Hiya and have at it! There's four boxes in this five-part series
just waiting for you...yeah, I know it's hot...

Suzanne


Best of the West Series #1: Johnny West
Placed by: realroadrunner (contact the placer)
Placement date: Jun 13 2004
State: Nevada
County: Clark
Nearest city: Blue Diamond
Number of boxes: 1

Clues
Terrain: Trail through a cottonwood, oak and ash forest adjacaent to
a desert wash
Difficulty: Easy, mostly level trail, some slight inclines...there is
a wheelchair accessible trail available, but the box requires going
off trail. The loop trail is only .8 miles.
Clues: Moderate
Status: Awaiting first finder as of 6/13/04

Favorite toys from the childhood of many of my contemporaries were
the action figures and animals from the Marx Johnny West and Best of
the West series.

These 12" figures included our hero, Johnny, Jane his wife...daughter
Josie (and later Janice)...his boy Elroy (no wait, that was somebody
else)...his boys Jay and Jamie...bad man Sam Cobra, and noble Native
Americans Geronimo, Chief Cherokee, and later Fighting Eagle and
Princess Wildflower. Later came Custer and the Calvary, a couple of
Sheriffs, and a variety of UK, Canadian and Mexican versions. These
figures exhibited full articulation and molded on clothes, and came
with a host of vinyl and poly-plastic accessories. The series ran
from 1965 to 1975. Somehow my parents neglected to buy these for me
at the time, but like a good boomer, I am happily acquiring them now.

This series of stamps (five so far) celebrates these figures and
takes them down off the collector's shelf and puts them back into the
Western landscape they love. Yee-haw!

Our story begins with our hero, Johnny West, waiting for the arrival
of his beloved wife, Jane, from the porch of the Circle X Ranch (most
city folk call the spread the Spring Mountain Ranch, but what do they
know?) Johnny looks out across his fields and fences and sighs with a
heavy heart. Jane was expected weeks ago, and there's been no word of
her since she left Arizona. When he thinks of all the misfortunes
that could have befallen her: a desperate desert death, thieves and
banditos, or worse, she might actually have run off with that
cheating, no good...nah...not my Jane...well those big cowboy tears
start welling up in his painted on eyes.

Johnny took off behind the main house towards his "thinking place," a
beautiful secluded point looking over the wash behind the ranch where
the Spring Mountains tower towards the heavens and a man...even a
little plastic man, can sort out his feelings and be the kind of fool
that HAS A LOVER'S GRIT.

He was on the path now, his feelings not entirely accessible, rather
kind of loopy to be exact. About halfway down the trail, he stopped
to regard a four-trunked tree on his left right before the junction
of two paths and a bridge. He stopped and thought, "Y'know, this is
just one of those things, I'll betcha," said Johnny, "she musta hit a
snag somewhere's and what's in a snag, anyway? Nuthin." He knew he
was on the right path with his thinking now.

He turned to go off trail towards his thinking place, oh, some of you
might say at bearing of about 224 degrees, and marched off into the
brush 55 paces until he came across that old metal thresher and the
logs he always meant to do something with, like maybe make himself a
chainsaw bear and put it on the porch, who can say?

He was close now, just 15 paces from another four-trunked tree at a
bearing of 160 degrees, where the vista across the Ranch opened up
like a little kiddies' storybook. Such a bee-yoo-ti-ful sight he
almost forgot he was supposed to be miserable in missing the missus.

Johnny is waiting for you to join him! Reach inside the base of this
four-trunked tree after removing a covering stone and another round
rock. Please rehide as found.

NOTE: Watch out for critters, the slithering kind of all types abound
in this desert riparian environment. See, I can read signs. You
should too. :-)
Before you set out, please read the waiver of responsibility and
disclaimer.