Letterbox Maintenance

Recently I started reviewing notes that people have sent me over the last year when they found my boxes. And I made a list of boxes that needed some maintenance. But I also had boxes that haven't been found in a while and I made a second list of those. Today I decided to head out to Madrid and Cerrillos to check on boxes in those areas. First I made a list of all the boxes with the basic clue and then made notes of what might be needed. I gathered a couple of containers, 2 logbooks, a handful of zip locks and a camo bag and headed out.
I first drove past Cerrillos and past Madrid on NM 14 (The Turquoise Trail) and stopped at a pullout between mile markers 23 & 24. Here I was checking on my Alphabetical New Mexico: T (Turquoise Trail) box. I parked and got out of the car and tried following the directions.

View from my Turquoise Trail Box

But a landmark that I had used was not very noticeable so I decided to just rewrite the clues. So I looked around made notes and came up with a much better clue. I then went to the box and opened it to check on the stamp and logbook. I had made a new logbook (an updated version so that all my Alphabetical New Mexico boxes are the same - I know my OCD is working full force). Everything was fine with this box so I turned around and headed back through Madrid. Next I stopped at the north edge of town and parked near the park. I stopped here to check on Twinville Trekkers' Beatles Series #9 "Day Tripper". This box is in great shape and didn't need any maintenance. So I got back on NM 14 and drove to Cerrillos. My first stop was near the cemetery to check on Bandaid's A Kiss From Connecticut - this box was in perfect order as well.

So now I drove a little further up the road to Cerrillos Hills State Park.

View from Cerrillos Hills

When I hike this park I usually follow the same route and that is what I did today. I had a list of all the boxes in the park in the order I was going to walk. I parked at the kiosk, paid my fee and then started my hike. I crossed the street and took the Jane Calvin Sanchez trail. My first stop was to check on my Felis concolor box. Everything was good - the box was closed well and the baggies were also closed well and it was dry and the clues were good. So I put it back in place and continued on.

Cholla Blooms

On the same trail I stopped and checked on Wronghat's Cerrillos Birr box. This box was also in great shape so I continued on my hike. I got to the end of the trail and then crossed the road again and took the Escalante trail. The next box I got to was Twinville Trekkers' Who? Who? box.

New Trail Sign

At first I couldn't find the box but then I noticed it lying on the ground and it was all chewed up. I am glad I brought that camo bag with me. I took the box back to the nearby bench and put the stamp and logbook into a new ziplock and then into the camo bag. I then hung it back up in the tree. Hopefully it will be okay. Then I continued on the Escalante trail and made my way to the Mirador Overlook. I followed Astro D's clues to find her Miner at the Mirador box. All was well with this box so I put it back in place and then continued on. I retraced my steps on the Escalante trail to the road and then walked back to the parking area.

Prickly Pear Bloom

From here I took the Village View trail to check on my Los Vaqueros box. This box was also in great shape but I had to tweak the clues a little because a sign has been removed. Then I returned to my car. I really enjoyed my hike and I realized that it has been quite a while since I have been on these trails. They have done a lot of work on the trails, removed some signs and put all new trail signs - so things are marked really well. They have also changed and added some trails so at first I was a little confused - I didn't bring a map because I use to know the trails and didn't realize things had changed. But I really enjoyed myself. It was a quiet morning and I only saw three people on the trails. Also the chollas were in bloom everywhere in the park.

I left Cerrillos and headed north on NM 14. I made one last stop at a pullout somewhere around mile marker 35. At this spot I checked on two boxes - Fantastyk Voyager's Magical Gate and rubberpeace's Rock! Paper! Scissors! boxes. These were both in great shape! Once these were checked on I made my way home. I have a great time doing some maintenance on these boxes. I got the clues updated on Atlas Quest and Letterboxing North America so that if anyone heads out to find my boxes they shouldn't have any problems. So now I need to plan my next outing for more maintenance.

More Cholla Bloom Photos . . .

A Quick Plant and A Quick Find

Back in February rubberpeace asked if I would plant a box for her. She had a stamp that rbrhorno had carved and she put that stamp and a logbook into a ziplock bag and asked if I could make a camo bag and hide it. The stamp is of a sculpture by Kevin Box. It is a representation of the game Rock, Paper, Scissors. She wanted the box to be placed out by his studio near Cerrillos. The studio is called the Kevin Box Studio (aka Turquoise Trail Sculpture Garden) and is near the Garden of the Gods pullout. In the summer you can visit the garden and take a walking tour of all the sculptures. So I finally got around to planting Rock! Paper! Scissors! for rubberpeace today. It is just outside the garden and is available even when the garden is closed. Make sure if you go out to find this box to look up clues for other boxes in the Cerrillos and Madrid areas.

