My Anniversary

I had these photos all ready to blog about my anniversary and life got just too full to do it. Ravenboy took us out to a super cool restuarant called Jekyll & Hyde's.



It was like Chuck E. Cheese for adults. The waitstaff and hosts all interact and there are little shows throughout the meal. They came around offering fun shots and we tried a couple of them. Ravenboy extracted some directly from his Dad's neck. I liked the other flavor better because I am not a big passion fruit fan.

The meal was good but the decor and shows are what made this place so much fun. It was a challenge to find the bathrooms down a hallway of seemingly just rows and rows of books. Sometimes the waitstaff and some of the actors seemed to try to get in each other's way and there was some underlying tension. It made for a spooky evening on a different level. We stayed to watch as many shows as we could before saying goodbye to our new friends and heading off to more good times.

Ravenboy has a favorite hangout called Fat Cat's. It's a chill pool hall that features live jazz bands. The store cat and dog are always around if you look hard enough for them. If the pool tables are all taken, you can always play a little shuffleboard, ping-pong or chess while you wait.
Our evening there started off with a laugh as the bouncer was methodically taking IDs at the entrance. Most of the clientele at this point of the evening was NYU students. When RGBisMe handed the man his ID he looked up and just cracked up. He said, "I should have just looked at you, man, Get in there."

The pool tables were all full so Ravenboy got us some drinks and we grabbed a shuffleboard table. I started off in rare form by trying to shoot the little skeet like disc down the table, up-side down. Ravenboy kindly set me straight.

The store dog made his rounds and we finally got a pool table. It was parents against son, then son and mother against father and a final game of guys against gal. If it weren't for Ravenboy scratching on his final 8 ball shots, he would have aced it all. What mattered the most was that we had a blast before were went back to Ravenboy's and crashed. It was the best anniversary celebration ever.

Central Pennsylvania Hiking in March

Most of the letterboxes we went looking for were either frozen into place, under a foot (that's 12 inches) of snow, or under so much ice we couldn't even say for sure that we had found the right location.

Hiking on trails that were solid sheets of ice were the most challenging. That and snow that was packed so hard and then had glazed over. That is what we found this weekend in the northern third of Pennsylvania.

We visited Friday with Tracdc and Satan. She was lucky enough to get a photo of a bald eagle and it's nest along the Juniata River.

Today we found more snow, more glazed trails and a wonderful 4+ mile hike to a find a local geocache. The trails around Shingletown Gap were just lovely. We walked in the valley by the stream and hopped some rocks ridge top. Hill Climber multicache is a perfect sample of great hiking within miles of my home.

Holey Turnpike!

What type of adventure can one get into on a day where it is pouring down rain in icy torrents? Exploring abandoned tunnels along a section of the old PA Turnpike! Last week we were invited to join in the hunt for a difficult geocache in the abandoned Sidleing Hill tunnel.

The history of the area is interesting. When the Pennsylvania Turnpike opened in 1940 the four lanes of traffic narrowed to two lanes at each of seven tunnels. By the 1960’s, four of the seven tunnels on the original Turnpike received a second tube to accommodate heavier traffic: Allegheny Mountain, Tuscarora Mountain, Kittatinny Mountain, and Blue Mountain. The other three tunnels were bypassed and abandoned. This adventure starts near the eastern portal of the abandoned Sideling Hill Tunnel.

The now abandoned section has an unofficial bike trail that goes through it. We used a lot of the information for the Pike to Bike website. Google and Wiki searches will get you more interesting tidbits if you can't get enough.

Our goals for the day were four geocaches; PA Turnpike Cache #1, PA Turnpike Cache #2 "The Cache Down Under", PA Turnpike Cache #3 "The HoJo Cache" and PA Turnpike Cache #4 "The Four Way Stop" . The most difficult one, PA Turnpike Cache #2 "The Cache Down Under", was the one many of us had our sights set on for logging as milestone finds.

