• found 66 letterboxes
• placed 8 letterboxes

GAQLBE08

This year I participated in the Great AtlasQuest LetterBoxing Exchange for the first time. My goal was to co-plant letterbox hybrids - letterboxes that would be posted on Atlas Quest and on Geocaching.com. Deniserows, a fellow letterboxer/geocacher paired up with me. She came up with the idea of carving a stamp with the mascots of AQ (Marjorie the Chick) and GC (Signal the Frog). Not only was it a pairing of 2 letterboxer/geocachers, but also a pairing of mascots and a pairing of 2 countries - US and Canada.

I finally found a spot that was, most importantly, near enough to take sufficient care of the box and secondly, in a somewhat interesting location. I say somewhat because It's getting really difficult to find scenic places around here that don't already have a geocache. The box needs to be 0.1 miles away from any other cache. There are already 1 nearby letterbox hybrid, 1 geocache and 1 pure letterbox. This section of the trail has some interest in that it backs onto the old Kortright Waterfowl Park. I added some historical information about the area to the description page. I also like this area for winter hiking. It's a nice quiet location for a short hike and has distinct winter trails. The trails can get a little overrun with vegetation (grasses, goldenrod, etc.) in the summer months.

I don't expect much in the way of letterboxer visits -- it's so uncomfortable to stamp outdoors in the winter months. There have been a handful of geocachers so far - one even mentioned, in his online log, stamping in to the box's logbook. :)

York Regional Forests

Some useful maps:

Scout trail

Hollidge trail

Had a great time finding a few of Ondine's wonderful stamps. They are all hand-carved original artwork. Ondine is an artist and even has her own shop on Etsy.

Beautiful Hockley Valley

First stop the Hitchhiker Chalet in Hockley Valley to drop off "Lessons Learned" and pick one up. Found "Hugs and Kisses" in the box which has travelled fairly extensively.

Next I walked down the road to the Bruce trailhead to visit Trailfeather's Celtic Animals series on the Tom East loop. What a great hike that was. A long one, took me about 3 hours to find the 3 letterboxes plus 4 geocaches. The weather was cool but comfortable. Still some leaves on the trees so it was quite picturesque. Great scenic view of the Inn and ski hills and golf course, between letterbox #1 and #2. Lovely valleys covered in autumn leaves. The stamps were really well done - fine lined celtic designs were carved into Speedball's pink stuff by Trailfeathers.

Afterwards I drove to the wind farm in Shelbourne to visit Motorcycles - Harley Davidson. Very surreal, these wind monsters. Kind of reminds me of 'War of the Worlds' but not frightening - these are good aliens.

Then on to Dundalk for motorcycles - Orange County Choppers. Nice little public park. Quiet area this time of the year. Hiding spot could get muggly in the summer months.

GAQLBE08 - Scottish Highland Games by Fiddleheads and Woody clowns

What a great job by Woody Clowns and Fiddleheads. Woody Clowns did a fantastic job on the handcarved stamp, handmade logbook (coptic stitch) and LTC of the stamp image. All done in a Scottish theme. Beautiful. And Fiddleheads did a great job of hiding the box in the most scenic part of downtown Fergus - the area is almost a hidden secret that I'm sure lots of people miss while passing through.

I noticed that a fellow geocacher had found "Onions Have Layers" in Hamilton. I asked him if the letterbox was on private property, as I suspected (see May 1). He confirmed that it was indeed at the house with the black iron archway which he tells me is now painted grey. He doesn't remember whether the stamp was commercial or handcarved. Guess he's not in it for the stamp, but rather for the hunt. Not like me, where I'm keen on hand-carved stamps but not that keen that I want to enter private property especially if I have to go into the backyard - just seems rude and might get me into trouble. This one was not in a picturesque part of town and it was very far away.

Along the Bruce Trail by the RJs
LBNA 39878

Message I sent to the RJs:

Hello RJs

I drove to Ancaster today but didn't get all the way to the falls. I'm wondering if I was going in the right direction.

I parked at the Scenic Drive trailhead and walked 1.5 km to the Iroquois Heights side trail post then I walked south on the IHST for another 1.5 kilometers before meeting up with a father with his young son. I asked him if there was a waterfall further ahead. He said yes but it was about another 1/2 hour walk. It was already after 3 in the afternoon and I had about a 30 minute walk back to the parking lot and then a 45 minute drive to get back home and then I needed to get dinner ready. So I aborted the mission.

