Hi Everyone!

Here in lovely Portland, Oregon I was out on the slough the other day
and some things have changed since I paddled there in April.

Letterbox 2, The Canoe & Paddle of the Columbia River Slough series has
been taken out of commission for the time being. The rock it was behind
was between two trees that fell this winter. Now one of the trees has
slid into the water further and gaining access to that letterbox was
definitely hazardous. I had areally tough time just getting to the
rock in my boat, let alone getting out to get the box.

After checking the box, I figured letterboxing should NOT be that
acrobatic and dangerous and I will replace it in a better spot sometime
this month. Sometimes you put a letterbox in a safe spot originally,
but Mother Nature does her thing and the environment changes. The
letterbox that was once an easy gimmee became a more challenging risk
than I had certainly intended it to be.

Letterboxes 1, 3, & 4 are still right on the water where they always
have been. I switched the critter-gnawed container of letterbox 1,
though. Only friends and relatives have stamped into them, so get your
canoe or kayak and come on out y'all!

To my knowledge letterboxes 5 & 6, the landlubber boxes of this series
are still out there and have been stamped into by several people.

We are hoping to nab some boxes this weekend. It's not a competition or
a matter of getting lots of boxes. I think it's just really fun. I
also look forward to gaining the precious stamp image. The dates of
the great hikes and beautifully carved images are so wonderful to have
in my journal! I can honestly say that Der Mad Stamper, Thom Cheney and
Cara & Kevin are terrific artists and I have loved collecting their
images.

I'm looking forward to when we go out for Ryan and Glenn's boxes in the
future and see what they've come up with in the form of rubber!

Take care and happy letterboxing to all!

Best regards,

Amanda Briles
aka The Paisley Orca