RGBisMe and I arrived near the HoJo cache bright and early before meeting up with the good geocachers of the day. We had some letterboxing in mind and didn't want those plans to get in the way of everyone else's.

On our way to the tunnel, we stopped and found PA Turnpike Cache #3 "The HoJo Cache" leaving a surprise for Redtailforester when he stopped by later. It was very rainy on and off all morning but we were able to log into this cache during a dry moment.

Back onto our bikes, we went off to take a peek into the tunnel before meeting up with the rest. This is when we planted our new letterbox, Holey Turnpike. Now you might recognize that name, and it's not just because it's cute. Jbzfarm had an awesome letterbox planted along the turnpike called Holy Turnpike! We need to give them proper credit for doing a little spin off of the name and make sure to mention that in the clue. Gotta give credit where credit is do, no? Might there be soon to come, a series along the entire thoroughfare called "Wholly Turnpike"?

The whole crew of adventurers included 2GuysNamedMoe, Redtailforester, feralgyrl, Angrist, HolyCowboys, George1, carels, RGBisMe and myself. We were so honored to be invited along for this milestone adventure. Everyone who came to hunt this cache brought ideas and tools and expertise with them. I knew that the day would not end without finding this cache and it was great to see how we all came together to tackle it.

Exploring high and low, the tunnel was just amazing. Success did not evade this group and we all reconvened to sign the log, pop the cork and celebrate. What a good time sharing snack and celebratory drinks. We snapped many photos. Congrats to The Moe's 600th, George1's 600th, HolCowboy's 400th, Carels' 4500th milestone finds! We celebrated finding a round number of "things" ourselves.

One the way out, I noticed that lack of lunch and much celebration made for some more interesting adventures. Biking in this tunnel was challenge enough, very disorienting in the dark. Some cachers were game to take on our WOM clue for the new letterbox and stopped to stamp in before heading out to find a cache just on the outside of the tunnel. Very sporting of them.

I wasn't smart like feralgyrl to head on to the port-a-jane. I hung around to log into the geocache all the while having to pee like crazy. Carels had gone exploring up the one bank so I climbed the opposite side of the tunnel to "find a tree." Just as I got to the top level of the tunnel, Carels pops his head out from the old structure on the second level. Too cool! I quickly "found a tree" and ran around behind to find him and HolyCowboys inside exploring where the giant exhaust fans for the tunnel were. They helped me through a broken window of a door and Carels showed us how you could walk above the roof of the roadway for the entire length of the tunnel. George1 snapped a photo of me sticking my head down through an exhaust vent way above the ground level and Carels took a photo of me and HolyCowboys by the giant fans.

I think it was because the tune of Raiders of the Lost Ark started in my head or that HolyCowboys and Carels magically turned into Nicholas Cage and Jon Voigt in National Treasure that I found myself exiting the second level over a deep chasm. I couldn't see the bottom but Nicolas Cage told me to be aware that there weren't any stair but just put my leg and brace it to the left on the ledge. HolyCageBoys has legs that go on forever as opposed to my 26" inseam. I committed to the decent at the same moment I realized that strategy wouldn't work. I relied entirely on my upper body to carefully lower myself along the old rusty hand rail for 10 - 15 feet. Nicolas Cowboy was there to spot me or cheer on my plummet to death if I fell and I think Carels-Voigt was singing another John Williams movie score unless this was all in my champagne bubbled brain. All I am sure of is that the folks from ground level were a little surprised to see the 3 of us emerge from a place where they had seen no stairs to go up.

The party continued back at the trail head with a lovely cake brought by the Moes. Sugar and wine and beer and champagne, we all needed some lunch enroute to the other end of the tunnel for the final geocache in the series. The weather was quite rainy all day and torrents of water poured down the way some of us approached the location of the cache.

This would have been a miserable day if it had been shared with any other type of folks. Those who love a good laugh, sharing thoughtful ideas, stories of great hikes are the best kind of people to hang out with. Thanks for sharing your milestone day with us peeps.

