We were pleasantly surprised at the parks we visited when attempting the series - great wooded areas with a maze of long twisty trails in each of the 3 parks we got to. Although our other days were more challenging in terms of the hiking, these boxes provided a real challenge in observation and deduction. Trying to find boxes that were placed over 7 years ago can definitely be difficult! Since most of the paths were simple dirt tracks, covered with a lot of leaves, they were not easy to follow in some spots, and some were not used much anymore, making it difficult to spot a 4-way intersection or other landmarks. We also suspect some trails may have been rerouted a bit, or new ones got developed. However the MOST challenging task was trying to recognize where a stump or log MIGHT have been. After 7 years, many had decayed almost totally into the ground.
We started out looking for the Suspects. We first found a different box in the same park, then tried to get on track for Mr. Boddy, etc. We couldn't match things up or find anything until we got to a definite landmark - the bridge. This allowed us to find Colonel Mustard (box 4). We then spent a LONG time trying to follow the clues for the next box. We finally gave up and went back to the bridge to try the clues in reverse, starting from the mid-point of the box 6 clues. Hooray - we were able to find both Mrs. White (going in reverse) and then Mrs. Peacock (going forward). Logbooks were soaked in 2 of the boxes and Mrs. P. was half buried. We put in new logbooks in new baggies. We're pretty sure we found the spot for box 3, but suspect either the box is gone or very buried by the dirt from the root ball. We then decided to move on to another park and come back for another try at boxes 1 & 2 if we had time before our flight.
Next was the hunt for the rooms. With a lot of hard work and carefull thought and observation we are happy to report that we managed to find ALL TEN! But man, oh man, many of them were in bad shape. We used our last spare logbook to add to one box, then after that just added an index card with our stamp images into many of the others. There were a few that did have a dryish logbook, including one of the originals, but some had two books that were both totally soaked. The rest of the boxes we dried out, put the wet logbooks back in the original baggies, then added a new baggie for a new logbook or index card and a dried off stamp. However in one case the stamp itself (the Ballroom) was also deteriorated. It almost looks like it was made out of a sponge(???!?!). We ended up taking a photo of it rather than trying to stamp that soggy mess into our logbooks. The Milan ("Douggerware") containers definitely did a better job than the Rubbermaid, but only if they had been closed properly. We tried to recreate the landmarks mentioned in the clues if they had disappeared (for example, an "X" made of fallen trees, or a log near a creek, since the original wood was now almost invisible and turned to ground).
We then headed to another park for the Weapons. Our luck was not as good here. We could tell that the exercise course equipment looked much newer than 2003 stuff, so who knows how much else had changed in terms of benches, etc. No luck fining the first box when we got to the right general area, then couldn't follow clues to find landmarks for boxes 2 or 3. We wandered around on a bunch of trails looking for anything distinctive that matched any of the clues and finally found a "fork with two benches". This got us on track for box 4, the gun. However this was one where the intersection and the log had almost totally disappeared, so it was lucky I finally caught a glimpse of the box. This was the worst logbook - it was now a home for a colony of red ants with eggs (this was the only logbook that we actually removed and discarded). From there we could follow clues to the box 5 location, but we think it may be missing. By then we had ran out of time to try to again backtrack to try for box 2 and 3 or to go back to the first park.
We really liked the challenge of hunting these down and also enjoyed the trails. It would be really nice if someone could keep this series active for future letterboxers. We'll be contacting the planter and the person listed as the current contact to let them know the results of our search, but if they are no longer active, perhaps someone else would be willing to take on the maintenance task.
Wisconsin Hiker (& Martini Man)
--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, EllBee
>
> The biggest problem with Richmond is that many of the boxes were planted
> back in 2000-02 by folks who are long gone and the boxes are not
> maintained, or are maintained through the kindness of random boxers.
> Also, the terrain is such that there aren't really any "challenging"
> hikes - the more difficult ones only rise to the level of urban mountain
> biking courses. The most fun of those is the old Clue series, planted in
> 4 different Richmond area parks - these are listed on LbNA. I have no
> idea how active they still are, but the series is a fun example of an
> early collaborative effort between boxers to bring stamps by many
> different carvers to a box-challenged area. We enjoyed hunting them for
> the fun of finding (for this area) historic boxes. Unfortunately, after
> the retirement of the early boxers Richmond has seen a lot of
> one-and-done type boxers, so lots of drive-bys or short hikes with store
> bought stamps. Can you tell we do most of our boxing while traveling? ;->
>
> Virginia Beach - again not exactly challenging hikes as the land is so
> flat, but if you add up all the boxes in First Landing State Park it at
> least comes to an impressive mileage... ;->
>
> We're mostly flatland hikers except over short distances, so can't help
> you with the mountains. I do know that Koyote and Bulldawg planted some
> boxes on 10-15 mile hikes, but that was a while back and you may have
> already snagged them.
>
> Sorry I can't help more,
> EllBee
>
> Debbie Kotlarek wrote:
> >
> >
> > Hey EllBee, we have the opposite request - we're looking for
> > recommendations
> > for challenging hikes with letterboxes in the Richmond area (anywhere
> > within
> > ~100 miles or so). We're doing clue research at the moment, but if you or
> > anyone else can make specific recommendations, we'd love to hear them.
> >
> > Wisconsin Hiker & Martini Man
> >
>