Oh My! Some of these are so funny. You have given me a good laugh.

I was looking for a box and started poking inside a downed log and something (never found out what) starting growling at me. Never found the box.

Was searching for a box and an Owl in the tree above watching every move I made.

- A beaver about 9' high in a tree. Moth and I had no idea that beavers could climb trees!

Was it still alive, or did someone put it there as a joke? I didn't think they could climb eigther.... maybe poor thing got lost?

Oh, it was still alive, all right! Poor thing was frozen in fear--we think it was a juvenile. Moth and I took a few pictures while standing below it and then left it alone. It was gone by the time we found the box and returned to that spot.

a prostitute.

A very very near naked guy running a public used book and junk store. the only attire was a crocheted net on his junk.

a prostitute.

Do I dare even ask what the FF gift even could be?!

We found a blue, light-up, artificial male appendage. Just ask Rocklun since I emailed her a picture of it. :-)

a prostitute.

Do I dare even ask what the FF gift even could be?!

Long gone.

A person in a halter top and a sequin mini skirt.

Oh yeah, it was a dude

Got the PT

What happens at Sheepfold...........

the OTHER weird thing i've found while on a LBX hunt was a zombified squirrel.

Guess where i was? NH

Guess who planted the series? Mr Magoo

Does anyone sense a pattern here??????

~tigs(give it up Bubs; you are never living that plastic snake down)

appendage

LOL! I was kinda bummed that it was gone when we went there a day or two later. Strange that it was on a Mass Audubon property. I wonder if anyone needed a field guide to ID it.

oh, ryan and i found porn in the crevice of a tree, some teenager's stash we figured.

i found a bunch of porn also. PL's box behind the university by any chance? lol

deniserows
not behind UCB

Human excrement almost on the letterbox we were looking for (this has happened twice)! eeewwwww!!!

A brass drug smoking pipe next to the box we were looking for.

Pair of men's undershorts next to the box.

Rattlesnake by the box.

Blackwidow spider on the box.

Prison crew cleaning up trash right where the box was (we had to go back at a later date).

A geocache right on top of my letterbox I was checking on (I moved my box to a different location) (this has happened to me twice!).

- Azroadie

I think it is amazing and crazy each time this question is brought up the wide variety of things people have found or seen. I guess with only 500 finds, my boxing has been pretty tame.

However, I did talk about this some time ago that I found while getting ready to plant a box:

http://www.atlasquest.com/boards/message.html?gMsgId=585291

I guess that counts. But where is the ewww button? At least to me its ewww.

bluebirdlover

[A geocache right on top of my letterbox I was checking on (I moved my box to a different location) (this has happened to me twice!)]

Once in Oklahoma I know of because I got that box. and cache.

GG

Would love to hear of crazy things you all found while letterboxing

Oldhounder

A downed airplane being used for a civil air patrol exercise...

"Is this your plane?"

"Why, yes it is."

Yes, I well remember standing beside the "wreckage" watching the convoy barrel down the little dirt road, and then all the guys in fatigues jumping out & running toward us....and thinking "oh no, what in the world have we gotten ourselves in the middle of????" :)

Dead squirrel on top of the box (minor crazy thing!)

People coupling behind large rocks and trees (Images that will be forever burned on my brain!)

1. A set of encyclopedias on a frozen stream under a foot bridge.

2. A pregnancy test stick (could not tell whether it was positive or negative)

Yes, one of them was my Sayre 66 box in OK. That box is missing now; I may replace it in the future. The other one was San Pedro River in AZ and that is the one I moved. I guess I must be picking excellent locations to hide boxes for the geocachers to use my locations to hide their boxes!!!

- Azroadie

[A geocache right on top of my letterbox I was checking on (I moved my box to a different location) (this has happened to me twice!)]

Once in Oklahoma I know of because I got that box. and cache.

GG

A decomposing whale carcass.

Mary of Team Safari and I were boxing in the Great Swamp when I heard what I thought was the hum of powerlines, but there were no powerlines visible. The humming got louder and louder until we came upon a HUGE swarm of flies over the fresh burial site. EEEeee-yuk!

I'm so sorry to hear that box is missing ... I accompanied two boxer to that location to get that box. It was a nice location for a box.

GG =(

This mouse was on the letterbox the last time I went out:

http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/542318_4591695395145_2090358534_n.jpg

I don't think you should have to feel a need to apologize for sharing a cache story. Lots of people enjoy both hobbies. The frustrations between the two groups are mis-communications...same thing that happens within each hobby.

