Silver Lake Letterboxes... The craziness of my first summer at camp is finally passed and I've had some time to carve and do a little hiking in the areas around Oceana county. My family has been coming up to Silver Lake since I was a very young child. My parents have reel upon reel of slide photos of camping in an old green army tent at the state park and of my brother and me playing on the beach and in the sand dunes when we were just little kids. But other than trekking across the infamous Silver Lake Sand Dunes and annual visits to the Little Sable Point Lighthouse, I've never really done any exploring in the area until this past year.

Little Sable Point Lighthouse
Silver Lake State Park
Mears, Michigan

In particular I've spent some time exploring the trails at Ruckel's Bridge day use area, which is a part of Silver Lake State Park. There are several trails here that skirt the sand dunes and run parallel to the channel that runs between Silver Lake and Lake Michigan. Maybe if I were 20 years younger and more ambitious I would even climb to the top of one of the sand dunes that can be accessed from here. But instead I've just enjoyed the woodland trails and found a couple of nice places for letterboxes. Over the holiday weekend OldShoe and I were able to get out and plant 2 boxes there, as well as one near the lighthouse that I have had carved for over 2 years and just have not had a chance to plant! All 3 boxes are listed at letterboxing.org and here at my web site. I also, quite by accident, found a two-track that twisted for a few miles through the state park woods and ended up at the Little Point Sable Church, which is a gorgeous little stone church built in 1928. A letterbox is in the works for this also! So as you plan your fall letterboxing adventures, consider taking a drive over to Silver Lake State Park, where you can enjoy the sand dunes, the lighthouse and now letterboxes!

Labels: letterbox-plant, lighthouse, michigan, oceana-county

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Mid-Winter Carve & Create...  Well the first Mid-Winter Carve & Create is history, but will hopefully not fade away, rather will become an annual tradition here in West Michigan.

When I first conceived the idea, which was kind of a take-off on last spring's bookmaking event, I had lofty visions of a weekend-long event where a small group of letterboxers were holed up for a couple of days, carving, creating art and logbooks, planning events and letterbox series, solving mystery clues, and just having a good time next to a cracking fire, watching the snow falling outside the windows. Well this is still my vision and I even have the ideal place in mind, this just wasn't the year to move forward with it. So thanks to Mrs. Doglvrs for running with the idea this year, providing a great meeting place and lots of fun for our small little group.

The day was spent discussing box ideas, recounting letterboxing adventures, making logbooks and of course, carving! Our group was a great mix of experience, talent and interests and it was fun to exchange ideas, teach and learn. Check out the event stamp at my Flickr, here: http://flickr.com/photos/springchick/.
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Michigan Counties Covered...  As of this past weekend, Michigan officially has an active letterbox in each of it's 83 counties, both Lower and Upper Peninsula, edging out WI in the race between the states. I have updated the Michigan Counties map to reflect the new placements and give credit to the placers of the first boxes in each of these counties. Much thanks to all who kicked it in during the past month, driving to the boxless areas and planting letterboxes -- TrailTroll, BNLBaliGirl, PennyPenny, Jade... TrailTroll you rock as you definitely logged the most miles and put in an awesome effort!

Kudos also to WI and all the planters there who have diligently placed new boxes trying to whittle down their bare spots. It was a valiant effort, but in the end... hey, we just have awesome boxers here in Michigan ;-)

So now lets get out there and look for letterboxes!
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A Series Most Fowl...  Okay, so I am tickled beyond words by this... I was recently given a wonderful gift put together by some very cool letterboxers. My dear friend and letterboxing companion, Azobox, coordinated the creation of "A Series Most Fowl," which is a series of 10 letterboxes crafted by boxers far and wide across the country and then sent to Michigan. He and a few helpers have been busy planting the boxes in West Michigan and have compiled the clues into an altered book/box, which they presented to me while several of us were together in Rhode Island last weekend.

The collection includes:

-  "Cluck U" by Turtle McQ
-   "Pugilistic Pullet" by Funhog
-  "Quack Quack" by Green Tortuga
-  "Just Hatched" by Choi
-  "Chick In a Box" by Lazy Letterboxer and Letterboxing Ham
-  "Poultry in Motion" by Alafair
-  "This Chick's Got Class" by Poison Ivy
-  "Chick-'n-Soup" by Amanda from Seattle
-  "Chick On a Mission" by Always Chaos
-  "Springy Chick" by Azobox

I am so anxious to get out and find these boxes, after which the clues will be available on a limited basis. What an awesome series from a great group of letterboxing friends. To all of you -- thank you from the bottom of my heart, this is very special to me. To those of you who were not able to make it to RI this year -- missed you terribly... we'll do it again next year!
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RI Mystery Gathering...  Now that my daughter is living in Rhode Island, I was once again able to justify the trip out east for the mystery gathering by combining it with a visit with her and her hubby. As last year, the mystery gathering was a great time, for me -- mostly about seeng old friends and getting a chance to meet new folks face-to-face. This year I was so happy to finally meet Phyto and Isosceles as well as daelphinus and the Adventure Seekers. We even got out to do some boxing this year, enjoying a leisurely stroll through the quaint town of Wickford, for some urban-style letterboxing fun. I was also thrilled with some of the creativity and carvings that surfaced during the day. The event log, put together by Alafair, compiling pages from the log books of the past 5 years was an incredibly beautiful hand-bound book that nicely preserves the history of the RI Mystery Gathering. The event stamp, carved by Kreepy Kelli, was a work of art, as were some of her other carvings. The day just flew by and as always I was left wishing I had taken more photos and realizing that I never had the chance to meet so-and-so... A huge thanks to Tom Noone (did you get his new stamp?) for coordinating another memorable event!
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