I would like to try again but I want to be sure that I was on the right trail and going in the right direction. I'd like to get back in a week or two before the weather gets too cold.

Update: I looked at geocaching.com and see that there's a geocache nearby and geocachers have been finding the letterbox. They report that it's wet. I also found out that I walked about 2.5 km too far. It's about 285meters from the Scenic Drive entrance. But the Iroquois Heights side trail post was 1.5 km further west. Geez, I passed within meters of the letterbox but I didn't see a waterfall or a side trail name. Dang. I thought I needed to go to Tiffany Falls or maybe Scenic Falls but there's another one near the trailhead which you can't see unless you know exactly where to look.

Update Oct 20: Got a message back from the geocache owner (not the letterbox owner). He tells me that the stamp is commercial, box is in rough shape, the container is not water tolerant and the logsheet is a wet pile of mush.

Update Oct 24: Still haven't heard back from the letterbox owners (RJs). Not surprised since that happens regularly when trying to contact someone via LBNA (sometimes I think it stands for LetterBoxer/LetterBox Not Available). Oct 27, still no reply from the lb owner.

GAQLBE08- Migrating from Virginia to Canada planted by Landmark Leapsters, carved by Beach Gal

I'm really liking letterboxes with stamps carved by non-locals. Fiddleheads has teamed up with Kirbert as well as other American carvers for the Box ON event. Makes for some great variety. Now Landmark Leapsters has teamed up with Beach Gal. (Deniserows and I are in the early stages of an exchange. Hopefully we'll be planting by springtime 2009.)

I found the title of this box interesting and didn't see the connection until I saw the stamp. Nice stamp.

Found Mooovin On hitchhiker in the box. Cute stamp. Placed it in "Sugar Rush" on Oct 17. Also, digitally photographed the logbook pages and emailed them to the owners.

Royal Hide and Seek planted by Fiddleheads in the Arboretum, Guelph

Royals Baseball by
Box ON Crown by Fiddleheads
Royal Coat of Arms for the United Kingdom by Mudflinging Fools

Tucked away in the Conifer Collection. Found Royals and Crown at the event so this is the 2nd time I've stamped them. Never did see Royal Coat of Arms at the event so this was a nice addition to the logbook.

Natural Fun now called "Sugar Rush" by Meades from Manitoba

Went to the Nature Centre at the Laurel Creek Conservation Area because it was the only place I could find in KW that had a "living roof". This turns out not to be the place. So there must be a natural area in Kitchener with a living roof. I couldn't find any park in KW with "great" in it's name. Oh well, 35km to Waterloo, 35km back plus $4.50 entry fee to the Conservation Area. Good thing gas prices are down a bit. I am going to have to do some more online searching. Maybe this natural area is brand new.

Just checked LBNA and it looks like the title was changed to "Sugar Rush". A hint. I will keep searching....got it. The change in title definitely made the difference - not sure why but I happened upon the correct location with the help of the title but I don't yet understand it's relevance. Maybe has something to do with maple syrup.

Update: Found it on October 17. Never heard back from the Meades. Anyway, Kitchener's new Natural Area was really picturesque this time of year. I had a great walk past the pond and through the forest. To top things off there were 2 geocaches in the park.

Princess Chickiepoo by studioloo

Lovely time of the year to be outside. Thanks for the adventure. And thanks for the handcarved Princess Chickiepoo image

Saw Mill Creek - A Cupcake on the Way to the Bull Worm by studioloo

Great day for a walk in the woods. Nice trail. Beautiful "graffiti" under the bridge, glad I got to see it. Nice to find 2 happy hand-carved stamps. Good job studioloo. Thanks for introducing me to Saw Mill Creek trails. BTW I was first to find.