We all took a bunch of photos. I will try to add more below this.

Carels hit 4500!!

George1 celebrates in his own way.

A milestone kinda day.

Carels makes the moment special.

Me and my bike under a cold air vent.

RGBisMe having a good time!

Hucklebuckle.

Birding on Lower Trail

Maga11 and I have been getting together regularly but not everything is something to put in my blog. I took some nice photos of our outing yesterday but also have to share what happened earlier in the week. The heavy rains meant I would probably have extra work with flooding and use of a shop vac. I wasn't looking forward to dealing with the needs of other tennents and their basmenet apartments so I asked he if she could come and get me away from the place for a few hours. We had a nice day of shopping, running errands,lunch of hot & sour soup with hot tea, art supplies and topped it off with shopping coffee at Wegman's.Wegman's is one place where we can get the brand of teas that we like. Before she left, I had to drop off some things with RGBisMe and asked if she wanted to stop in at my apartment at all. She said she would have to because she had to get her tea out. I mistakenly thought she had to pee, she meant the Wegman's tea she had purchased was in my bag of groceries. Now a pit stop is sometimes refered to as "getting the tea out."

The flooding came and the work associated with it also but the next day was quiet pretty. The swollen Juniata swirling against it's banks didn't stop Maga11 and I from getting out in the sunshine. We hiked a couple of miles on the Water Street section of the Lower Trail. The snow pack had not disappeared from most of the trail and the sun made it tricky footing for the most part. We only ran into one other walker during our couple of hours on the cold and slushy rail trail.

It was early for a lot of the cheerful birds I enjoy on their spring migration but we managed to see some regulars. Other than the letterbox we were in search of, Yellow Throated Warbler, we also saw and heard some Pileated and Downy Woddpeckers and a Kingfisher. It made us look forward to spring and getting out more often. Thanks for brightening up part of a dreary week Maga11!

I'm Still Standin'

I have been busy and ill and involved and distracted and working and creating and not blogging about it. I am fine, still standing and reveling in various life's aspects, dedicated to challenging the Earth's collective imagination. If you haven't figured it out, I am still in pursuit of true indigo.

January and February were great months filled with a lot of fun. Ravenboy came home for a week in between winter storms on the direct bus from Chinatown to home. It was crazy just to pick him up across town and drop him off at the same location. It made for quite a wonderful and mellow week before he had to get back to work.

Another real highlight for me was that Ravenboy used a real live tax preparer this year. I was so relieved not to have to figure out how to deal with all of this extra paperwork (royalties from PBS, workman's comp, self-employment tax, etc).

RGBisMe and I have been chompin' at the bit waiting for the snow to melt for long enough to check out some of Archaeobirder's new letterboxes. We did sneak in finding his Don't Squeeze the Charmin - very cute carve!

Inspired by Ravenboy's latest body art acquisition, I have been refining the design I intend to get as a tattoo. He worked for over 4 years making sure it was something he wanted. I am close to putting the final touches on a design based on a piece of artwork that is almost 300 years old. Terribly exciting for me.

We have been cooking a lot out of a great cookbook, Veganomicon. It has recipes that have been tasted and tested so that they are at a point where you don't feel you have to change a thing about them. It has an amazing chili verde that I can not get enough of! NAVS annual Vegetarian Summerfest is quite local this year for those of you who might be interested in such things.

We started reconnecting with a friendly local group of hikers, bikers and geocachers. It was so nice to not have a lot of expectations when getting together with these people. They have been so excited to have us join them. It's a relief to have contacts who regularly like to hike and bike locally.

I had the flu and survived.

I have been tweaking how I approach the whole letterboxing hobby so that it suits my needs and conflicts minimally with others'. I finally got my premium membership confusion on Atlas Quest taken care of. I have transferred many of our letterboxing clues to a new website. I have been fixing clues that were in error. I have been retiring letterboxes that will not be replaced. I have been creating a new letterboxes, one that is stocked with smaller related boxes for finders to take away with them (if they so choose) to plant.

