The Nalgene, Revisited

My love of the letterboxing quest is not diminished, but I have been a horrid homebody through our lovely spring and now we in Northern California have moved onto the true "Dog Days" of summer.

So I thought it would be a good time to review my pack and get ready for the eventuality that I get an opportunity to seek out a letterbox in the near future. When I pulled my pack out of the closet I noticed a huge gap – my Nalgene was gone. I know when and where it happened. I had taken my dear wife to the emergency room several months back, and I took the Nalgene with me, as I tend to do. In one of the waiting rooms I left the bottle, and when I returned to claim it, it was, as expected, gone. I checked with the desk staff and with the lost & found maintained by the security department, but to no avail.

I have other Nalgenes, but they are not of the BPA free variety, and, whilst I am not convinced of the horrors of BPA rich plastics, I get so many raised eyebrows when dealing with my fellow wannabe hippies on the trails of life that I just prefer to use the more health conscious variety.

Newly made Nalgenes are all BPA free. Though many still carry the recycle code 7, in itself that is not indicative of having BPA content. Naturally, I am tempted by the new stainless steel Nalgene jugs, but I cannot bring myself to add the additional weight to my pack.

Given my fondness for old stuff, I even contemplate going an entirely different route and getting myself an old-style canteen. The main reason that I do not is because I have a fitted, insulated sleeve manufactured by Maxpedition to hold a wide mouth Nalgene, and a really beautiful stainless cup that fits over the bottom, much as the old canteen cups fit over the bottoms of the old canteens. And, besides, I really like the plastic Nalgenes. They are rugged and well designed and just about everything that one looks for in a water bottle. Besides, they set off the nut-job hippies who think that anything with a recycle code 7 is going to kill them and their babies.

So I am off to track down a shiny new Nalgene, then it is off to the woods for me!

More on First Aid

At my age and state of decay, a decent first aid kit is really not an option, but a necessity. Furthermore, if you are going out on the trail, as any old Scout will tell you, a first aid kit of some sort is an absolute must. You cannot get the most out of the outdoors if you spend all your time concerned about how you are going to preserve yourself, so a first aid kit really contributes to your appreciation of the country!

As I mentioned some months ago, I have been shopping for a first aid kit. I am looking, of course, for one that will not take up too much room in or contribute too much weight to my letterboxing kit. I have found some great products on line and in local stores that have really nice small cases, but do not offer what I am looking for in a kit, so I decided that it was time to go back to my Scouting roots and make my own.

One of the first pages that I stumbled upon when searching for personal first aid kit advice was on the Vermillion County, Illinois page. It is aimed specifically at Search and Rescue volunteers, and it has some fantastic pointers, and they have much of what I am looking for in a first aid kit: they are very compact and yet versatile. If you are interested, take a look at the site here. I am thinking of putting three or four of these together so I can have one in each car, one for the kit and one for long walks in the country.

Schwinn Bike Letterbox

When I was a kid I had a lime-green Schwinn. My parents took me to Bob's Bikes in Fair Oaks and we perused every bike in the store until we lit on the green cruiser. It was a beauty, and I loved it. I crashed it often enough that it eventually ended up with an off-plumb frame, and it was retired. I do not know what ever happened to that old bike, but I have never had another quite like it.

So the Schwinn Bike Letterbox in Folsom started off with several points in its favor. It is a beautiful walk along the American River, but if I had given it even a little thought I might have chosen a slightly cooler day for the hike. It was a long hike in the 91° weather, but I had a quart of icy cold water in my Nalgene and a good straw hat on my head, so I was ready to go. I really appreciated my trusty chestnut staff today. There is a delightful nineteenth century ruin on this hike, which makes it all the more delightful, and the instructions are simple and clear, so when you find the box, you know you have found it.

It was a lovely afternoon in the country. There is a second box, unrelated to the Schwinn Bike box, that starts on the same path. I think that will be the next on the Wandering Walkers agenda!

Atlas Quest vs. LbNA

In the minds of many letterboxers there appears to be a tacit rivalry between the Atlas Quest and Letterboxing North America (LbNA) websites. My first introduction to letterboxing was via the LbNA site, and it has been my go-to source for letterboxes ever since. Atlas Quest, I thought, was a secondary information repository that some letterboxers preferred to put their information into, and they invariably linked the information through LbNA.

Boy, was I ever wrong.

Atlas Quest has a wealth of letterboxes that are not listed on the LbNA site! How was I to know? Now, whenever I am planning an excursion, both sites are definite stops before the trip.

Atlas Quest is a more modern site with a lot more bells and whistles than the rather old-fashioned LbNA site. LbNA, in its austerity, is more in the spirit of the sport itself, but that is not an issue for me. I have a sentimental fondness of LbNA, but my new re-discovery of Atlas Quest has kindled a desire to find all the local letterboxes!