After planting this box I headed into Santa Fe for an appointment. I was a bit early so I decided to look for BirchMoon's Public Art #3: Roundabout while I was in town. This was a pretty easy find even though it is hidden in an actual roundabout with cars going through at a regular interval. Fortunately I was there when the traffic was minimal. I parked on a side street and walked to the roundabout. I waited a minute until a car passed and then crossed to the center and easily found the box and returned to my car to stamp in without any other cars passing. After stamping in I returnded to the roundabout (again without any cars passing) and got the box back into place. It is a nice stamp in a challenging area for stealth.

It was nice getting out today and doing a little letterboxing - it has been a couple of months since I last letterboxed. Hopefully I will get out more as there are quite a few boxes in New Mexico that I need to find.

Cerrillos, NM

On Saturday when rubberpeace and I met Bandaid we found out that Bandaid had left a box for us in Cerrillos. I have been wanting to get out to Cerrillos Hills State Park and do a little hiking and this was the perfect opportunity. rubberpeace wanted to go to find the new box and there were three other boxes in the area that she hadn't found yet. So we made plans to go on today, we decided to leave at about 7:30am. When Astro D returned from her trip to Las Cruces I called to see if she wanted to join us - she decided to join us and it was set that we would meet at my house and I would drive us to Cerrillos.

At 7:30 this morning everyone was at my house, we loaded the car and headed out. From my house it only takes about 20 minutes to get to Cerrillos. So we had a nice, quick trip and made our first stop at Garden of the Gods so that Astro D and rubberpeace could find Fantastyck Voyagers' Magical Gate. We parked at the pullout and walked back along the road to the gate. Once the box was found they sat down and stamped in. While they were doing that I walked along the fence and took some pictures of sculptures in the field just over the fence. I walked a little ways and came to a gate. It was locked but it had a plastic box (not a letterbox) on it that said "Info", but it was empty. I wondered what it was and I think it is The Garden of the Gods Sculpture Garden. I hope that eventually it is open to the public because the art I saw looked great. I returned to meet the girls and we got the box back in its hiding spot and returned to the car.

We drove the few remaining miles and entered the village of Cerrillos. It was pretty quiet, we saw one very old and hunched over woman sweeping in front of one of the shops. We drove through town and headed out to Cerrillos Hills. Our next stop was near the cemetery. Just past the cemetery was a small pullout and what looked like a trailhead. There was a thick cable and a large rock blocking the trail. We parked here and got the clues for the box that Bandaid left us - A Kiss From Connecticut. It was a pretty easy find and we decided to stamp in the car. It was a nice little stamp and we thank Bandaid for planting it for us. We replaced the box and continued along the road to the pullout near the Escalante Trail.

I was along just for the walk, rubberpeace was looking for two more boxes. One of those boxes is Twinville Trekkers' Who? Who? and the other one is for me to know and you to find out. Astro D has some problems with her knee and wasn't able to actually join us on the trail. So she stayed in the car and entertained herself with the New York Times crossword puzzle. So rubberpeace and I headed out. The beginning of the trail is pretty much all up hill for about a half mile. The rest of the hikes in the park are mostly level with a few areas with inclines. Along the way to the first box (Who? Who?) we saw a bunch of lizards and some wildflowers (Thistle, Indian Paintbrush, Prickly Pear blooms and some little purple flower that I didn't know what it was). The hike started out with the temperatures pretty cool and then the wind picked up and by the end it was getting pretty hot.

We made it to the Escalante and Elkins trail junction and rubberpeace went in search for the box. She found it pretty easy and brought it back to a bench to stamp in. I took pictures while she stamped in and we just talked. She rehid the box and we continued to the other box. It was a pretty good walk and she found the box and stamped in - we talked while she stamped in and once the box was rehidden we started our walk back to the car. The walk back was a lot easier than going.

We got back to the car and found Astro D just doing her puzzle. We made our way back to Santa Fe and talked about the morning. We also made tentative plans for a letterboxing trip to the Los Alamos area on June 17th. Thanks rubberpeace and Astro D for a great morning.

Neither Snow nor Rain nor Heat nor Gloom of Night . . .

The full quote goes as follows and there is an explanation as well . . .

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."
This is commonly misidentified as the creed of our mail carriers, but actually it is just the inscription found on the General Post Office in New York City at 8th Avenue and 33rd Street. Here's how the official Web site of the U.S. Postal Service describes the origin of the inscription. This inscription was supplied by William Mitchell Kendall of the firm of McKim, Mead & White, the architects who designed the New York General Post Office. Kendall said the sentence appears in the works of Herodotus and describes the expedition of the Greeks against the Persians under Cyrus, about 500 B.C. The Persians operated a system of mounted postal couriers, and the sentence describes the fidelity with which their work was done. Professor George H. Palmer of Harvard University supplied the translation, which he considered the most poetical of about seven translations from the Greek.