I invested my birthday money in a guerilla art project to transform Bratz dolls into people I know and photograph their stories. To answer a question that I know one person will certainly ask me, no the dolls are not images of any letterboxers.

This weekend I am planning to join a group of adventurers in exploring the abandoned PA Turnpike tunnels. The exciting part is we are being included in this hunt to mark some of the geocachers' milestone finds. Some will be finding their 400th some their 600th. It got me curious to how many things we had found and I added them all up. It turned out that we had just hit a milestone too so we will be popping a champaign cork with even more enthusiasm this weekend. Cheers!

R Valentine?

moar kittehs

R-e-s-p-e-c-t

I want to start by making it clear that I have never felt that any of my letterbox clues, images nor the boxes themselves have ever been grossly disrespected, intentionally or not. That is not where I am going with this.

When someone has a history of enrichment, bringing high standards or inspiring quality their is a name that should be treated with respect. In the past time of letterboxing there are names of letterboxes and their creations that are respected. Regionally we are going to recognize a few different people who have contributed to letterboxing in a way that their competence is respected. It is a rare individual who is recognized inter/nationally for their contributions. Although I do not feel that anyone should be held up as a god, I think that recognizing that their name, creations and clues deserve respect. I think that respect can be reflected in the way we treat their name, clues, imprinted stamp images, location of and their letterboxes.

I admit to having done stupid thoughtless things in my life and I try to learn from them. An example is that I now I do my best to try to wait until after I have stamped into a letterbox before I pull out a snack. Even though a hike might have been exhausting, I know eating away from the box location will give it a better chance of being enjoyed by others. I try to respect the effort of each artist/creator/planter and when I fail, I try to learn for next time.

My disappointment has been generated by an incident I have become aware of where a special creation of a highly respected letterboxer was photographed at a child's birthday party. My imagination races with images of the dearly crafted logbook's entries (dating back over 6 years) being smudged with purple frosting from a Hannah Montanna birthday cake. The care taken in choosing the paper alone for the creation of the logbook does not deserve to be handled with greasy potato chip hands. I worry that whole box was passed around like a party favor, it's delicate stamp being mashed into logbooks as iced tea might be again spilled by an exurberant birthday celebrant. Obviously it was special enough to snap a photo of it and post it and mention it by name on the event page. My dismay is that it wasn't special enough to be respected and taken to a table that didn't have drinks on it. I question why a special letterbox with such a legacy and limited log space would be brought to any event. I had left it in a well crafted letterbox in the wild to reflect how I had found it and give it the special treatment it deserved.

My hope is that others will have a chance to enjoy this hitch hiker that I felt was very special. I hope that when it is released into the wilds again that no critters will smell any tantalizing food scents on it and try to eat it. I hope that after being at an event that the pages of the log book still have space for others to stamp in. Posting this photo at a child's birthday party does not reflect the respect any Legerdemaine box deserves if you ask me.

Groundhog Day

What might compel us to consider taking part in the annual trek to Gobbler's Knob? Held by some as the most insipid of holidays, Groundhog Day is one of my favorites. Pennsylvania's own famous weather predicting groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, seems like an odd icon for a holiday to be formed around. It's said that the holiday stems from the ancient belief that hibernating creatures were able to predict the arrival of springtime by their emergence.

The German immigrants, known as Pennsylvania Dutch, brought the tradition to America in the 18th century. They had once regarded the badger as the winter-spring barometer. But the job was reassigned to the groundhog after importing their Candlemas traditions to the U.S. Candlemas commemorates the ritual purification of Mary, 40 days after the birth of Jesus.

