Lots of Driving and Some Letterboxing

Letterboxes in the Farmington area have grown in number over the last few years and I haven't been up to that area in a while so I decided to tag along when Thomas told me he had to work in Farmington this week. On May 30th there is an event in Farmington so I will be back next week as well. I am hoping that these two trips will allow me to chip away at the list of boxes in that area. As I have been planning the trips and mapping out boxes I found out that there are over two hundred boxes available for me to find. I think it will require a few more trips to get caught up. But I am hoping I can at least put a dent in the list. So this morning I left Santa Fe to make my way to Farmington. I am going to meet Thomas there since he has to work this morning and will drive up later with a coworker.
My plan was to find a few boxes along US550 as I made my way north. There were six boxes I hadn't found yet. My first stop was at the Perea Nature Trail near San Ysidro.

View from Perea Nature Trail

Here I walked the one mile loop and found Sunny Delight's Another Duo: Coyote and C4's Another Duo: Roadrunner. They were both pretty easy to find and I enjoyed the morning walk all by myself - and I mean that - there wasn't another person around. I made my way back to the car and continued my drive north. A little past San Ysidro I stopped along the road to find Wronghat's Herma box. I quickly grabbed it and took it back to the car to stamp in. After replacing the box I got back on the road and made my way to Cuba. In Cuba I stopped to find a box from a series that I had found some of the boxes back in the winter. I couldn't get this one box because the rock it was under was frozen in place. Unfortunately I still didn't get the box. The rock I was looking for wasn't there and neither was the box.

Angel Peak

So I continued on until I got to CR 7175 and the entrance to the Angel Peak Scenic Area. I was here this past winter and there was snow everywhere so I couldn't find any boxes. So there were two boxes I needed to look for. I easily found Sunny Delight's Lone Hoodoo box and found a bench to sit on while stamping in - the bench is placed directly in front of Angel Peak so I had wonderful views while stamping in and I could also see the lone hoodoo just to the right of Angel Peak. After getting this box back in place I looked for the next box - C4's Angel's Song. I had no luck with this one - I am not sure if I was just reading the clues wrong or if I just wasn't seeing the right landmarks. After about 20 minutes of going back and forth on the trails I had to give up and move along. The next stop was just before Bloomfield off of CR 4990 on CR 4998 at the East Hammond Cemetery. Here I found Sunny Delight's Orange Jack-o-Lantern. This was a quick and easy find and I was back on the road in no time. I then stopped in Bloomfield to fill the car with gas and get a snack before I continued with my day.

In Bloomfield I drove east on US64 for about 45 miles and then took NM 527 north for 17 miles to the Sims Mesa area of Navajo Lake State Park. I looked for a series of five boxes by Sunny Delight called Animals of Navajo Lake State Park: Sims Mesa. But I only found three of the boxes - Mountain Lion, Rabbit and Bear - the Mouse and Bobcat eluded me or they ran away.

Wines of the San Juan

After spending about 40 minutes here I retraced my drive back to Bloomfield. Before I arrived in Bloomfield I made a stop near Blanco off of NM511 at The Wines of the San Juan. I pulled in and parked and went in search of two letterboxes. I found awty's Blue-Winged Olive quickly and took it back to the car to stamp in. I then replaced it and went in search of a second box. But as I was walking around a man came out and asked if he could help me. I told him I was just looking around and thought I would do a wine tasting. He then informed me that they were closed on Tuesdays but offered to do the tasting and that he was the owner. I was glad he did - they have some wonderful wines and I ended up leaving with three bottles - one for me and the others for friends. After the tasting I asked if I could walk around and take pictures - the owner said yes and I walked around taking pictures and trying to look for the box without being obvious. I found the landmarks but didn't see the box. I may have missed it since I felt uncomfortable knowing that the owner was in his house and could see me from there. So I decided to leave without finding the box. I then made my way to Bloomfield and the Riverwalk at the end of 1st Street. I think I had about six clues for the area. I started going in one direction and tried looking for four boxes - I only ended up finding two of the boxes and they were store bought so I didn't feel like putting too much energy into these boxes. At this point I decided to call it a day and drive to Farmington to the hotel. On the way I stopped and picked up a salad to have for dinner. I finally got checked in to the hotel and settled. It was a long day and a lot of driving but I did see some beautiful areas and had a great time. Now I need to plan what I am doing tomorrow.

