Lots of us love to carve. Put it out there u will get a wonderful stamp to plant. Maybe a few

Guess I can put it out there. IDK what stamp exchange is but the place I want to plant is near a Chinese tea house that was built over a waterfall. The house has glass floors so you can look down on the falls. It is on a public ac'cess trail: on the property of a local B&B but the trail is open. I have carved a simple yin yan but am willing toconsider any submissions or ideas. Maybe I can find a few locations along.g the trail as there's a tree house a maze and a few other attractions along the way. Anything magical or mythical in the woods and for the tea house definatly Zen.

Thanks.

ZH

Stamp exchange: http://www.atlasquest.com/toolbox/stampexchange/

Wow - that place sounds awesome. And having lived in the Fingers Lakes region until a few months ago, I'm jealous that I have no idea what place you're talking about.

Which lake is it on?? Or where is it??

I would definitely donate or carve a stamp for the cause :)

- Kham

No matter what you decide, it sounds like the making of a fantastic series designed to do what I love most about boxing; take people to a gorgeous place they wouldn't know about otherwise. What I love even more is that you're not that far from me.

I'll look forward to getting out there for a weekend next summer.

If it fits the location, and you really like it, then go for the store bought stamp and the heck with those who are snobbish about it. I would look for it!!

Jaxx

I dont think anyone is being snobbish. I think we just appreciate the hard work that goes into carving a stamp and trying to encourage anyone who will go outside their comfort zone to do so. I will go out of my way to pick up any hand carved stamp but might not do so for a store bought one as i know that it is easier to go to michaels and get it. Carve away, you will suprise yourself at how well you do!

Don't sell yourself short in carving. Just keep at it.

We all like finding a hand carved stamp even if that day its not a Picasso something wonderful will be seen or experienced on most hikes...especially your Finger Lakes.

I agree that we like finding those hand carveds and if you have some that you personally don't deem box worthy then try sending them off as HHs.

You will be surprised how happy those little buggers make folks especially when its their first HH find.

I have had them crisscross the country.

I agree I think you should carve it yourself. It sounds like this place is very special to you and just knowing that you've carved the stamp for it regardless of how it turns out will give you a much better satisfaction then getting someone else to do it or a store bought one. Part of letterboxing is the journey of finding the box and from the way you described it I think the finder will appreciate that and by having you give a piece of yourself with your carve will just add that much more to it.

Well, I've been searching for letterboxes almost 3 years now, and enjoy the search, and discovery, whatever the stamp. After agonizing for a couple months over how to plant a box in a couple places I thought would be good, then preparing the logbook, and the box, and the clues, that about did me in. I am a very uncrafty person, and had visions of blood all over the place if I attempted to carve a stamp, so resorted to what I thought were appropriate store-bought stamps for the boxes. Now I'm feeling as though I really need to learn to carve; it's going to take a while!

Finally got it together and replanted Christmas Ornament in Corning. It should be in place by 6 PM tonight. Happy Holidays

ZH

Just as a note of encouragement to newer planters: when I planted my first box, my brother carved the stamp for me. My signature stamp was carved by him (the same one that I still use), one of my PTs is carved by him, several more of my plants are carved by him.

A hand carved stamp doesn't have to be carved by you. If it's not your thing, it's not your thing. Carving stamps doesn't hold my interest as much as other aspects of letterboxing. I think I'm a mediocre carver at best but I decided to learn and try because I was becoming a nuisance to my brother with all my ideas for new boxes! There are a lot of letterboxers out there who love to carve stamps and are willing to carve a stamp for others if you have an image idea.

There is a group called Stamp Swappers here on AQ that you can join to post requests for specific stamps. There is also the Stamp Exchange which is listed under the Toolbox heading at the top of the page. You can post a request for an idea and someone may have a stamp already carved that they can send you or would volunteer to carve it for you. This is a great way to get a variety of stamps in a local area. You can offer to compensate for postage or trade something. It's also a great way to get to know other letterboxers.