Betting My Bumbershoot

In the beautiful northern end of the Sacramento Valley we are still experiencing triple-digit weather and numerous bright and sunny days. A bit warm for ideal letterboxing, to be sure, but what is ideal letterboxing weather? Whilst it is true that 70° F with scattered clouds might be idyllic, a bit of heat will certainly not take the joy out of it, so long as we stay hydrated and wear our sun block.

That said, it is the second week of August, and the industrious inner Scout has become concerned about the rain that will be upon us in forthcoming months. As a result, I have decided to add a really good umbrella to the letterboxing kit.

I have always wanted a whangee crooked Briggs umbrella! It is a gentleman's umbrella that may be carried with any garb short of dinner clothes, yet it is sportier than some more formally gripped umbrellas. If you opt for a Fox model instead of the classic Briggs, you may get it built on a heavy stick that is suitable for supporting a gentleman's weight. If you go that direction, however, you will lose the elegantly slim line of the folded umbrella, and it becomes less suitable for dress. And, because of the ever increasing price of whangee bamboo, the whole thing will cost you a great deal of money.

No, that is not the direction that I want to go for an ideal letterboxing instrument. I do want something that may be used as a hiking staff to steady myself on a muddying trail, and something that will protect my darling wife from the wet as well as me.

Sticks Etc. carries just the thing, I think. They carry a variety of Seat Stick Umbrellas – these offer the weary letterboxer a place to sit for a few minutes whilst puzzling out a clue or while swapping stamps. The canopy size varies, but even in the smallest size is generous. You may select from somber solid colors to subdued multi-colored to full rainbow multi-colored options.

While these umbrellas are not as pricy as the Briggs or Fox whangee discussed above, these are not cheap umbrellas either. They run from £75 to £105 (about $124 to $173 US at today's conversion rate), depending on the size, and if you want a rubber ferrule for the tip, it will cost you another £3.50. From my perspective, it is an investment well worth making, and it will last you many years in the field. And if you get the traditional multi-colored model, you will look like Number 2 out for a stroll in The Village.

Rubber Stamp Carving

For me, the most challenging aspect of letterboxing is the carving of creative and beautiful rubber stamps. My wife, puppy and I use unusual factory made stamps still, and, so far, have been negligent in our duties as devoted letterboxers to carve our own.

I have gotten bits of information from various people, but nothing conclusive. Until now.

On line I stumbled upon a rather eclectic personal web page for a gentleman named Kirby Palm. On this page he has devoted a huge subsection to very practical and well considered advice on how to go about carving rubber stamps! Kirby is a fellow letterboxer, and he has addressed the art of stamp carving to a great extent from the perspective of the letterboxer. He covers hardware, materials, images, how to make a stamp blank, transferring the image to the blank, labeling the stamp and sundry related topics. It is a brilliant contribution to the topic, and I am extremely pleased to find his page!

You will find Kirby's advice and insights into rubber stamp carving here: Rubber Stamp Carving Tips. For Kirby's insights into other topics from bicycling to Jaguars to how to buy a garbage disposal, check out his Home Page!

The Virtual Experience

What I really like about letterboxing is its simplicity. I grant you, it has been made possible by the existence of the Internet, but once you get your clues, it is just you and your compass and your wits – the highest technology needed has been around since the sixteenth century.

So-called "virtual" letterboxes offend my sensibilities, and I want nothing to do with them.

Until today.

In beautiful Folsom, California I find that I am a prisoner in my house. The mercury is vacillating around 108°, I am broke and out of gasoline (yes, I know that sounds like the whining of a college student, but I am an unemployed 45 year old man!), and, to top it all off, I am suffering from a significant gouty attack. The short form is that I am absolutely stir-crazy, and I want to do a letterbox or several more even than usual. So I go over to Letterboxing North America to contemplate the sundry boxes that I cannot do today, and, lo, there the section that I have, up until now, disregarded – the virtual letterboxes.

There are a huge selection here, all seductively named. I pull the first one that catches my fancy up: S Holmes Casebook: The Case of the Lion's Mane. Sadly this one requires that one have a copy of the Casebook of Sherlock Holmes about, which I do not. I put it off for another day.

The second candidate is I Dream of Jeannie – 2. The clues are straightforward and the answers are, with a little cunning, available via the Internet. This is not a hike in the Sierra Nevada, but it is not bad.

I pull up Your Horse, M'Lady which consists of a series of horse-related questions. This is getting fun! I can see where this might be a suitable addiction for those of us who are not able to go aboxing at our every whim.

The rewards here are pictures, akin to what might be rubber stamp. I will have to trim carefully and add to my log book.