999

After a great day of driving and letterboxing on Friday Thomas and I got a good rest in Ruidoso. Early the next morning we were up and got things ready for a hike. I won't tell you where we hiked because there are two letterboxes out there that are a little bit of a mystery (Smokey Bear and Great Western Mine) - so you will have to figure it out on your own. I can tell you about the hike though. We had a little bit of a drive to arrive at the trailhead, but it was a pleasant drive - the landscape is amazing. We passed a lake, lots of big trees and beautiful green mountains - oh and I can't forget the wildflowers everywhere.

At the trailhead the temperature was a cool 48º which we knew probably wouldn't last the entire day - by the time we finished the hike and returned to the car the temperature had risen to 82º - and it was still quite comfortable. So we started our hike and headed for our first destination which was only about a half mile up the trail (it may have been a little longer) - it was some ruins of an old homestead. In one spot there is a foundation with about two feet of wall and an obvious opening of a door. This is the area where the Smokey Bear letterbox is hidden. The box was originally placed by Dennis Williams. Last year I had emailed him about these boxes and he agreed to let me adopt them. So, I made complete new boxes (I carved new stamps, made logbooks and put them in Lock-n-Locks) and brought them with me to replace the old boxes. So I found the Smokey box and I cleaned off the original stamp and added it to the new box - so there is a stamp from Dennis and a stamp from me in the box. Once I had the box back in its hiding spot I took a few pictures and we continued on our way. Now I had found the Smokey box last year so it was easy this time around. But the next box was all new. We hiked a little further on the same trail and then hit a junction with another trail. We took the new trail. Dennis had emailed me the clues for his Great Western Mine box - but the clues were really just notes he had put in his journal. He had never posted the clues. So taking the second trail was part of the note I had received. So we continued - his note stated that he had hiked for about an hour and from the description he was either going really fast or it was a hard hike because he said he sweat like he had just run three miles. So I was a little leary of the intensity of this hike. After this hour he arrived at a 'murky pond'. So we timed ourselves and a little more than an hour passed and we came to something that may have resembled a pond but not really - we decided it would be the pond so that we could continue with the clues. At this point we decided to sit and have a snack and relax for a while. It was beautiful out there. We only saw two people on the trail at the beginning - but they stopped at the first of the stream crossings and we never saw them again (We had three stream crossings during the hike). During our rest we saw a couple of birds and a butterfly and tons of wildflowers. After a fifteen minute rest we continued on up and up and up. This trail was a constant uphill climb - in some places it was pretty steep and in others it was gradual. The total elevation gain for this trail from start to finish is 3300 feet. We didn't actually get to the very top of the trail so we didn't climb that high.

From the 'pond' area we continued - our next clue was another junction with what Dennis called a Jeep Trail. Eventually we came to a junction, and the trail we were on continued up and to the left and there was an unmarked trail going up straight from the trail we were on. We assumed this was what the clue was talking about. The clue then told us to site a large lichen encrusted boulder at so many degrees and the box was hidden there. So we did that - no box. We tried again - no box. Then we decided to scour the area and look around all the large boulders we saw - no box. We thought maybe this wasn't the spot since we never really encountered a pond and this area wasn't marked with a jeep trail. We decided to climb a little higher. After another 1/2 mile we decided that we had found the area just not the box. So we made our way back to the junction. At the junction, Thomas continued to search for the box and I hiked about a 1/2 mile up the jeep trail to see if we were at the right spot. The jeep trail was suppose to be associated with the mines. It did look like that was the case with this unmarked trail. So I decided we had found the right spot and I headed back down to meet Thomas. He still hadn't found the box so we talked about it, reread the clues and searched a little more. We still came up empty handed. But we had a box to plant - I had made a new one - so we found a good hiding spot and wrote out the clues. It was time to head back down. We both found the hike up to be pretty hard and we were glad that it was all downhill from here. We didn't think we could have climbed any more - we were pretty tired. So we made it back to the trailhead pretty fast. I looked at my watch and realized it had been five hours since we had started. Thomas had his pedometer on and we hiked a little over seven miles. We thought that it sure took us a long time but then realized we took quite a few breaks, spent a bit of time changing out the Smokey box and searching for the Great Western Mine box and I can't forget all the pictures I took (115 in all). Neither of us could think of a better way to spend five hours - the setting was amazing and we had the place to ourselves - we only saw two people from the time we started at the trailhead until our return.

