I placed my first box on 11-20-00, but never had time to do any searching
until this weekend. I actually spent 2 seasons with the USDA Forest Service
NE Forest Experiment Station doing almost the exact same thing. Everyday we
either had to either seek out plots that had originally been measured in the
50's and 60's to remeasure them or we had to set out new plots. I became
very good at describing and recognizing landmarks and terrain features. A
seasonal job in resource survey is probably the best preparation you could
possibly have for letterboxing.

I'm going to go into more detail on my adventure yesterday later. I'm
composing a letter offline. However, I'd like to point out something. It
should be mentioned with the clues when finding a letterbox requires a great
deal of time off the road. i.e.. away from the car or civilization. The
issue here is "TIME." The amount of time is not necessarily a function of
degree of difficulty. Difficult could mean, going up a steep cliff 10
minutes from the parking lot. I picked up 2 boxes relatively easily
yesterday. The round trip took no more than 1/2 hour each. After being
lulled into a false sense of security I set out for another one in the late
afternoon. The trail map at the nature center gave me little sense of
distance and the clues only said to look for landmarks with no idea of how
far they were. As it comes out, I should have planned it as a day hike.

When I figured I had reached the point of no return, I was actually not even
1/4 of the way. After finding the box and stamping in I ended up
bushwhacking to a road on the other side of the park and walking several
miles unsuccessfully trying to hitch a ride in the dark. A bear encounter
before I got out of the woods did help get my adrenaline pumping. As my
legs began to cramp up from being soaked, I took a chance and walked up to a
house with a light on. A younger guy with a ponytail came to the door.
After asking me if I wasn't a "crazy man" he offered to drive me back to the
car. He was going into town to pick up a pizza anyway. He dropped me at
the car at 9:15pm.

I would suggest that you should take the amount of time it took you to get
in and out and multiply it by 1.5 to account for searching time. The box I
went for yesterday should have been listed as 4.5+ hours ORT. Granted, I
took some chances that I shouldn't have yesterday. However, a less
experienced person might still be out there now. They might have tried to
get back through the woods, which would have been impossible after dark.

Forester

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