I thought of this saying this morning as I was planning to go out letterboxing. The morning started out cold and rainy with just a touch of snow flurries thrown in. But it wasn't too bad - so I got all my letterboxing gear and some clues together. I had two errands to run first then I was off to find some boxes. Now some may say that the weather wasn't really that great for letterboxing, but let's be honest - I think all of us have letterboxed in at least one of the conditions listed above (maybe even more than one). So I took care of my errands and then headed for Cerrillos, NM. There were two boxes planted in the area - one at Garden of the Gods and one at Cerrillos Hills Historic Park. As I drove down the Turquoise Trail I wondered if this was a mistake - the sky looked as though it was about to let loose quite a bit of rain. But I decided to press on and made a stop and the Garden of the Gods pullout. Most of this is on private property but you can still appreciate the rock formations. I parked and walked the short distance to a gate that was the landmark for the clues. Once there I read the rest of the clue and easily found the box. I sat up on some of the rocks to stamp in and had a great view of Hwy14 and the surrounding mountains and it didn't even drizzle on me. Once I finished stamping in and got the box back in place I headed back to the car and that's when the rain started. Very light but still rain. So I continued my drive to Cerrillos and made my way to the park. I parked near the entrance to the Escalante Trail and gathered my stuff. It was still drizzling so I zipped up my jacket and pulled the hood over my head. I headed up the trail and the rain eased until it had stopped altogether. I made it to the intersection mentioned in the clues and followed the rest of the directions until I had the box in my hands. I found a bench and stamped in - while stamping in it started to drizzle again so I used my jacket to cover the logbooks so they wouldn't get wet. I rehid the box and got all my things back together, zipped up my jacket and put the hood back over my head. It rained a little harder as I made my way down the muddy trail. I took my time because I didn't want to take another slide on my butt like I did in Oregon. By the time I reached the car I was pretty wet and cold. First things first I put the heater and then headed out. No sooner had I started to drive the rain stopped. So I went to the petting zoo area in Cerrillos and watched the animals for a minute and looked at the views of the changing leaves. It was really pretty and even though it rained I still enjoyed my trip but it was time to head home and take care of some things there. I am hoping to get a little letterboxing in tomorrow - I am going to Albuquerque to pick up a friend who is coming to visit.

A Day of Replanting

Today I headed out to Cerrillos Hills Historic Park even though the wind was blowing and it was pretty chilly. I needed to replace a box that had gone missing and I need to find a new home for another one that I had to remove from its old hiding place. I knew I would get the one box replaced but I wasn't sure if I would find a spot for the other box - but I had it with me just in case. I arrived at the parking area and found that I was the only one around. My first task was to replace my missing box - Felis concolor. I wanted it in the same area because I really love the views and the peaceful quality of that spot. It is off on a little side trail that doesn't get much traffic and you can sit on a rock ledge and just enjoy the box, the views and the quiet. So I made my way up the Mountain Lion Trail (now renamed the Jane Calvin Sanchez Trail) to the old hiding spot of the box. I looked around and eventually found a new spot for the box. It is very close to the old spot but in a much better spot - I hope it doesn't go missing again.

After the box was hidden I took some pictures and then returned to the main trail. I continued along the trail to a spot with a bench and I just sat and enjoyed the views. I didn't stay long because the wind started blowing harder and it got colder. So I returned to the parking lot. But instead of leaving I walked up to the Analemma to read about it and take some more pictures. At this time I noticed a trail just past the sculpture. This trail is pretty new, I don't remember seeing it when I first planted my box. So I made my way up the Village View Trail. The trail is very easy and not very long and it ends at an overlook with a bench and a sign that talks about Cerrillos, The Early Years. From this overlook you can see the village of Cerrillos and the Broken Saddle Riding Co. This seemed like a good spot for Los Vaqueros. In case you hadn't heard I had to remove this box from Albuquerque because it violated their Open Space Rules. So I needed to find this cowboy a new home. What better place for a cowboy than somewhere with a view of horses. So I walked around, sat on a few different benches and eventually found a new hiding spot. I think he will be happy here.

After sitting and looking at the views for a while I decided I needed to head back home. I walked back to the car and I felt very good about the hiding spots. Now that both these boxes have new homes they would like to receive visitors. Make sure you look up the new clues before heading out and I am looking forward to people finding them.

Checking on Boxes

I decided last night that I wanted to get out and do some hiking today. Little did I know that it would be cold and overcast. But did that stop me? No way! I headed to Cerrillos to hike in the Cerrillos Hills Historic Park. I figured I could get a good 4 or 5 mile hike and check on one of my boxes.

It was a nice quiet day for a hike - I did not see another human being during my entire hike. I did not even see any animals - no birds, rabbits, coyotes, mountain lions, rattlesnakes or scorpions - hmmmmmmmm - maybe I wasn't really there - it seemed a little strange!

I got to my Felis concolor box and checked it - everything looked good - it has had seven visitors. I then continued my hike making a big loop to check in on Astro D's Miner at the Mirador - it is in good shape and waiting for more visitors - hey people - get out there and box.


I really enjoyed my quiet hike, even if it was a little cold. And I did find this one little sign of Spring near Astro D's box.