Box ON Event

What a full day of meeting people and finding letterboxes. Spent the morning exchanging and talking and stamping. Had lunch then started off to find some boxes. Hooked up right away with Water Lily and Miss Piggy. They are great letterboxers, nothing fazes them -- dirt, spider webs, puzzling clues -- it's all a piece of cake. Found 3 hitchhikers during our escapade so we each took one. One of the HHs was my "Bye Bye Birdie" which Miss Piggy got. We did the boxes on both sides of the river but didn't go across Woodlawn for the other boxes - which was fine with me since I had planted all of those boxes. The only box we couldn't find in the park was Sceptre but we got all the rest. Fish Under the Ice (another geocacher/letterboxer) brought a Letterboxing Geocoin with him to show me. I was thrilled. It's a beauty. I love that the geocaching community celebrated letterboxing with a commemorative coin.

It was a great event. Fiddleheads was our event organizer and she did a great job. She's so easy going which was reflected in the whole mood of the day. Easy and fun.

Looking for Night by the Fiddleheads and Kirbert

First of a kind for me. Got there around 5:30pm which proved to be a little too early. Did some wandering around and at around 5:45 things started to work, I found my first tack without the flashlight. By 6pm it was dark enough with my high powered flashlight to make out the tacks without much difficulty. What a unique challenge! Very enjoyable. I smiled when I saw the logbook. As usual I was wowed by Kirbert's stamp - the presentation and image. I was looking forward to seeing what his non-plane stamps looked like. A great all-round job. Thank you for a great time Fiddleheads and Kirbert.

My first coptic stitched handmade logbook

This book will be my Box ON Guelph 2008 event logbook

A Royal Invitation by the Landmark Leapsters

Kitchener

Loved the stamp and theme.

Box ON Guelph 2008 Puzzle Boxes

Great stamps. A mix of carvers - Fiddleheads, Landmark Leapsters and SHH.

Fun logic-puzzle-format.

Royal themed stamps - all well carved. SHH's stamp was especially inspiring - very detailed architectural image.

Owen Sound

Niagara Escarpment Series - #5 Harrison Park by Water Lily

Drove to the park from the north but the bridge was closed for construction. Found the south way in via Inglis Falls Road. The park was lovely this time of year. I did some thorough searching around the base and roots for "Bird Sanctuary", even left and went back for just one more look. "Underground Terminus" was a quick and easy find, the hard part was being stealthy. Lucky for me it was a weekday so it wasn't really busy. The long grass in the area did a good job at keeping the box well hidden. Thanks for the hand-carved stamp image Water Lily. While in the park I also found a geocache in a nice location in a different part of Harrison Park so I had a nice little tour of the area.

Niagara Escarpment Series - #2 Bognor Marsh Management Area by Water Lily

After Harrison Park, I drove over for some adventure at Bognor Marsh. Did the "Soaring with the Turkeys" first - quite the exercise for me. I was amazed with the number of frogs. There must have been 1000s. Along the route where a truck had driven through there were many mini ponds in the tire track ruts. Every step I took sent at least 10 frogs at a time diving for cover into these large puddles. Took a water break at the trail sign (so glad I brought water with me, sometimes I forget). Wasn't absolutely sure if I should follow the sign with the turkey vulture pointing further ahead or take the "main trail" to the left. I went with the instructions and took the main trail.

The box was very well hidden and in great shape. I was the first finder. Next I backtracked to the washroom and went over to the boardwalk. I really liked the boardwalk. Peaceful (no deerflies or mosquitos here - glad they don't like marshes for some reason). Lots of dragonflies and barn swallows (maybe the swallows were keeping the mosquito and fly population down). Saw an interesting artificial tube nest which I read from one of the signs is a mallard duck nest. Never saw a man-made mallard duck nest before. Found the box quickly and enjoyed the black & red bird theme. I was the first finder for this box too. Thanks for the strenous exercise followed by a peaceful stroll on the marsh.

Airport Run

Today I set out for the Guelph Airport geocache and the Brampton Airport letterbox.

The Guelph Airport geocache was a great puzzle style cache. I tried to figure it out a few weeks ago but I put too much thought into it. I did more airport research then I needed to. After looking at the maps a few times it clicked and then I got the pattern. But geez, I tried the geochecker and my coords were wrong. Went through each of the airports again and still got it wrong, Finally I saw my error and the geochecker announced 'Success!' Thank gosh for geochecker. It was a very creative puzzle making excellent use of online satellite maps. For a real feel for the airport I highly recommend Fiddlehead and Kirbert's letterbox.

