbox. We needed to stamp it in our book, and also there was another letterbox, placed by the same person, in this cemetery that we hadn't found yet. We planned this day back when we found our first letterbox in Southwick, and all of us have been looking forward to it. What luck that it was a beautiful, warm day. Even though I had told Marley where it was, she read the directions as we walked towards it. This one was called Pushing Up Daisies (apropos for a cemetery). The second was called Moody Butterfly. It was a hand carved butterfly stamp from Nigeria. We didn't know where this was, so Marley read the directions and eventually we found it. Marley said this was the spookiest cemetery she had ever been in. She wasn't scared, though. In fact, she told us that she loved walking through old cemeteries.



We headed up to Greenfield. I had directions to another letterbox but, unfortunately, it was getting dark and we never did find the one we were looking for. That will have to be for another day.

If you are interested in letterboxing, go here.

318/365 - Letterboxing Connecticut River Valley The Door"

Today we went on a Letterboxing hunt. We were going to LL Bean in S. Windsor, CT to get new boots for Paul, so I went on to the Letterboxing site to see what letterboxes were in the area. I found one in the same town. This one was called "Connecticut River Valley The Door" and it explained about a historic style of doorway that developed in the Connecticut River Valley in New England in the mid-eighteenth century.

This first picture was where it lead us, describing that this door was one of 11 original doors of this type still on the houses which they were built for. It is the Ebenezer Grant House in So. Windsor.


The letterbox was located just down the steet in a cemetery behind the Board of Education office. It had a hand-made stamp of a Connecticut Valley doorway. It was beautiful!



If you are interested in letterboxing, go here.

311/365 - Letterboxing at Metacomet-Monadnock Trail

Today we found our first letterbox. After Marley's game this morning we went on our first adventure. There are several close to us and we chose to look for the one on the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail in Southwick at the remains of an old homestead. I had gone on to letterbox.org and printed out the "clues" to find it. This one was called the "Gift Box." Marley was so excited. She read the directions to us in the car and also as we were looking for it. The directions were perfect and we were so excited when we found it. We weren't exactly organized today, though, and after we found the letterbox and went to put our stamp in their journal, we realized that we had left our stamp at home. Good thing we weren't too far. Paul and Marley explored a little while I went home to get our stamp. I think this is going to be a fun little hobby. We were talking about some of the other letterboxes in the area that we want to look for and Marley said, "Don't do too many without me!"

Here are a few more pictures of our adventure:







If you are interested in letterboxing, go here.

309/365 - Stamp and Sketch Book for Letterboxing

We are ready to start finding letterboxes. (See Post 300 which explains how I found out about letterboxing). Tonight we got our stamp and our sketch book. Our trail name is "Izzy's Crew". I can't wait to start. To learn more about Letterboxing, go here.

300/365 - Letterboxing

This is a graveyard in Deerfield where one of my ancestors (I'm talking really old, 1837) is buried. The last time we were here I was looking around and there was a really old grave stone that was leaning up against the stone wall at the very end of the graveyard. I tried to stand it up, and behind the stone there was a zip-lock bag. The bag said "Please do not remove." I took it out and looked at it but I didn't go into the bag. Paul said it was probably something to do with that GPS game where you try to find things; I forget the name. Anyhow, later I wished that I had looked inside the bag, so today we took a ride up there and I found the bag again. Inside the bag was a jar, and inside the jar was a small notebook, pen, and a stamp. I guess the idea is that you stamp the stamp in your book, and you stamp your stamp in their book. It is called Letterboxing. I am definitely going to check this out. It really intrigues me.