I know some people here enjoy both hobbies, but most people aren't quick to include a cache as part of a story. Since we dont trade trinkets in a box the rubber snake would have been out of place in a letterbox story. (the snake was not a part of the cache, it was listed in the log as "took (trinket X) ; Left Rubber Snake". Although based on some of the snake fear stories on here I'm SORELY tempted to make my next "non-mystery" box be similar to that cache in size and shape, place the stamp and log book in the bottom, and coil a large rubber snake in it. I'll put something in the clue that reads "beware of monsters" or something.... and leave a note in large letters in the log to replace the snake EXACTLY to surprise the next visitor... hmmmm... Think. Think. Think. Maybe poor Piglet stamp will have to live in the box with a large snake..... hmmm....

I acctually found very few caches until I started letterboxing. I heard of letterboxing first, but was too intimidated to carve a stamp, and didn't want to buy one as that felt against the spirit of the game (I feel a little differentyly now, having even purposefully gone after two series of boxes with store bought stamps as one series was at a park my son likes, and the other was just at a place I had never gone and was curious... not all of us can carve stamps, but should get to play nicely, right?) My first dozen or so trips looking for caches turned up nothing. I only kept at it because of two local cachers who set some AMAZING puzzels to solve! Most other caches around here are boring.

The boards seem full of stories about troubles from cachers, some fear, or possibly even dislike of cachers. Even though I particpate in both hobbies, I don't plant caches, and I am actively trying to avoid placing a letterbox too close to a cache, and I will NEVER make a hybrid cache (although I have a puzzle letterbox I am putting a lot of work into planning that MAY just need some GPS help to get a starting point on... Google earth before heading out will help... ). One local letterboxer is very, VERY against cachers, and I don't blame her. Several of her boxes had stamps taken and replaced by cacher trinkets. Every hobby has it's bad players. I think a lot of cachers who don't know what a letterbox is just dont understand, I don't BELIEVE they do this on purpose. I have acctually found more caches while searching for letterboxes by accident, than I ever have purposefully looking for a cache.

Part of this is that around here most of the people who hide caches (and it's a dedicated handfull, but each of them have planted tens or even hundreds of caches) are playing a game called "Turf Wars." They are purposefully trying to cover more ground than each other, and trying to hide caches in each other's "territories". I'm not making it up, it's in the cache descriptions. Stuff like "hahaha (fill in name) I'm now on your block, take that". It SEEMS to be centered around RPI college, so I think it's college students, but it's spiraled outward into the city of Albany itself, and literally, it seems darn impossible to find a cache in a search that ISN'T a "Turf Wars" one. And to make matters worse, the Turf Wars participants are all premium members, which I only mention because they have all set their caches as "premium member only". On geocaching, a premium member only cache still shows up in a search to non-premium members, it's part of how they try to push the premium memberships. So if you are a non-premium member, you can do a search and click on EACH ONE to find out that you can't get the coordinates and description. I finally signed up for a premium membership just so that when I am looking on my phone for nearby caches and I find that all 25 of the nearest ones are ALL "premium only" I can still go look for them. I still find it easier to just trip over a cache while out boxing though! I sign the logs, but I only log my finds online that I acctually sought out.... which is still less than 10 finds.

Actually, BECAUSE of letterboxing I now have an easier time finding caches on purpose. I spent two years as a cachers LOOKING before my first find. (Admittedly I was looking for a lot of hard ones before I went looking for an easy one.) I've learned a lot of tricks from letterboxes that make caching easier (keep in mind the GPS is not fully accurate so you get within a general area. then have to look). If I didn't learn about good hiding spots from letterboxing I would never be a decent cacher!

Off topic now:
Two weeks ago I was out letterboxing, I ran into a cacher and his wife. It ends up they learned about geocaching because they were letterboxers first, but they havent gone letterboxing in years. They were out looking for a micro cache that was the first step in a multi-cache and having some bum luck. I offered to help as AJ was fast asleep in the stroller. The wife gave up and walked down the trail. Her husband and I continued to look, and we were looking in the knot holes of a tree, under some rocks, etc. The "usual places." I asked to see the description again. It read "this is an unusual one" I noticed there was an old taken down, abandoned telephone pole, with old ceramic (the valuable kind) insulators. I started to unscrew them one at a time, and screw them back on. THere were a few littered on the ground, I picked them up and looked to see if they were hollow. Finally the last one, I turned a half a turn, and the coordinates for the next stage were printed directly on the insulator, but turned to face down so only someone trying what I did would find them. Neat, right? The other day, I was looking for a cache in a cemetery. There was a metal fence, the kind with the hollow aluminium poles. The cache was attached to a key chain at the other end of a dog leash, and dropped down the aluminum post so that only about an inch stuck out the top. If I wasn't used to letterboxes hidden in odd spots I would never have been investigating the pole (Although I was thinking that it looked so old it might be steel and was looking for a magnetic box).