A Couple of Boxes in 'Burque

Today I had a couple of things to do in Albuquerque so I decided to do a little letterboxing while I was in town. My plan was to leave a hour or so early and that would give me time to grab two letterboxes that were planted recently in Albuquerque. My first stop was at the Balloon Fiesta Park. I drove in and followed the clues. As I was entering the area I spotted the location in the clue. So I found a place to park and then looked around. There were some guys playing golf nearby but they weren't even looking my way and then there was a maintenance/groundskeeper in a truck on the other end of the parking area. Things seemed safe so I walked to the spot and easily found Public Hand's Balloons Over Albuquerque. I took the box back to the car to stamp in. When I was done I looked around and the place was empty. No guys playing golf - I guess they moved on and the groundskeeper was no where in site so it was easy for me to replace the box. So I left the park and headed to my next location. That was the Holiday Inn Express on Yale. This was a very quick find. I parked where the clue told me to park and I stepped out of the car, nabbed the box and then got back in the car to stamp in. This box is by Grumpy Grinch and is called Trolley Transport. After stamping in and replacing the box I was ready to go to my appointments. It was a nice morning of letterboxing and I thank the visitors to New Mexico for their presents.

A Drive and a Find

A couple of days ago Children of the Forest planted a new box. I had printed out the clue but wasn't sure when I would go to look for it since I didn't have any plans to head out in the direction of the box.

Lisboa Springs Fish Hatchery

But I had a great time letterboxing yesterday so I decided to start today the same way. So I headed out with letterboxing gear and clue and this time headed north on I25. I took the Pecos/Glorieta exit and then headed toward Pecos. When I arrived at NM63 I turned left and headed to the Lisboa Springs Fish Hatchery. When I arrived I turned into the area and followed the signs to the parking area. From here is was a short walk to find The Pecos Fish Hatchery box. This box is my 800th find in New Mexico. I brought the box back to my car to stamp in and when I was done I replaced the box and decided to walk around the hatchery. It was a little odd though, since the parking area had about 10 car and there was also a school but there, but I never saw any people. I walked around for about 20 minutes and then headed to the car. Thanks Children of the Forest for placing the box here and taking me to a new place.

Two Quick Finds

After my morning routine I decided I wanted to get out of the house and do something relaxing. So I gathered up my letterboxing stuff and clues to two boxes. Both of the boxes I looked for today were placed by Mim on her recent trip to Santa Fe. One is in the mountains off of Hyde Park Road and the other is in Cochiti.

So I decided to head up to the mountains first. It was a great early morning drive up Hyde Park Road with virtually no traffic. That was exactly what I wanted - a relaxing outing. I followed the clues which took me to a pullout about a half mile before reaching the Big Tesuque Campground. I pulled over and parked, grabbed the letterboxing bag and clues and set out. It was just a short walk to find On the Road with Matt and Mim: Vacationing in the Mountains. I found a log to sit on and stamp in while enjoying the peaceful setting. It was so quiet and I loved starting the day this way. Thanks Mim for placing a box here. [Incidentally, Mim wrote me a note about their adventure hiding this box and I think I had a much better time than they did - here is her story.]

When we planted this one Matt waited in the car for me. I came back to the car to ask him to check my clues. He left the keys in the car and helped me. Well, the car locked itself. (We have old cars with no power locks so we didn't really think about this happening.) So there we were, locked out of the rental car. No cell reception. No sweaters. We stopped a couple of cars on their way down but no one had reception. A young kid said he would call AAA for us from the bottom. We waited about a half hour and began to wonder if he really would call. So we flagged down another car and got a ride to the ranger station at Hyde Memorial Park. They let us use their land line. The kid had called AAA -what a nice kid!- and the estimated time of arrival was in about 20 min. The ranger drove us back up to our car (even though he was not supposed to leave his park boundaries) and we waited. The service truck was about 20 min late and had come, not from Santa Fe, but from some small town 18 miles away. Just under 2 hours start to finish. Not bad. Lots of nice people. It did eat up our time and kill our desire to do more letterboxing. Otherwise we would have gotten a lot more boxes up there. Oh well- next visit!

 Lesson here is always pocket your keys, invest in AAA, keep a light jacket on your person and always remember that anything can happen while you are out letterboxing - it is an adventure, so be prepared. Thankfully they weren't hurt and there was nothing serious (well I guess missing out on letterboxing can be a serious matter), only a loss of time.