Once we were settled in the car we left the area and headed for Las Cruces. We stopped to fill the car with gas and get something to eat for us. Forty-five minutes later we were back on the road. We arrived in Las Cruces, checked in to a hotel and decided to go for a letterbox that wasn't quite as far as the Great Western Mine. It was a one mile roundtrip walk on a level trail - we thought we could handle that. We found the Motel 6 Las Cruces - Hitchhiker Hostel easy enough. There really wasn't a good place to sit and stamp in and since we were staying in a hotel just down the hill from the box we decided to take the box there and I could stamp in easier and get to check out all the hitchhikers in it. So back in the room I opened the box and spread all the hitchhikers out. I first stamped into the box's logbook and stamped the box's stamp into my logbook. I had two hitchhikers with me that I wanted to leave in this box - so I made sure I had stamped into them and then added the Hostel's stamp into them and then put them into the box. There were four hitchhikers in the Hostel when I found it. The owners of the Hitchhiker Hostel asked that three hitchhikers remained in the box at all times. So I decided I would take three and leave the newest one in the Hostel. I decided to check that all the hitchhikers had been logged into the Hostel's logbook - I'm glad I did because two of them hadn't been logged. So I got everything in order, took three hitchhikers and left three in the box. With that done I walked back up the hill and replanted the box.

Now it was time for a shower and to straighten out my letterboxing stuff and log in the two boxes I planted. With everything done and clues ready for the next day we drifted off to sleep. We didn't set an alarm and decided we could sleep in. Even without the alarm we were up at 7:30am. By 9:00am we were having breakfast and by 10:00am we were planting our first letterbox of the day - Alphabetical New Mexico: G (Pat Garrett). We then tried to find one letterbox in Las Cruces before heading out but we were unsuccessful. It was already 86º so we decided to continue on with our plans. Since most of the boxes in Las Cruces were on hikes in open areas we didn't want to do them since it was already so hot. So we headed to Deming. A quick stop at Voiers Park awarded us a great Azroadie stamp (his stamps are always wonderful). It was in and out of Deming pretty fast as we headed up toward Hatch. Here we stopped at Frontera Mexican Imports and found an indoor box. You ask for it at the counter and I won't give away anything - but it was a clever hide and I enjoyed finding this box. At this point I have found 996 letterboxes. The goal of this trip was to get to 999 boxes and then my letterboxing buddy - Astro D - is planting a box for my 1000th find. (I really wanted this milestone to be one of her boxes - they are always excellent!) Three more boxes would do the trick. I looked at the clues I had and there was a box in Truth or Consequences and two boxes at the Bosque. A quick detour into TorC and I got an Astro D box - Spaceport: Fly Me to the Moon (997). Arriving at Bosque del Apache NWR, Thomas paid the entrance fee while I got a map and decided our plan of action. Two boxes to find - Dabbling Duck and Marsh Mellow - and one box to hide - Alphabetical New Mexico: S (Sandhill Crane). First we found Marsh Mellow on the Marsh Overlook Trail. We saw some beautiful sunflowers growing all over and had to deal with a few mosquitos. We took a quick detour after finding the box and walked out on the boardwalk. I am glad we did - we saw some turtles and a few ducks and I got my picture of the day (Bosque del Apache). We then drove the loop to find Dabbling Duck at one of the decks - it was funny because the clue states that there is a rock on top to discourage nesters and what do I find - a bird's nest on top of the rock. I stamped in and rehid the box. We needed to find a place to hide my Sandhill Crane box. We decided to drive around the loop again and scope out hiding spots. During this drive we saw a roadrunner and 9 wild turkeys. And then we found the perfect spot to hide the box. With all that done, this trip turned out to be very productive. We found 12 letterboxes & 5 hitchhikers and planted 8 letterboxes. And most importantly - I reached my 999 goal.
This had been a great trip. So we headed from the Bosque to Socorro to fill the car with gas and to get a bite to eat before heading back to Santa Fe. The drive home from Socorro was uneventful and we are both glad to be home. I must say that I have not seen New Mexico so green and so full of wildflowers in a long time - all the rain we have been having has made a noticeable difference.