I have mixed feelings about other cachers, based on stories from people I trust, based on seeing first hand some damage to an area that was searched a little too strongly for a cache, based on one local cache that is always stocked with porn and condoms (the owner tells people in the log to stop it... why not just pul the cache and replant if you want to maintain a cache? Right?), based on the immaturity of the "Turf Wars" game. The game only works because groundspeak forbids caches within one tenth of a mile of each other, and will not allow you to list one in that range. I imagine if that rule was imposed here, we could all still get along. Already, I know of boxes placed much closer together and box owners know about each other and it's all fine. (I'm thinking about two that are about ten feet from each other in particular).

I do understand that no one is going to jump down my throat because I admit to going looking for caches. But it still feels a little akward to discuss. And I think it's just the few bad eggs in that camp make it bad for the rest of us that do it.

--Ringo

I cannot fully recall, were they going "hut! hut! Hut!!"?

Lb

I whisper loudly to them "look a deer". It's only then that I realized the lack of clothing! They gave me no notice... and I backed away and started back for my car... the deer though, decided to investigate the truck farther.

I was mildly amused.

Better to be mildly amused than mildly aroused by that incident. :)

Woman to Blame
(for once again misreading someone's post)

I whisper loudly to them "look a deer". It's only then that I realized the lack of clothing!

Bringing new meaning to the term "buck naked"...

maybe poor Piglet stamp will have to live in the box with a large snake

Never finding another one of your boxes. . . at least not without a pinch hitter.

~tigs(fine. Go ahead and torture the innocent)

Home drug testing kit behind a tree

Maybe that was planted for boxers to find and use. If you test positive all past finds can be taken away and then you are banned from ever boxing again. ;)

Eventually this is going to be an adults only 'ask me' event box

Sounds like a great idea!

Here's something to keep in mind. So much of what we're all talking about, your average muggle would not have noticed while hiking. Especially those that found their disturbing/funny item off the trail behind a tree. ONly a letterboxer or geocacher, or perhaps someone stepping for privacy to answer a call of nature is going to stumble on those items.

My new addition to this growing list(or my version of what other's have already reported I should say)...
Yesterday....
Every Sunday during track season we do a family outing at Saratoga for giveaway day, we do a picnic lunch and leave after the first race (if not before it even). Well, yesterday we decided to visit Yaddo Gardens just up the road (STUNNING for those that don't know, if you are ever in this neck of the woods, VISIT... you won't regret it!). My son has asked the past two weeks to go back, he likes to throw Cheeroi's in to the fish in the fountain. But the past two weeks we've had other plans. Yesterday I said ok... WELL! I was sitting in a favorite spot of mine in the garden and I was browsing Saratoga for letterboxes on my phone, ones that would be close enough to grab on the way home. I noticed a box listed as "retired" that was in Yaddo, but saw that at least one person (looks like maybe a few people???) have found the box since being retired. The last comment was something about the box having been retired a year before but was still out to be found, and needed a new box. There was a plea that the owner should come replace the box and revise the listing to be available again. This comment was less than a year old. This just screamed to me "come find me, I might be here waiting." I went to the spot the box should be in. I found suspicious pile of sticks and bark. BINGO! Uhhh... not quite.... :-( Something pink, and lacey... buried under sticks and bark where the box should have been. *sigh* Pink and lacey. Yeah, something wearable. I assume a prank from someone, as it was too perfect where it was. Sad. So sad. I don't mind running into what someone leaves behind, but this screamed "nah, nah, Look what I did."

The highlight of the day though. While at the fountain, a hawk came zipping out of nowhere, snapped up a little field mouse maybe 15 or 20 feet from where I stood. Swooped back up into the sky, and landed in a tree on a branch low enough I could somewhat get pictures of it enjoying a snack. Coolest thing I have ever seen Letterboxing! One of the coolest things I ever seen while out hiking, enjoying nature, etc PEROID! Of course, the sun came through the tree tops at an akward angle, so my pictures are a little hazy, but I have never watched a hawk in action just THAT up close! The image of him will be burned in my memory forever no matter how my pictures came out (they didn't come out that bad really). Seriously... HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEKEND! Beautiful, graceful, Hawk! Everyone should be so lucky to see what I saw at least once in their life.

--Ringo

We've seen some gross things, a baby dead raccoon, looked like it was sleeping and was in perfect condition, we think it must have fallen out of it's tree the night before.
Also, a baby deer still in the placenta. GROSS. the smell was unbelievable.