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and I love letterboxing in New York even more!

and I love letterboxing in New York even more!

That's right--leave California and forget about all the wonderful people out there. *sniffle*

-- Ryan

Thanks to Atlas Quest, our first WNY gathering boxes are within easy reach! Hope to see everyone there on the 13th...don't forget to check the clues on our (Sprite & the Highlander, Elba Onions, Dagonell and Team Dakota) logbooks once again before you go!

Be sure to tell us all about the Gathering when you get back!
-Amanda from Seattle

I thought I'd leave a post here in case some folks aren't aware that there's a fairly new Yahoo Group for Central NY:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LbCNY/

"Central NY" is a pretty loosely defined geographic area in this case, so folks who live or letterbox (even occasionally) in New York State are welcome to join. We have a member or two who don't live in the state, but letterbox in NY on occasion. All are welcome.

Since letterboxing is just now catching on in much of the state, this group is small, but beneficial for connecting with others. Recently, it helped to promote the recent Western NY gathering.

I'm certain a CNY gathering will be scheduled next year, and held in a scenic location in the greater Syracuse/Utica/Rome region. The Green Lakes has been suggested as a great place for a gathering, with a number of letterboxes already nearby.

So please join the group, and share your thoughts & ideas - participate!

Thanks!

Be sure to tell us all about the Gathering when you get back!
-Amanda from Seattle

It was FANTASTIC! We didn't have the huge numbers (only about 50 folks), but that made it SOOOO much better! We made sure our gathering had very little pavillion activity, just start at 10am hot dogs at 11, group pic and raffle at 4pm and close up at 5pm. Everything else was boxing and exchanging! I know I met everyone who came and exchanged with nearly everyone (forgot to stamp in a book or two as I greeted guests!). Plus, even with the 3 hours the Highlander and I personally had, we were able to score over 30 boxes in one shot!

We also had some great out of town guests, including the King and Queen of letterboxing, Wanda and Pete (total suprise!). Irene from Hikers and Hounds came up from Philly and drove in with Missmoon from NYC. Clan Jiggs came down from Ontario and Craftymouse and Dandelion came with MTNest Robin and Mtnman from Central NY.

Every group or family won something at the raffle, so that was a nice bonus, plus we had a nice dinner at the Country Club Kitchen (not EVEN as ritzy as it sounds!). The Highlander and I even went back Sunday and boxed with Jiggs until after 4pm.

All in all, a COLD day, but a GREAT day! Next year, we've all agreed on EARLIER in the fall (September, even August) and farther southeast, so that the Southern Tier and Buffalo folks can enjoy a shorter ride. Hope to see some of you there and REALLY hope to join som CNYers at THEIR next gathering...when's it gonna BE???

The (still washing ink from her fingers) Sprite & The (still smelling of grilled Sahlens) Highlander

More details come spring!

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Just to let prospective attendees from afar know who may wish to stay in a hotel, there are several hotel chains in Cortland, NY, about 30 minutes from Ithaca.

There's also a new Hilton under construction in downtown Ithaca, right off the Commons. It's supposed to open mid-May, so it may be available the weekend of the gathering. As far as I know, though, Hilton isn't accepting reservations yet.

Hello if you will be attending the Fear Faketor gathering please rsvp here on Atlas Quest in the events section.Thank You and Happy Letterboxing! Kreepy Kelli

Hi all,

Is it wrong to ask that if someone is finding the Jukebox Clue - Wreck of the Edmund Fitz, would you take an additional impression and send it to me in Kentucky?


Here's the gory story (silly is better than gory, but didn't flow as well). I'm presenting this as prepayment, as it were. If any kind soul deems it worthy, perhaps you'll send me a postcard with the impression.

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald:

My family cannot sing. Absolutely not. We claim to sing 2 notes. The girls sing one note. The boys sing the other. Sometimes they are the same note. That made mom's funeral pretty funny. But just say no on us singing. What's worse is all 6 kids have always hung around with musicians friends, people that could just blat out a song right on the spot. A highlight to our inadequacy.

