I have put together a series of ten boxes and I have them ready to plant today. I had made a decision about where I would plant them and I got everything ready for this morning. Also ArnoldZiffel placed one last box for my 10th anniversary - Rail Trail. This one is also on the Rail Trail near the ones I found yesterday. I left my house at around 8:00am and made my way to Rabbit Road. I walked the Rail Trail for about a quarter of a mile following the clues and I didn't have any problem finding the box. I was first finder and I loved this stamp - and actually I loved all the boxes that ArnoldZiffel, Astro D and Wronghat placed this week. When I finished stamping in and replacing the box I returned to my car to make my way to plant my boxes.The placed I picked to plant my boxes is the La Tierra Trails. From Rabbit Road I got onto I25 and headed south. I then took Exit 276 for NM599 and followed that for about 11 miles. Then I turned left onto Camino de los Montoyas and drove another mile to the parking area for the Calabasas Trailhead on the right.
In the parking area there is a large sign with a trail map and I studied it and compared it to my printed out map. It was much easier reading the big map but the printed one ended up working just fine. I made the decision to plant the boxes on a loop following the numbers 1-8 on the map. These numbers mark trail junctions and if you follow the signs you can easily get from one number to next. To start on the trail I had to cross the road and go through the fence.I walked a short distance along the trail and arrived at sign post 1. From here I started looking for landmarks that I could use to write clues and hide boxes. Almost immediately I realized that everything looks the same - junipers, pinons, rocks and dead trees. So I had to be creative and hopefully I could find something that I could use as a landmark. I was trying to gauge mileage using Map My Walk but soon realized that because I was going off trial and doubling back to find hiding spots I was not getting accurate distances. But I soldiered on. It was easy finding hiding spots but describing those spots proved challenging. I made sure to take good notes and pictures so that when I got home I could write the clues.
I tried using the sign post at the junctions but with ten boxes to plant and only eight junctions I had to use other landmarks. The trail is wide in some areas and narrow in others and is easy to walk on. There are also great views all around. You also cross a lot of washes along the way and I tried using those but I wasn't always clear if I should call something a wash or not - so I was picky about using them. Eventually I completed the loop and got all ten boxes planted and had quite a few notes and pictures to help write the clues. The boxes have a theme and that is the Number 10. Nine of the boxes are like that - images that conjure the number 10 in some way and the last box is a lion crest with the number 10. I did a similar image for my 5th anniversary (lionsmane's 5 Year Letterboxiversary) - a lion crest with the number 5. I got the idea for using images that represented the number 10 from a conversation with ArnoldZiffel. 
When I first started planning these boxes I wasn't sure how I wanted to them but I had a few ideas. They just didn't seem to work, so when ArnoldZiffel mention the number 10 idea from something she had seen or a series of boxes she had found I started looking into using that. It worked perfectly! And since there are ten boxes I decided to put only one logbook and that one is in Box #10. This box is called lionsmane's 10 Year Letterboxiversay. It took me around three hours to get all the boxes planted - that was me being choosey about the locations, doubling back, taking long notes and some pictures. I am estimating that it should take between one and two hours to find all the boxes. The length of the hike (walk) is around 3.5 miles and there is only about a 250 foot elevation gain during the walk. It isn't a hard walk but it is long and the area is pretty much open space so I believe that in summer it could get really hot so it would be good to take precautions. 
Sunblock, hat, sunglasses and water would be a good idea. There are maps at each trail junction to help you stay oriented but I would suggest printing out a trail map before you go looking for these boxes. I had a lot of fun planting these and I hope they are enjoyed by all who go and hunt for them.When I got back to my car I had one other box to plant. That was my Alphabetical New Mexico: Y (Yucca) box. The place I originally planted it was good but I realized there were no yuccas around so I pulled it and finally brought it out to the La Tierra Trails to hopefully place somewhere that had at least a few yuccas. I left the Calabasas Trailhead parking and drove to the Frijoles Trailhead parking. I left the parking area and went through the fence and started down the trail. At first I was discouraged since I wasn't seeing any yuccas and then about a quarter mile along the trail I saw a few. I decided to continue further along the trail to see if there were more, but I didn't see any. So I turned back and planted the box near the few I saw earlier. I took a few pictures and wrote some notes and then returned to my car.
It was a great day of planting and finding boxes and I am extremely happy to have this series done. It has been an incredible 10 years and I am looking forward to 10 more.
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