As was previously stated in a previous post, AZBluelion has been meticulously attempting to get all Atlas Quest boxes within a 30 mile radius. Why? Because it's fun, but also he wanted bragging rights before the annual Tucson Letterboxing Gathering.
So, with only 8 days left, we made a mad rush to get as many as possible.
Starting on the first, we (AZBl, TMWNN, Jess and I)went out to the east side of Tucson to get what boxes remained in the Rincon Mountains. This included a slightly illegal box in Saguaro NP, hiking to a waterfall that apparently is frequented by nudists (too cold that day fortunately) and ten miles of off-roading through the Reddington Pass to get to a rather obscure part of the AZTrail. Then, because we had time to kill, we climbed the first leg of Agua Caliente Hill to get two more boxes.
The next day Jess and I kept the ball rolling and hiked to the Pima Canyon Dam, to get the 10k Charmer. By far one of my favorite series, if only for how well spaced the boxes were and how pleasent the hike was (the carves are good too). We had also been charged with replanting the final stamp. Along the way we found a Geocache the was blatantly hidden (so glad letterboxes are NEVER like that :p) and decided to help ourselves to the goodies. I traded out my crappy carabiner for a nicer one and Jess put some gum in for a much needed trail mix bar.
Then on Tuesday (the fourth) the whole gang plus TMWNN's new girlfriend Sonoran Señorita went out to finally finish the Abscraps series. But first we got another Family Tree Shaker box located near some old mineshafts. Then, in the dark, we climbed up a rather steep unofficial trail to reach the official trail that the last Abscraps was on. Not the most fun but rewarding. We ended the night with the ever famous pork chop challenge at my favorite restaurant, Cody's beef and Beans.
The rest of the week was spent preparing for the gathering. On Friday night we took all of our boxes and planted them in Oro Valley Riverfront Park. There only five in all, and all we're going to be temporary. There was my contribution of a Father Kino stamp, AZBl and KM's one time Keep it Wheel stamp, and TMWNN's Desert Dangers series, a set of three Spider-Man characters. All quality carves in my opinion. We wrote the clues that night in preparation for tomorrow.
I personally, wrote my clues to be challenging. Not directions but actual clues. Controversial for sure, but if people didnt get it this year, there's always the future years.
The gathering itself was great. There were 50ish people, lots of food, and quite the plethora of new and historic boxes. We met new letterboxers from the SW like Arnold Ziffel and TeepeeAZ and caught up with locals. We also ran into some of our favorite and most respected letterboxers while on the trail.
Total, outside of our own boxes, there were 15 new traditional plants plus a series of all the historic event stamps. the theme was ten since it was the tenth annual! and as Desert Flower likes to say, 12 years ago FunHog planted the first letterbox in AZ, 11 years ago she introduced AZRoadie to letterboxing, and 10 years ago was the first event. Truly a long lived tradition,
We ended the day by finding a letterbox planted just hours before by the notorious (but respected) FunHog. Her clues inevitably give us problems as they are intentionally vague. Fortunately, this one was on familiar ground so we got it with little difficulty.
The next day, Jess and I relaxed for most of the day. but towards evening! we received an invitation to go to a post event for letterboxers. We thought, "eh probably not" until we found out that it was across the street. So we spent the evening talking about this absurd hobby with people twice (or more) our age.
On valentines day, Jess made an elaborate feast for us of homemade sushi, shrimpies, kani (crab) salad, and pumpkin tort and Jell-O shots for dessert. But not before we went out and got 4 new boxes planted by people from the gathering.
On the 15th TMWNN, AZBl, Jess and I drove north into Gila county in order to plant my county box in Globe and get the AZroadie box for that county. Really a fun trip, that took us into a different environment. Up there, the mountains are countinuous rather than "sky islands" and the rivers actually have water in them. We saw Roosevelt Lake and "the worlds smallest museum". And we found a rather old box planted in a small town called Mammoth. This box was planted at the old boxing club, a ramshackle building built by miners back when the town was more prosperous. We had to ask for directions but that was half the fun. The man we talked to was a third generation resident of Mammoth, AZ and told us all about the area, including more than we wanted to know about the local whore house.
On the 22nd we spent our first weekend without friends. But that didn't stop us. Instead Jess and I took on Wasson peak in the Tucson Mountains. Eight Miles round trip and quite a bit of elevation gain. We weren't as prepared as I would have liked, but it was well worth it, and a fairly easy hike, plus two boxes. We also visited Saguaro NP for the first time in my being here.
And we ended the month just as we started, by boxing. We're slowly waddling down the boxes we need to get. Once that's done we'll just have to expand our radius of influence.
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