Candlemas is one of the four "cross-quarters" of the year, occurring half way between the first day of winter and the first day of spring. Traditionally, it was believed that if Candlemas was sunny, the remaining six weeks of winter would be stormy and cold. But if it rained or snowed on Candlemas, the rest of the winter would be mild. If an animal "sees its shadow," it must be sunny, so more wintry weather is predicted:

If Candlemas be fair and bright,
Winter has another flight.
If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,
Winter will not come again.

What's not to love? You have to celebrate the fact that day light hours are noticeably longer. Badger, gopher, groundhog, marmot, hedgehog or what ever, they are a cute way of recognizing the end of hibernation is near.

In 1994 we met Tracdc to attend Punxsutawney's Groundhog Day festivities. It was the year the town helped the video game Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (with the shadow-like demi character of Knuckles) debut and the year after the famed Groundhog Day movie. Ravenboy was nine years old and totally addicted to his Sega video games. Sonic the Hedgehog was his favorite. I remember a rap he made at the time:

Sonic and me are friends
We like to play to the day's end
Sonic and me
Especially

I think you can catch the general feeling that we were a family that was a bit more sedentary than we are now. There is no parking at Gobbler's Knob proper and none of us were up to hiking back country roads at 2:00 AM. We caught one of the many shuttle busses before 3:00 AM. It was about 12° that chilly February night as we stood for hours near where Punxsutawney Phil was in his cozy little temporary enclosure. Tracdc reminded me that the cold effected her asthma and that her inhaler froze. We had to go into a nearby building to thaw it out so that she could use it.

Eventually the marmot was pulled from his hut and made his prediction, an obvious one. I then remember waiting in the line for the returning shuttle bus for what felt like the predicted final 6 weeks of winter. When we got back to town we grabbed some watery hot chocolate at a Burger King. Ravenboy's hands were so cold he spilled his hot drink all over my legs. After the initial burn it felt really good and I thanked him.
The call of Gobbler's Knob is strong this year. The holiday is on a weekend and the crowds will be fierce but that hasn't deterred my interest. I called yesterday to ask how many folks actually trek to Gobbler's Knob. The fellow at the Community Center said only a few young people did it, most catch the shuttle busses. I confirmed that the roads to the Knob were eventually out of town and that flashlights might be recommended. I asked what route he suggested to walk and he seemed to draw a blank. Something tells me that he has never made the actual "trek" to Gobbler's Knob.

We know the weather is supposed to be dicey until midday Friday but it is not until then that when we are planning on heading out. There are a few activities that sound like a lot of fun in town, including a scavenger hunt. We will also be taking a huge cut out of Punxsutawney Phil to wave on a stick (see below) so try to pick us out us on the sometimes national morning news coverage of the event. It will be early, Phil makes his prediction about 7:25 AM. After that I will go back into hibernation. updated information on our trip in comments

Here are some fun links for those of you who can't make the trek this year:
Visit PA :: Grounhog Day
Groundhog Day 2008 Schedule of Events
Punxsutawney Phill's page
Punxsutawney's Page
2007 Groundhog Crossing - a cross country adventure trying to reunite the groundhog with his shadow
2008 Groundhog Duel - Groundhog and Shadow's continued adventures and battle
Plush - A tabloid style blog dishing dirt on celebs Groundhog and Shadow
PA Highways Groundhog Day page

Resort Proposal in Central PA

Although it's too early to purchase those online season passes, you might want to read about the proposal for Holy Land PA. Notice that they liken their access to major attractions and rides to Knoebel's Amusement Resort. Perhaps this will open up a new venue for central PA letterbox gatherings.

I assume it might be like the similar Holy Land Experience in Florida. A parody has been created on this website.

Neato!