Off to Cheltenham to visit Fokkers Dr. I at the Brampton Airport. Another very nice airport experience. If I didn't have the dog with me I would have visited the restaurant to get a fuller experience of the airport. The letterbox was a driveby so I didn't have to take the dog out of the car (worried she would draw more attention to me if I did). The stamp was a wonderfully crafted Kirbert stamp. He has an amazing ability to carve fine straight lines - the stamp image comes out looking like a commercial stamp. The addition of the red marker completes the image. I highly recommend this letterbox.

While in the area I did a few more caches and then headed home after a full morning and afternoon of daytripping.

A very long day of driving, letterboxing, geocaching and waymarking through Grimsby and St Catherines.

Grimsby

CanadaNurse by Captain Jack (for his wonderful sister Anne)

Loved this one. Old historic church and cemetery. Unique way they've levitated a few headstones on pillars (not sure why) but it looked very unique. Beside these tables were a few very large thin flat headstones, each about 6 feet tall and 4 feet wide. Where the box was hidden the huge maple had embedded a headstone into its roots. I looked up at that tree and imagined that George's (the name on the headstone) DNA was entwined in it's structure. Nice hide. Great hand-carved stamp, an image of a fictional nurse, the subject of books that Anne enjoyed. The cache was just big enough to take Landmark Leapster's Hitchhiker, 'A Single Bloom'. Turns out our public library has the Cherry Ames nurse series. I'm going to pick up a copy of the first of the series. Update: I did get a copy of the first Cherry Ames book - very Nancy Drew. :)

Next while in Grimsby I tried to locate a geocache by Forty Mile Creek near Beamers Falls. But no luck. The GPS signal was bouncing around and the clues were too vague for me. But the Bruce Trail along the creek is amazing. Really would be a great place for a letterbox.

Next stop in Grimsby was a country trail to find a letterbox hybrid 'Story Book'. The cache was in rough shape but the contents were fine. The stamp was a custom-made word stamp.

St Catherines

Rock It by the Porchrockers

Very nice walk with my dog on the Bruce Trail in Rockway Glen. Scary views of the gorge below. Beautiful trails. The instructions were good and I found the box quickly. The box contained a foam commercial stamp. Lots of U.S. visitors in the logbook. The box was big enough to hold Ondine's 'Hunters Moon'. I'm hoping it gets to travel into the States shortly.

Next on the Grape Escape. The poem instructions were good so I'm 99.9% sure I was looking in the right place. I spent about 5 minutes looking from all angles but didn't see it. There was another antique object, non metal next to it I looked underneath it. No letterbox. The location was unique and quite lovely, too bad I didn't find the letterbox to top the visit off.

Next stop, Port Dalhousie to find Sunset View. Loved the houses in the area, reminded me of the cottages on Toronto Island - some small, some upscale and very expensive. Very tight but still had a cottagey, homey feeling. The stamp is not for the shy at heart, I quickly and as non-chalantly as possible, went up to the fence found the mailbox, pulled out the box and walked back to the car without looking at any of the surrounding houses. I hoped no one was looking at me. Loved going through the logbook. Lots of American visitors, lots of hitchhikers had passed through. Lots of great comments. The house is up for sale. My guess is that once it's sold the letterbox will move with the occupants.

Afterwards stopped off in Ontario Gardens where I found one cache.

A quick stop at Jordan Hollows for a micro cache. Then on to Balls Falls where I was hoping to find Beals Ball Falls Letterbox.Cost $5 to park the car. The instructions were good and the location was pretty obvious but no letterbox. The upper and lower falls were a sight to see. So much water at the upper falls, the water was not only cascading over the rocks from the north end but also pouring out from between the rocks and the west side. I can imagine that whole wall giving way coming down in a huge roar one of these centuries. I took photos and coord readings in order to waymark them.

