A Letterboxing Celebration

I have been letterboxing for 10 years now and I am still having lots of fun with the hobby. Today starts a celebration that will probably go on for three or four days. Every year since I started letterboxing I go out and letterbox on my anniversary as a kind of celebration. But this year is different - a milestone if you will. This morning a new clue popped up on Atlas Quest - Santa Fe Super Chief by Wronghat - the clue stated that the box was placed in celebration of my decade of letterboxing. I was excited when I saw the clue, so I printed it out and decided that sometime this afternoon I would go out and find it. But first I had lunch plans. Astro D and rubberpeace invited me to lunch to start the celebration. We met at The Ranch House (a favorite restaurant) around noon and immediately things were happening. rubberpeace gave me an LTC with images carved by both rubberpeace and rbrhorno. This LTC is a one of a kind - I have the only copy and I have a carved image by rubberpeace (she doesn't do the carving, rbrhorno does the carving). Astro D surprised me with a photo memory book spanning my 10 years of letterboxing (a very special gift) and a small logbook made from circuit boards (I will probably start using this for exchanges). And she also gave me an awesome lion card. We had a relaxing and wonderful visit.
After lunch I returned home and got my letterboxing things together and the clue for the new box. Thomas was home and he decided to come with me to find the box. This box is hidden on the Rail Trail near the Nine Mile Road access. Every morning I walk the Spur Trail to the junction with the Rail Trail and then I turn right and continue to that access point. Then I turn around and make my way back to the parking area for the Spur Trail. This walk is a 10.5 mile walk. But this afternoon I didn't walk all that way, we drove to Nine Mile Road and parked. We made our way to the trail and followed the clues to the box. We found it easily enough  and found a nice place to sit and stamp in. The afternoon was incredible - around 60° with clear blue skies. So the walk was great.

After stamping in and getting the box back into its hiding spot we returned to the car and then home. Tomorrow is my actual anniversary and I am planning a trip to Albuquerque for a few boxes. I also have a series of boxes to get planted as soon as I make a logbook and get the boxes finished. Hopefully before the end of the week.