High Times

We lit out for the High Times box today. This is my second attempt – the last time I did not take my beloved wife, which was foolish. I explained my procedure from the last visit to her, and she walked directly to where the box was. I was both embarrassed and proud. One more for the Wandering Walkers!

Brittney and the Treasure Scouts

I will likely be abandoning my letterboxing efforts in the month of November in favor of one of my other favorite activities: NaNoWriMo! It is true, November is National Novel Writing Month, and I will be assailing that mount in earnest this year. In order to keep my letterboxing fix, however, I am using that as a key element in the book. The story includes young Brittney Birch and her younger siblings, Pepper and Bobby Birch. They find a series of clues to a hidden treasure, and, using their compass and clue-solving skills, they find the long lost treasure, though it is not what they expect!

I am really looking forward to this project, and I hope to channel some Nancy Drew in its course.

Another Perk of Having a Voice That Carries. . .

So there we were, after letterboxing earlier in the day, taking a brief sojourn at Le Boutique Target, and I was mentioning to my beloved wife how much fun we were having while in the field earlier that day, when a gentleman down the aisle says, "Did you say 'letterboxing'?" I replied in the affirmative, and he and his wife immediately started telling us how much fun that they had while letterboxing and how they just found their hundredth box! It was one of those chance meetings when you really wish that you had a Personal Traveler with you. It was a really fun chance encounter in any case.

The Year of the Dog

I felt the urge to try out the new leash, so I mentioned to my wife that I was going to take Maggie for a walk. Mrs. suggested that we might head out for a letterbox, so I said, "Sure!" and we were off. I had already printed instructions to The Year of the Dog in El Dorado Hills, California, so that was the direction we headed, and it could not have been a more perfect day for it. Since we were in a rural area, we were able to let little Maggie run off the leash for most of the adventure, which she loved. The box is a nice walk out into some lovely, hilly pasture land, which is probably even more beautiful in the spring, but today it was a lovely autumnal hike. The box itself is just challenging enough to keep it interesting, but my no means a difficult one. The stamp is handmade and very cute, and we are pleased to have that record in our journal now. If you are passing through the El Dorado Hills area, I highly recommend it!

Folsom Powerhouse

The Wandering Walkers took off on the path of the Folsom Powerhouse box this late afternoon. It promised to be a very simple one, but, as it happened, the terrain had changed significantly, and it proved quite challenging. It was great! We took the intrepid boxhound, Maggie, with us, and we spent an hour evaluating the terrain and searching for likely clues as to its location. We had all but surrendered, when we spotted the hiding place. It was an exhilarating and rewarding afternoon of box-hunting!

We placed our stamps in the log book and put the lovely hand-carved stamp in our own, carefully re-packed the box and returned it to its hiding place, and we took the trek to our automobile. Once home I noticed it – I had forgotten to recover our own logbook! What a sad loss! I plan to return tomorrow to see if it is still there, but my hopes are slim. Ah, well, it gives us a great opportunity to start afresh, but I do hope that it is still there upon our return.

UPDATE: 10/3/2008 We made the morning trek back to the niche where the letterbox was hidden, and there, undisturbed, remained our cherished log book. Though far from full, I am relieved to have it back again.

Walking Sticks

I will admit it. I am a consummate consumer. I love collecting all types of rubbish, and I will part with hard-earned dollars for the purpose of doing so.

That admission made, I have always loved walking sticks. This affection is in part due to the fact that I have battled with gout ever since I was sixteen years of age, and I did not care for the aluminum cane provided by the hospital. For the last several years I have used the blackthorn stick that belonged to my father and his father before him. It is a particularly beautiful example of an Irish blackthorn, and it is one of my most cherished belongings. My particular fondness of that ancient warrior is exactly what led me to this post – I am far too fond of it to risk damaging it in the wild! When in the wilderness, you need to have a stout companion of a stick with you that you are willing to stick into holes and beat up a bit, and grandpa's blackthorn is not the one.

So I went on-line to see what is currently available. After sifting through a bunch of trash, I stumbled upon a site called The Stick Man. The stick man himself, Keith Pickering, is an elegant soul who is very willing to talk you through stick repair, and, further, his sight hosts a stick-making forum! This could be a wicked new obsession for me. I am toying with the idea of buying old knobby cane heads off of eBay and making luscious new walking sticks to go with them!

If only I were rich. . . .

Hats

We all know that a hat is a necessity in the outdoors. It is a bit of common wisdom that most modern folk ignore unless they work in the blazing sun, and then they don't. In fact, I really like hats, from a fashion perspective as well as a functional one. Sadly, Indiana Jones ruined the fedora for most of us. In the summer I still don a good straw hat, either fedora style or, most recently, a lovely Monte Cristi Panama straw, which is handsome and summery. It works well with shorts and a t-shirt or with a blue blazer and white flannels.

But what about autumnal outdoorsy hats? When I was a Scout, I was really perturbed that the Montana Peak had disappeared from Scoutdom many years before. I had photographs of my dear old dad (b. 1913 and a Scout in the early and middle 1920s) wearing breeches and leggings and a Montana Peak, but my Scouting years were somewhat later. I was a Scout in the polyester 1970s - it was all ball caps and sneakers by the time I got there.

Nowadays, with the prevalence of Cowboy Action Shooting and various types of reenacting, there are a wide variety of great quality, authentic Montana Peaks around. What Price Glory carries a couple from different eras, and there are a number of others, such as Dirty Billy's Hats and the Tonto Rim Trading Company. So availability is not an issue. The issue comes down to convincing my darling wife that it is a reasonable expense. When I was shooting in CAS, a few years back, I nearly got one on a couple of occasions, but never quite made the leap. We shall see. . . .