Fun at Riverside by Landmark Leapsters

Parked by the concert shell and came at Toot Toot backwards. Found the 'naturalization' sign and then followed the rest of the clues. Got to a spot and had a look. Hmmm. Nothing. Maybe I read the clues wrong. Went back towards the playground and re-did the instructions. Ended up in the same place, looked more thoroughly. Nothing. Decided to try 'Flying Horse'. Scratched my head at first about the directions and then it dawned on me what they meant, very nice clues, not obvious but once you see them you know you've got it right. Nice walk in the forested section of the park. Great handcarved stamp. A bench is pointed out in the clues. It was definitely the bench that I was near when looking for Toot Toot so back I went and this time, feeling more confident that I was in the right place my eyes focussed and I found it. This section of the park can be muggly but lucky for me it was a rather quiet late Saturday afternoon so I was not surprised by muggles will retrieving and putting back the box.

A Walk in the Woods by Landmark Leapsters

A nice walk in the woods with my dog, a great view of the river and some fun hand-carved stamp images. This one will be especially nice in the Fall when the leaves are turning.

That Chickadee Feeling...by the McV Team

Nice walk - trees, stream, boardwalks, footbridges. I made it to the stream beneath the boardwalk at which point I reached for my GPS unit to be sure it was marking my way. It wasn't on my hip! Oh no, I realized I left it sitting on the hood of the car. Back to the car I ran in a panic. Whew, it was where I left it. Grabbed it and back into the woods I went. When I got back to the end of the boardwalk I went uphill through the tall grass. I tried several faint trails but kept getting stopped by trees and bushes. Back to the boardwalk and this time I tried the more obvious trail (along the stream even though the clues said to take the high road not the one along the stream) and eventually got to the cornfield.

Got to the box location and quickly found the box.The box was well hidden and in good shape. Very nice hand-carved stamp. Looked like original art.

Thanks for the introduction to the trails in this area.

A Gift by Landmark Leapsters

I was very impressed with the stamp, loved the image. The threat of rain kept people to a minimum in the park so I didn't have any trouble with the retrieve and return.
Thanks so much for the FTF prize "A Single Bloom" hitchhiker. I hope to move it on next week when I plan to do a couple of days of more intensive letterboxing.

Who Doesn't Love a Picnic by Landmark Leapsters

A fun find with a fun stamp to boot. I was first finder and enjoyed the gift of an Ondine hitchhiker - Hunter's Moon.

Dog-Gone Fun by the Meades from Manitoba

Indeed it was fun. My dog and I enjoyed a peaceful stroll on the forest trail. Had the place to ourselves today. The directions were good. I enjoyed the handcrafted fun-foam logbook with the yellow ties. Nice hand-carved stamp. Afterwards I took my dog to the off-leash area for a romp with all the other dogs. Thanks Meades, a job well done.

Pirates in Guelph series by the 4Sailors

What I liked about this series:

* Hand-carved stamps that match the theme

* Fun pirate story

* Nice hides

* Very pleasant Sunday morning walk in the forest.

* The trails were in good shape. I've been here a couple of times when the trails were quite wet. Only 2 wet areas to traverse today and my feet stayed dry.

* Good landmarks and directions. It was a long distance between boxes so a couple of times I wondered if I was off track but when I got to the right landmark there was no doubt I was in the correct spot.

* I found my own hitchhiker. What a surprise to see it. I stamped it into the letterbox's logbook and the last series stamp (#5) into the HH's logbook.

Thanks 4Sailors for a very nice letterbox series. I had a great time. :)

Dr. Frog's Patients

Found the location. Directions were accurate. Found the garage, the fence. There was an unpleasant odour coming from the compost bin right next to the corner of the fence where the box was apparently supposed to be. Next to the compost bin, the front half of an eaten lobster carcass watched over my search. I pushed away a pile of wet decomposing leaves but did not find the box. Nearby was a pile of branches with a heap of composting leaves on top of them. I peered into the open spaces of the branches with the hope of seeing a box but no luck. The branches were big and heavy and the leaves were wet and moldy so I didn't want to start dismantling the pile. I aborted the mission.

Grass Island and Carrying a Load by the Rothbels

I went out at lunch for a quick round of letterboxing. It was a pleasant surprise to find a hand-carved stamp inside each of the letterboxes. It was also nice to be introduced to this part of the trail system I had never been before. And to top things off there are geocaches in the area too (I found 2, there were more but I didn't have enough time so I'll have to come back). Directions/clues were clear, I had no trouble interpreting them. The 'Carry the Load' box took me longer to find.

