On this crisp and sunny January day, Windairen and Funhog initiated
WhizBang into the world of letterboxing. We headed for the Columbia
River Gorge with hopes of finding Der Mad Stamper's Horsetail Falls
and Triple Falls boxes, Ryan's replica of the long, lost Ponytail
Falls box, Funhog's Octopus and Paisley Orca's Lemur boxes.

We were successful with four of the five. Ryan's hiding place was
typically sneaky and took the three of us much longer than usual to
discover. The poor Lemur was in danger of suffering from overexposure,
the stones secreting it in its hole having been removed and the box in
plain view. This portion of the trail felt the full force of the
strong east winds, forty mile an hour gusts and all. Brrrrr.... Once
back in Oneonta Gorge, it was perfectly calm and made for a pleasant hike.

Our final goal was the famed Triple Falls box. This gem is known for
having been in place since 1998, one of the original Oregon
letterboxes with an intricate handcarved stamp. Dozens of people have
found and signed into the log, many of them non-letterboxers who
stumbled upon it by accident. Even two canine letterboxers had sniffed
it out! We were baffled by our discovery there. The box was in place
but inside we found only a cryptic note saying, "letterbox temporarily
in use" and dated 1/1/03. There was no signature and no further
explanation. After the three and a half miles we'd walked to get there
it was disappointing, to say the least. Anybody know who has this box?
and why?