the day after

The day after the SOHT event, a letterboxing friend, JBBK, and I went to do a little letterboxing in Chillicothe. There were a few boxes all in the same cemetery, so that was our destination. The cemetery sat up on high ground, giving us a wonderful view of the town below. I only wished that the colors of fall were more prominent in the trees.

The weather was beautiful and we had a nice time following clues, driving all through the place to find certain landmarks...sometimes going back to where we had been before. Silly us. It was fun, and I was in good company, so the day was enjoyable.


There were plenty of interesting mausoleums, and sadly, some had been vandalized. I do not understand how a person can be so disrespectful of an other's burial place, breaking in, destroying the door and leaving trash thrown about. I enjoy visiting cemeteries, I enjoy the serene beauty of them, especially the older ones. I enjoy the history that thrives there, sometimes all too forgotten by too many people. I wish everyone could have more respect in these places. One reason I like to find and plant letterboxes in cemeteries is so people can remember other's pasts, and maybe a gravestone long forgotten will get a visitor now and then.

At the end of our letterboxing day, we came across this bug. A scary looking bug. I was kinda afraid the thing might jump on me. Usually I don't mind bugs too much, unless they have too many legs---don't like them, why on earth does a creature need that many legs? It's unnatural, millipedes, centipedes...they are the creepiest things out there.


Anyway, this bug...I have never seen one like it before. If anyone knows what it is, please share your knowledge. I would love to find out just what it is.

Arrg Matey, them trails be Haunted!

an adventure awaits at the Southern Ohio Haunted Trails letterboxing event....

SOHT is an annual tradition, though this was my first year. The place is amazing! Tucked back in the woods in southern Ohio, near Chillicothe, on privately owned land, a wonderful mixture of log cabins, woods, trails, and fun greet each visitor.

Our hosts for the event, R-gang, really out did themselves, the theme was Ghost Pirates...and ghostly and pirately is definitely was! Just check out that pirate ship (there is actually a bridge under that ship that lets one cross the water.) This is one creative group...but wait, it gets better!

R-gang took time (probably LOTS of time) to plant letterboxes on the trails that run through their woods for us to find...complete with treasure map! That's right, a hand drawn treasure map! And how appropriate that the first letterbox the group I was with came upon was a treasure chest...the treasure? A letterbox of course!

My boxing group was so much fun. Jokes were flying, laughter filled the air (there might have even been some pee-in-the-pants moments ;) We all stamped in together, sharing stories, making cracks at one another, and even caused some mischief. hee hee.

The trails were filled with all sorts of Halloween and Pirate-y decor. Skulls and skeletons, treasure chests and swords, spooky characters and funny set ups. And twelve stamps to find along the way! And what great stamps they were...all going along with the theme.

In the evening, one trail was set up for night boxing...something I had never done before. I laughed so hard, in fact, I'm laughing as I think about it. :)

I took a picture and it scared some of my boxing buddies, the young boys were jumping out of hiding places trying to scare us (and sometimes succeeding!) And then my group got the bright idea to hide in the dark, and wait on the next group so we could scare them....yeah, that wasn't such a wonderful idea.


We turned off all our flashlights, hid every part of white clothing we had, and, in the dark, tried to find a place to hide because the others were coming around the bend! Here we were, 4 adult women, hunkering down behind what we thought was good cover (mind you we found a place to hide in the dark,) and we waited.

Funny stories started to be told, and laughs and snorts started to escape some people...and then the other group came closer....we waited...and waited...waited a little bit more...

Then the group shinned their light in our direction and simply said, "Hi, guys, what cha doing?"

That's right, we didn't scare them. We weren't even hidden very well. Turns out we were all crouched down behind a sad little Charlie Brown tree...not really good cover. And we waited too long to jump out and say boo! So much for our masterfully contrived plan, eh?

Oh well, we all had some good laughs out of it!

After night boxing, there was time to hang out by the campfire before hitting the tent, or camper, or in my case, the back of the Blazer for bed.


Tomorrow there would be a wonderful breakfast, where last minute stamping and exchanging could take place, and then the goodbyes said as we parted, all looking forward to next year's SOHT event.

Slow Days are Not Always Bad

I took advantage of my day off on Thursday to do some letterboxing. I had a stamp I wanted to plant in Fremont and a seminar to attend in Maumee, so I figured it'd be a good day to get it all in.

Things didn't turn out quite how I would have liked them to, and the box finding part was not as productive.

Trying to figure out which route to take up to Fremont was my first delima. There were plenty of boxes that I needed to find spread out north of me. I had decided to try to get a few that were a little out of the direct route...bad plan.

One of the first ones I went after was in a small camping/fishing place near a lake. The place was not crowded this time of year...the weather has gotten too cold, I suspect. However, parked right next to the tree where I needed to look was a vehicle. Someone that had just parked there to sit. Maybe they were on a lunch break, I don't know, but they did not get out, they just sat there. So I waited a little bit, got out of my car and walked around a bit. I took a picture.

It was cold, and so I got back in my vehicle. That other person still just sat there. I got tired of waiting, I felt like my time was being wasted, and so I left...no box today. Oh well, there were more to be found. I went on my way.

Well, I didn't have any more luck at the next two places I stopped at for boxes. The first place, a cemetery, the grounds crew was at work, there truck was right next to the tree where I needed to search. The next place, another cemetery. I thought I would be fine at this one, it was way out of the way, and an older cemetery. There were three of them there, I was excited to get them. However, I was foiled again, when I drove up to the place I saw a truck parked right next to the tree I needed to look in. The place was pretty small, and there was no way I could go after the other boxes there without being seen.

I moved on, and drove further north, and made it to Clyde, were I finally was able to find a box! I then headed to Fremont, clues in hand to hopefully find some there. The day was slipping past me, though, and I still needed to plant my box and make it to Maumee for that seminar.

So I went to plant first. I found a wonderful old cemetery (at the suggestion of my friend, Bone Yard Recorder) and started to walk around and scout it out. It one area, there is a pile of old stones. I found it sad that these stones were no longer where they were meant to be. There are a lot of old military stones in this cemetery, some people probably long forgotten. I paused a moment to honor them.

Along the tree line, I found something very strange. Probably the weirdest thing I have ever found while letterboxing...a gas mask. I don't even know what to say about that.


I had just a little time left after planting my box before I had to head out of town...so I decided I would get a couple more boxes. And I'm glad I did, I ended up with two wonderful carvings, and one of them took me a short ways down the Buckeye Trail. Someday I would love to hike the entire Buckeye Trail, but at least today I was able to hike a little of it.