Finders need to be vigilant about covering up both boxes really well and be on the lookout for muggles when removing/replacing the box.

Plastic bags over the letterbox container: 90% of the hides in Kitchener-Waterloo use this method of protecting the box. It can be messy because it traps moisture.The plastic bag doesn't last long, maybe a week before an animal chews a hole in it or holes get poked through it by stones or the sun ends up quickly breaking down the plastic. The outer bag eventually makes the letterbox slimey with moisture and mud and mould. A good container like a lock n lock or rubbermaid box is protection enough. I've been experimenting with one of my lock n lock hides (Reservoir Dog), there are no baggies in the box. The logbook is not covered (for over a year) and has remained dry, that shows just how water-tight lock n locks can be.

Update: the Rothbels are keen hiders and have emailed me a couple of times.

Update: on the weekend I discovered a blue inkpad under the seat of my car and realized that after stamping up in the car, I didn't put the inkpad back into 'Carrying a Load'. I drove over on Monday to put it back. All was well with the box and there were no new visitors. The Rothbels have been notified of the unfortunate inkpad fiasco.

A grumpy day for me. I drove into Hamilton to find Onions Have Layers

It was a 60km drive, one way (120km altogether). The area was not the nicest part of town. Mostly big city small rundown struggling shops.

Found Balmoral Ave N between Cannon and Barton and drove down the residential street 4 times from Barton to Cannon, from Cannon to Barton, and again, and again, looking for "the black archway". The only black archway I saw was in front of a house and the pathway led to the front door. There was a pathway between the houses but I wasn't going to trespass on someone's property for a letterbox. I know what a gingko leaf looks like and couldn't make out if any these newly budding trees were gingkos.

What I thought I would find was an archway leading into a municipal park or the grounds of a public building, but no such luck. There was a church on the next street over (Grosvenor) but there was no black archway leading from Balmoral to the church and I couldn't make out a gingko tree or anything that looked like an onion at the Grosvenor church.

Disappointing to have driven so far only to arrive at a urban residential street. The hider says that "(yes, we had permission first!)", so it made me think that the box was indeed on private residential property.

Wunderbar by Landmark Leapsters

What I liked about Wunderbar -- free parking near the starting point, interesting gazebo, good directions (I only flubbed once and had to retrack, which is really good for me), good sturdy container, and fun hand-carved stamp. I visited at a good time and didn't encounter anyone, had the place to myself. I was surprised to see that I was the 7th visitor -- I expected to be the 2nd. KW sure is hopping with mystery letterboxers. I hope some of them will make it to the BOG (Box ON Guelph) event in the Fall.

Got a report last week that Orangeville Letterbox might be missing and replaced by a geocache. Drove to Orangeville today to investigate. Well I had a look and yessiree there was the geocache - Credit River Coin Cache. I figured it was very likely that my letterbox was gone but I did a more thorough search and discovered my letterbox nicely tucked away out of sight - as I recall, in the place I had originally placed it. I checked the cache's logbook and apparently the cache was placed in the same month as mine, must have been just a few days later, although a letterboxer found my letterbox in August (a month after I planted it) and never reported seeing a geocache. A couple of letterboxers had logged into the cache but I found it strange that there were no other logs. When I got to a computer I found that Credit River Coin Cache had never been published. I can only guess that it is probably too close to another cache that is hidden in the park but I thought it was far enough away. Strange stuff.

I may end up retiring this box later in the Fall - get it while you can. Orangeville is quite far away and with gas prices at $1.20 per litre it's getting pricey to maintain distant boxes.

My Tribute to Canada's First Letterbox has just been planted in North Carolina for the BABE event. Tthe event that commemorates the first letterbox planted in North America. Max Patch was planted on April 26, 1998. I was invited by the Wolf Family to send a letterbox. Taking the BABE theme into consideration I decided that my letterbox contribution would pay tribute to the first letterbox planted in Canada. The Wolf Family planted in a remote and scenic location near the original location of Max Patch. Here are a few photos of the site (photographed by The Wolf Family):

View 1 | View 2 | View 3 | View 4 | View 5

Working on a dachshund virtual letterbox.
I hope to finish and post it today.......

It's ready: Lone R's VLB - Dogs - Dachshund