A few years ago, I was standing in a spacious apartment in Queens, visiting a friend who was in one of those 80s one hit wonder groups. He is playing me new material from the singer, who is currently living in Taos. It sounds like Gordon Lightfoot! I was shocked and awed. These CBGB, Acme Underground guys mellowing like a fine wine. Being funny, as it was a fun night we were having, I thought I'd give it a go, breaking all my rules about not singing around professional musicians, and opt for what might have passed for singing if I had been drinking. The most innocuous lines I could come up with:

When supper time came the old cook came on deck
Saying fellows it's too rough to feed ya
At 7PM a main hatchway caved in
He said fellas it's been good to know ya.

As I trailed off, due in part to being stunned by my lame performance, and the look on this fellow's face, the pause in verbal possibilities stretched into an eternity. My friend says,

"Liz I don't know what you're trying to sing, but doesn't it sound like the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald?"

(chuckles) Well, we created the stamp, so we can send you the image via e-mail, if you want. I know the box was planted for us by TurtleMcQ in Ithaca, but I wouldn't mind scanning the pic and sending it to you...the story alone shows you've gone through some, er...effort in the box's general gist, at least!

By the way, we're proud owners of Gord's Gold, a 4 CD collection of Lightfoot's music...don't really listen to it much, but ya gotta admit...it's just FUN to say Gord's Gold! :-)

I went out to Luensman Overlook Park the first day it opened to scout out new locations for letterboxes.  The area where "Hawk Watch" was hidden has been completely re-landscaped.  The box is long, long gone.  Sorry!  The placer has been notified.
-- Dagonell the Pirate

I also geocache (so sue me!) and have heard through their forums that there is a new permit system for caches placed in New York State Parks (you know like Letchworth, Buttermilk Falls, Harriman, etc.), not in the Forest Preserves yet like the Adirondack and Catskills. The parks you have to usually pay to get into. The permit is free, but there are rules about distance from the trail, proximity to other caches, box type, etc. Caches without permits will get pulled. Now, perhaps letterboxes are a bit lower on the radar, but if Mr. Ranger finds a box, and their isn't the state approved sticker on it, it could get pulled I guess. Not sure how this might effect letterboxing in these areas. Just putting the info out there for you to make the call. Risk a stamp and a box, or register it like a cache? I don't know what I would do.

One of the forum notes over there mentioned a letterbox that was pulled by a ranger, so at least one ranger (and probably all of them) put letterboxing under the same rules.

Again according to the other guys, the good news is that most of the parks are friendly to the hobbies (exceptions are mostly in the Palisades region). Regretably few letterboxes were ever placed further away from the trail than the 20 feet that the NYSP rules allow anyway, and cachers are reporting that some parks aren't putting the ruler down all that tightly. The rule that might be bothersome is the limit of five objects per hobbiest per park, which eliminates the mega-series (the quarter mile proximity rule does that too if the park is too small).

I'd say make 'em legal and get back to boxing.

Finally put Homestar Runner in a new spot in Middleport...here's the link!

http://www.atlasquest.com/lboxes/showboxinfo.html?boxId=2705

Oh, man, I had such a good time at this gathering. =) Despite the heat and vomit and bugs, it's got to be my favorite gathering to date!  I had no idea that area had so many great hiking trails! Now I'm itching to thru-hike the Finger Lakes Trail, though I really don't know much about it. Need to do a few Google searches and learn some more about it. =)

Thanks to everyone who made this such a great gathering, and special kudos to my fellow turtle, TurtleMcQ, who set Amanda and I up with a place to crash and showing us around! I planted a couple of boxes on Sunday after the gathering for which I'll be posting clues soon to give everyone an excuse to come back again next year. ;o)

-- Ryan, back in Seattle after a long day of flying!