Cochiti Lake

After replacing the box and returning to the car I made my way back down the mountain and then to I25. Here I headed south. I took exit 264 to NM16 and followed that to NM22. I turned right here and headed to Cochiti Recreation Area.  I pulled in and parked. The place was deserted, not a single car or person around. The gate to the parking area was open but the building (Visitor Center) was locked up tight. Luckily, I didn't have to go in to find the box. I walked around the right side of the building and easily found the trail. I followed the clues for a short distance down the trail and found Tent Rocks without any problems. [Mim originally wanted to place this box at Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument but they don't allow letterboxes so she decided to leave it at the Recreation Area instead.] This was another peaceful area to sit and stamp in. I replaced the box and returned to the car and still didn't see another person.

I really enjoyed the morning with a couple of great drives and a couple of really nice boxes. I need to make another trip out to this area. It has been quite a while since I visited Tent Rocks and I love the hikes there and I also need to hit the lake and do some kayaking. Now that the weather is starting to warm up maybe I can get these things done.

Lunch With Red Bird

Today I had lunch with Red Bird. She is visiting Santa Fe from Tennessee. She was staying near the Plaza so we met for lunch at the Palacio Cafe on Palace. I love this place - it is small and quiet and I love the food - I have never had anything bad here. We visited for about an hour and a half and did an exchange. I answered some questions about some of the boxes in the area and we just talked about letterboxing in general. It was a nice visit and she seemed to be enjoying her time in Santa Fe. I hope more people visiting the area will contact us so we can have a meet.

A Morning of Letterboxing in Santa Fe

I have gotten a few messages about some issues with some of my boxes lately and I have put off going out and checking them. I also have a couple of clues for new boxes in Santa Fe. So I decided that today I would head out and take care of all of these things. I headed out with all my letterboxing gear and made my way into town. My first stop was at Rosario Cemetery to find Guardians of Santa Fe: Rosario Cemetery by Children of the Forest. This was a quick and easy find and I was glad that there was no one else around because it was not easy to be stealthy. I stamped in while sitting in the car and then quickly replaced it. Then I was on my way to the next stop. This was at my City Different Walking Tour box. A few months ago someone found this box and it was frozen in place. Instead of them coming back later they ended up shattering the box. Thankfully they had another box with them so they replaced it but they couldn't get the broken box out of the hiding spot so they hid the box about five feet away from the correct spot. Today I went and cleaned everything up and put it back in its original spot. This wasn't the only problem with the box. I had also gotten a note that one of the plaques was missing but I never went out and checked because I ended up getting a find note not too long ago. But then yesterday I got another note that the plaque was missing, so I don't know how the other person found it in between the missing plaque notes. Anyway, I decided I needed to go out and check on it and the plaque is gone. So I walked around and found a new plaque that I could use. I took pictures and made notes and a few minutes ago I updated the clues - so hopefully no one else will have a problem. Now that I had everything taken care of I made my way back to the car and continued on my way. I arrived at Amelia White Park to check on my lionsmane's 5 Year Letterboxiversary box. At the beginning of April I got a note from a boxer who couldn't find the box. I know that other boxes in the area have gone missing so I was a little worried. But thankfully it was there and hidden well. I added a note on the box details page to let people know the box is there. From here I had one other thing to do and that was to find Public Hand's Santa Fe Trail box. I made my way to the trail head and parked. It was only a short walk and I quickly found the box. I found a place to sit and stamp in - it was nice and quiet - I didn't see anyone else out on the trail. After stamping in I got the box back together and then replaced it and then returned to the car. I had a great time finding the two boxes and I am glad I checked on, fixed and updated the boxes that I had notes on. I still have a few other boxes to check on and maybe I will do some of those next week.

A Mini Meet with Mim

This evening we had a mini meet at Santa Fe Bar & Grille for a get together to meet Mim and her husband who are visiting Santa Fe from Massachusetts. It was a nice dinner with Astro D, The Great Wuga Wuga, ArnoldZiffel, Agent 86, Wronghat, Semicolon, Mim and her husband, The Highwayman and myself. We had a private room so that we could visit and do a lot of stamping. There were event stamps, personal travelers, cooties and exchanges. I think everyone had a great time and I hope it was a great start for Mim's visit to Santa Fe. There was lots of laughing and sharing of stories and we also gave Mim some advice for boxes to find. We also had some good food as well. I am glad that Mim contacted me so that we could set up a meeting and exchange - it is always great to meet other letterboxers and help them with boxing in our area. And I think I speak for all the boxers in the Santa Fe and Albuquerque area when I say if you are going to visit the area please contact us - we would love to meet up.