What could be better than an awesome veggie burrito? Eating it with a bunch of letterboxers and getting a stamp for it! A few little obstacles jumped in the way of our making it to New Cumberland but we dodged them left and right. Snowfall that was not scheduled to arrive until much later in the evening made an appearance and asked to be noticed about the time we went out the door. RGBisMe and I could not be deterred. We had to pick up Maga11 and DaBraLady and we had to finally get a wedding gift into the hands of Archaeobirder and LitChcik.
We got on the road after picking up the ladies and the snow cleared up in time for us to get a good look at an eagle's nest along the Juniata River. No one was home as far as we could see but it was obviously a nest of a few years in the making. It was so big!

We made a stop in Dauphin to find 4Rhine's Torchlight letterbox. After choosing the wrong road to explore we reoriented and set out on foot to find this little gem. It was cold but no new snow was on the ground so the four of us had no problem walking the letterbox back to stamp up in the warm car. It was so much fun to sit and chat about letterboxing with Maga11 and DaBraLady. We know that they usually think we are crazy for the amount of time and effort we put into this hobby so having them along for the hunt was very special for us.

The next stop was Cucumber Land. RGBisMe and I had put this letterbox out a few weeks prior to the event but Maga11 and DaBraLady wanted a chance to find it. It was so much fun to watch them out on one of their first hunts without us seeking with them. As we got closer to the box, we ran into the 4Rhines! Hugs and handshakes were shared and RGBisMe and I stood and chatted with them as Maga11 and DaBraLady continued on to the box. We told Fiona how much we had enjoyed finding Torchlight and that it was in very good shape.

As we caught up with the 4Rhines, we realized that we could see Maga11 and DaBraLady had veered off course from where we had hidden the box. It hadn't been so very long but Stonefly asked me a good question, "How long do you let someone look in the wrong place?" We started to discuss this and I decided that it was only cruel to let them stumble in the cold. I took a step to tell them to walk a bit more to their left when I saw that they had found it. Excellent! Nothing feels better than a success without someone hand holding you to the letterbox. They did just fine and didn't wander around anymore than we would have if we hadn't know exactly where it was.

Off to Neato Burrito where I ate half of a wonderful black bean burrito with salsa verde. We took the no utensils challenge but shocked the restaurant staff when we sent back the plastic fork and knife they served with our burritos. What was the good of giving us forks and knives that we would just throw in the garbage unused?! We saved wasting them on us; we don't need no stinkin' utensils!

The next few hours were spent in a blur. We gave Archaeobirder his belated wedding gift and many people kept thinking that it was some type of special letterbox. I was happy to get to meet Catlady8 and the Big Bad Wolfes but I never got to visit with many other friends. I had made it a point to watch "O Brother Where art Thou" the night before just to sit and discuss it with Indigo Vulture but all I managed to do was wish him a safe trip home. I spent about the same amount of time chatting with Pink Panther and Lotus, and even less with others. There just is never enough time.

Through all of this I never even sat with Maga11 nor DaBralady. It was near the end of the afternoon I checked in with DaBraLady whose eyes had glazed over a bit. Oh my, to be a new comer at a letterboxing get together is even more overwhelming and I had forgotten. We said our good byes and shared stories on the way home in the car. Having not spent much time together at the restaurant allowed us totally different interactions. It was fun hearing what each other had experienced during our time but feet from each other.

Thank you Hunter Jumper and PA Paddler for coordinating this mini meet and the wonderful event stamps. An indoor get together is just what was called for in central PA at this time of year. Burritos and Other Delights can be viewed at this link. Please add to this album if you took any at the Neato Burrito mini meet or on your trip to it.

Geocaching on Nittany Mountain

It's just 1pm and I am sitting in my warm apartment blogging away but earlier this morning I was hiking on Nittany. When I woke to single digit temperatures I never thought that I would be doing something like that but some obstinate spirit possessed me.

A new geocache was approved on Nittany Mountain this morning. I compared the coordinates of where it was to where my letterboxes are. I try to mark all of my letterboxes with my gps for reasons like this. I took time and put the info on google maps and can look at where they all are at an easy glance. This allowed me to also put in where the new geocache was. It looked like it was 100 feet from my one box. That concerned me because there is a thick stand of little pines right where the cache could be and geocachers might have poor satellite reception when seeking the cache. I really didn't want them to find this box and moving it would be tricky because it's location is critical in a clue to finding a bonus box in it's series.