I also have to say what a wonderful time I had at the Finger Lakes Gathering. I was so glad that we spent a few days in Ithaca. We used the days before and after the gathering to letterbox and were free to relax and visit on the day of the Gathering! Despite the grueling heat, I will probably come back! It was a lot of fun to meet folks on the trails around Ithaca! Ryan and I thought we were being stealthy by not RSVPing, but our signature stamps in the local letterboxes gave us away! We had "On the Trail" exchanges with Eli and Aubry and Sadie and Russ prior to the gathering. I just put up my clues to boxes that I hid while in town: Fun Guy and Percy's Dilemma.

-Amanda from Seattle

Norasta & Guitarzan had a blast too!  Wish we could join you again in August.  Hope to see some visitors to the boxes in Ontario - not that far away.  Let us know if you plan to head up this way.
Sorry to say that our Stewart Pk box "Red, White and True"  may have been taken after only a week in service.  It was well hidden in a camo container so I'm wondering in the clues are been harvested by collectors.  I'll make the clues harder next time.
At the gathering we picked up a little purple visitor, hmmm Team Dragon?  Were you leaving little purple ghosts?
And I'm assuming some of  you happy boxers have not cleaned out your back packs yet because.....

A great day. I had a lot of fun and met so many nice people. Most of my boxes are kid friendly to hopefully get more locals into it but I have a few more challenging ones and am working on an adult's only WOM series.

Didn't pick up any cooties at the gathering, but I dropped one on a special someone... *grin*

Lock Wench

Just a heads-up that I've got the clues for Sackett's Bridge and Dragon Flies updated now for people who didn't get them at the gathering last week.  (Wow, was that only last week?!)  Dora and Boots clues will be updated soon... (for those of you that accidentally only grabbed the first page!)

-Mama Bear

We definitely got cootied this weekend...someone is TOTALLY gonna get it at the gathering in August...maybe even at a July gathering...Mwahahahahahahahahahahaaaaa!

The (evil) Sprite and the (no more sugar for YOU, little missy) Highlander

Guess what, youse guys??? Team Dakota is coming back in town for a
visit, which means food, fun and BOXING! We're going to have a little
mini-meet at the Sprilander HH Hostel on July 24th from about noon to
4pm or so. Bring food and we'll make hotdogs and stuff (plus you can
trade out some of the HH's in the hostel and plant them around WNY for
us). Needless to say, there's a few boxes in the area, too and we WILL
have an event stamp (once I think of a nifty name for the event)!

Here's the link to the event page hope to see everyone there: http://www.atlasquest.com/events/event.html?gEventId=70

Oh, man! I'm actually going to be in the area right about then! I just need to figure out a way to persuade my husband and son that I NEED to stop by and see you guys!

DebBee

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Oh, man! I'm actually going to be in the area right about then! I just need to figure out a way to persuade my husband and son that I NEED to stop by and see you guys!

Absolutely, even if only for a minute! Team Dakota is visiting just for this month and will return home the weekend after, so it's an exchange you won't ever get unless you plan on being in Tennessee in the future! Come on out!

The S & H

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Come on out!

I will try. We haven't solidified our plans yet. We'll be in Canada part of the time and NY part of the time, so I'll try like anything to set things up so I can come by!

DebBee

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will try. We haven't solidified our plans yet. We'll be in Canada part of the time and NY part of the time, so I'll try like anything to set things up so I can come by!

Cool! The more, the merrier! Let us know so we've got food for you!

The S & H

Getting our order together for the new LBWNY t-shirts. Who wants one besides these folks:

Ron N Ron 1
Dusty Strings 1
Craftymouse & Dandelion 2 (paid)
Dagonell the Pirate 1
Norasta & Guitarzan 2 (paid)
Celtic Quinn 1
Green Star Quinn 1
Silver Dragon 1
Dutchess & Buffalo Quinn 2
DebBee 1
Wink & Tarheel 2
Team Dakota 1
Tirolbill 1 (paid)
Songchick 3
Elba Onions (Judith) 3

Contact us ASAP...the order goes out next week!

The Sprite & the Highlander