If you've got enough of an idea that you can go to a store and find a stamp that fits that location, then someone should be able to carve it for you or maybe they have one ready to go.
It doesn't hurt to ask. :)

Wyvern

Glitch. Magnets don't work. Back to the drawing board and sorry i couldn't get it out

ZH

Thank you for the information and encouragement, and to MissMoon also.

Now I'm feeling as though I really need to learn to carve; it's going to take a while!

There's an event on Decmeber 29 in Western NY that isn't too far from you. If you can make the trek, I'd be happy to show you hands on carving 101 :)

Thank you for your kind offer, but too many family members here all that week. I saw the event listed and was wishing~~~. Enjoyed finding a couple of your good carves on quick trip to Buffalo this past week, and one earlier than that in Oswego.

I know when I started to carve I was having anxiety. Now I try to just have fun with it. I realized it doesn't need to be perfect. You will get better with practice. You will amaze yourself. This is a hobby & should be fun.

I thought folks might find this site of interest.

While some people have plenty of trails, some of us are not so lucky. I'm spending plenty of time also looking at Wildlife Preserves, County Forestries, and DEC Forests. Although most of my treks focus around Western NY as a whole, I'm spending more and more time in Genesee, Livingston, Wyoming, and the southern portion of Monroe County.

Can anyone recommend links they use to find the elusive trails?

Check this site out, hikes
Here in Broome County we have a Naturalists Club that provides a map for birding sites birding, and we have the triple cities hiking club hiking club. You might want to see if you have anything like that in Erie County.
Don't Panic!

Also, once you find a particular state forest, management area or the like, you might want to check out the USGS topographic maps for the area. There is a designation for trails on these maps that can be useful. You can download free USGS topo maps here: http://www.usgs.gov/pubprod/

The one thing that piqued my curiosity was the numerous areas noted "County Forestry" on google maps, but I could never find more info. The link you provided may prove to be very helpful.

Thanks guys/gals. All of the suggestions thus far have been very informative and helpful.

Can anyone recommend links they use to find the elusive trails?

Around Charlotte, there is a very active mountain biking club that works with local governments to place biking trails in public parks. They are extremely good at planning trail layouts that involve a lot of switchbacks, so they squeeze some relatively long trails into some fairly small parks. And they are very gracious about sharing the trails with hikers. (Sending bike and foot traffic in opposite directions really helps.)

I used their site to find a park between work and home with eleven miles of trails, and found a beautiful little lake right in the middle.

Not all the places listed have trail maps, so they may require some excursions of your own to discover trails.

But I found this excellent site for forests, parks, etc. in the Mohawk/Hudson area of NY -- Eastern NY.

http://www.amcmohawkhudson.org/outdoors/outlist.asp

I've had good luck discovering trails unknown to me at cnyhiking.com

Got some good insight and some nice follow up. Think what I'm gonna do with this is plant my box, my carve out there. I also Have an offer to carve the labrynth. If any body else wants to jump in let me know. As I get boxes I will plant and add them into the clue from some central location. Then I'll hide the log and prolly a journal so that any searchers can explore without a set path then log in and write a little about it if they wish. Sounds fun. check back

Thanks

ZH

I want to carve to Orange County Choppers Logo and you like to know if someone coud plant it for me? If it can get planted in Newburgh (city), New York somewhere by there shop? Somewhere safe by the shop. It can be in a park cemetery...

You could send it me. I live in Newburgh. There is not really a park or a cemetery nearby. Would have to figure that out, but certainly will. I'm sure Hyacinth will help me to plant it.

bluebirdlover

Yep I can :) what is your address and I'll mail it out next week

I was looking at the map it looks like there is a cemetery close by called Belknap cemetery

I just wanted to thank everyone for the links and suggestions.

Sportman's Connection puts out a great outdoor atlas too.
Not sure if anyone has used them, but for $29.95, you'll find things you never knew about.
NY is divided into 2 sections as shown here

Thanks again