I looked at the clue to the new cache and looked at the thermometer. Brrrrr, no way. A letterboxing pal I was chatting with online asked what I was doing today. I told him, "Staying home and cooking vegan food." Having put it into type, that made it so. No more thinking of hiking in the cold windy weather. No more being tempted by the long abandoned call of FTF a geocache but I had to check the log just one last time to see if anyone had found it. No finders but a note from someone saying, "If it wasn't so cold, I would go and get it." AUGH! That did it! I had to go.

At 10 am, I was throwing food and stuff into my pack. RGBisMe called and I told him my plan. I grabbed my bike and started the bitter and grueling trek to the trail head. While huffing and puffing, I had plenty of time to ask myself why I was doing it. I wondered if it was just to be first and if someone else had logged in first if I would be disappointed. I was clear on that, I wouldn't be disappointed because the call of FTF was spurring me into checking on it's location. It was also throwing me into another extreme weather adventure on the mountain. I had hiked it years earlier in a hurricane. I am not sure why when the weather turns foul that I am compelled to tackle the mountain. Hiking it in good weather is really a challenge enough.

Now don't all of you letterboxing geobashers® start in on me. I know I have a problem with getting the call of the FTF out of my system. Geocaching in this area years ago started it. Our posse, Deetylong, Diggles & Liggles and others would dash to a cache to try to beat each other as first finders. Deetylong was truly king before he left the area. This abhorrent twist on the geocaching game sadly gave many newbie geocache locals the impression that was the thing to do. An older couple we knew through my work who were interested in finding out more about geocaching came to a local event, much like our Huntin' Tupperware last year. At that time they had not settled on a trail name but they soaked all of the information up, including the call of FTF. When we speak of the now geo-famous carels, we usually say that we were responsible for creating a monster.

Carels came to mind this morning as I started up Mount Nittany Road, there was a yellow Hummer like theirs parked at the bottom of the hill. If anyone else in town would be foolish enough to brave what was 11° when I left the house, it would be them. They had gone on crazy hikes to find geocaches by bushwhacking for miles, fording rushing rivers, scaling sheer volcanic rock faces. Crazy and amazing people, they are also some of the most positive and kind folks we have ever met.

I was all warmed up for my hike from biking when I reached the trail head. There it was, the yellow hummer and carels sitting inside with the heater running. I waved to them and they jumped out into the cold to greet me. I asked if they were just starting out, waiting for someone or if they had already been successful. They had just returned from being first finders. I congratulated them and told them about someone logging that it was too cold to go for the cache was what goaded me into coming out. They laughed and we swapped a few stories before I hit the trail.

I had no problem with making the hike even knowing I would not be first and the hike alone was pleasant. The snow under feet my made menacing noises as it can in super cold temperatures. I started up the north face but the cache was on the south side of the mountain. The cold weather kept most people from the trails even though there were no classes on MLK jr holiday. One lone hiker on the south face passed me going in the other direction. He sure was a hottie and added to the beautiful scenery.

As I got within a tenth of a mile of the cache, I was getting a little concerned about how close my letterbox was going to be. As I approached the blue side trail and tight group of pines I checked my gps to see how much farther it was to the cache. If people started to look behind logs and things at this point I would be in trouble. The gps said I had over 250 feet to go to the cache so I breathed a sigh of relief. It was well down the trail away from my closest letterbox.

So, mission accomplished. My toes had gotten a little cold at one point during my ascent but once I hit the level they seemed to warm up. I kept my cell phone close to a hot spot on my body in case of an emergency but it looked like I would make it home in time for lunch. Do I keep going 250 more feet to find a geocache that has already been found or head back to my bike? Lead on gps, let's see where that cache actually is.

The cache was placed in a very tasteful manner where nothing will be damaged if the seekers have common sense and good satellite reception. It was a cammo taped Lock n Lock packed with McToys and a used deck of kids cards. A geocoin that carels had left was on top but who knows when I would be able to put it into another cache. I took nothing, stamped into the log and left a coupon good for one hand carved stamp before replacing the cache.

As I returned to the trail head and my bike I mused as to why I had left the coupon. We originally started leaving them as trade items in geocaches to try to get a few cachers to try some of our letterboxes. Of the ten or so RGBisMe and I have carved for geocachers, not one has shown any interest in letterboxing. It's not that they don't know about it. It's not that the hikes are too hard for some of them like carels. They even have some brain ticklers that are required to solve some of their coordinates so it's not like all of our clues would be too difficult for them. I know Archaeobirder has also geocached so I conclude that although the hobbies are similar, there must be some elements lacking in letterboxing that do not entice local geocachers.

I think it is fine that both hobbies currently peacefully coexist and I will hope that they will continue to. I will keep my finger lightly on the pulse of the geocaching community so that I can stay aware of how my letterboxes might be effected. Today a geocache got me out on the trail. I am glad for it.

Études

On June 3rd, American Ballet Theatre will have a revival performance of Études. The company has not performed the piece since 2000, Études is set to music by Knudaage Riisager, after Carl Czerny, and features costumes by Rolf Gerard and lighting by Nananne Porcher. The ballet was given its World Premiere by the Royal Danish Ballet in 1948 and was danced by ABT for the first time in 1961. The revival of Études will be staged for ABT by Susan Jones. The ballet will share the program with the new Tharp ballet for seven performances through June 7.

Many of you have kindly asked how Ravenboy is doing. His MRI came back showing very little tearing of his ligaments. Between his doctors, PTs and company staff, they will coach him in a way to minimize future tendonitis. At this point, he is in no pain and building back strength. This past week was his first full week back to work, they were kind in not giving him a heavy rehearsal schedule. He gave us a call yesterday to say that he has been cast in the first cast of Études. He is cast so amazingly well, a showcased role, that principal dancer Herman Cornejo is his understudy. We all agreed that being cast in such a part is wonderful incentive to heal up well.

Thank all of you for your love, thoughts and prayers during a time that was quite distressing for this family.

Ironton Rail Trail

We spent this past weekend visiting Tracdc and managed to sneak in a few letterboxes between birthday celebrations. We met up with Biker Chick and explored the Ironton Rail Trail. The level walking was just right for Tracdc who is finishing up building strength after her October foot surgery. It was another fine day for being out and, after the warmth of the week, the trail was muddy in most spots. We all came away with a little dirt on our pants, some more than others, but we also acquired many lovely carving impressions in our logbooks. Seven new ones in all.

One of the boxes we found in the open and scattered around. Everything was there except the log book but Biker Chick had a replacement to offer. We packaged it and replaced it to where we thought it belonged. I hope the placer might check to make sure. We were all happy the stamp was still there, stamped the image into the new log book as well as our own and hid the box for the next finders.

A couple of the boxes were on an unimproved section of the trail. We had a more difficult time navigating through the mud there. There was also a lot of gun fire nearby that was more and more unnerving as we got closer to where the boxes were. RGBisMe was so disturbed by the close shots that he left the one box for lost and went to find the other. He and Biker Chick found the one box and Tracdc and I grabbed the other. We moved away from the hiding places and gun shots to stamp in when we saw that there were "No Trespassing" signs along the side of the road. We were actually seeking boxes on posted shooting grounds! We packaged the boxes up and braved the noise of the guns to replace them. Sorry we trespassed but we put things back like we found them before we walked back via the paved road that runs parallel to the unimproved section of trail.

Beautiful skies, pretty flowing creeks and plenty of good company made for an enjoyable time letterboxing on the Ironton Rail Trail this past weekend.