Letterboxing in Guelph

This little guy wanted to come along for the ride.

It's been a while since my last post, but in my defense, I've been doing a lot of traveling and I'm getting prepared to move, unfortunately. Looks like I will be one town over as of October and I s'pose that means I have to get to carve a new sig stamp... Same one, just change the location, methinks.

Anyways, I have a couple travelogues I want to post as well as a blog post on how I made my first audio clued letterbox... So back to it!

Last Friday, I finally got to do some more letterboxing and I got to go to one of my favourite locations: Guelph. I prepped a list of 10 clues and headed out after a half day of work. Yes, I took a half day off of work to go letterboxing.  Weekends are not my own in the summer...

First up: Big Dog by Turtlews. This was a repeat box because last November I attempted it without any success.  The clue as it read at that time referred to a bare tree.  But after the fall, all trees are bare, making that reference rather tricky.  The clue has since been updated and others have listed finds so it was time for a repeat.

So off I went to this dog park on a beautiful summer day to see if I would be successful the second time around - I was.  I was also successful in having a HUGE mastiff of some sort jump up on me. Not a surprise; it's a dog park and dogs love me.  Luckily, I was in my boxin' clothes and was anticipating getting a little dirty.  But let's face it - the unabashed, unconditional, unrepressed love that gushes out of these furry beasts can put anyone in a good mood - even if the result of said love is a muddy shirt.

And so, full of confidence with my first find and full of warm puppy love, I set off with clue two - Slide (also a box by Turtlews). A nice stroll in a school's park and a fairly easy find... I spent a bit of time at this box stamping in. It was a beautiful day and it was dead silent at this park so I stamped in in the shade of a nearby maple and enjoyed the nice breeze coming that swept by...

STOP! He who would cross the Bridge of Death must answer me these questions three...

Next, off to the University of Guelph's Arborteum, one of my absolute favourite places to letterbox. Newly planted is Fiddlehead's new series, Traces of Darkness, with her fellow carvers, Prop and Earth Diver.  The Arboretum is my favourite place for a few reasons: it's the perfect size, it has  amazing variety in terrain, it has multiple various trails and gardens to visit, it's in one of my favourite Ontario towns, and it's free.  What more can you ask for? Letterboxes, you say? Well, there are some awesome ones there, including this series, so check it out.

The next letterbox was QR: Quaint Rabbit by Lone R.  Won't spoil it because it is a mystery clue, but I will say that the last finders of this box didn't close it properly and when I opened it, I ended up covered in earwigs and earwig eggs.  Yuck.  Pass.  Luckily, other than a few soaked pages and some runny ink, everything looked fine...

Next box, Ben.  I did find it.  But let me tell ya, I was none too pleased with the unfortunate state of this box - nor with another local letterboxer beating me to be the first finder on that very same day.  Sheesh.  Good box, though.  And because I took a wrong turn at one point and perhaps wandered a little farther in the wrong direction than I typically would have, I did get to randomly see a nice bat stencil on a post.  Random find for the day, I suppose.

Next I tried to find an airport letterbox, Gee Bee Z planted by Fiddleheads and carved by Kirbert.  No luck on this one - the airport seems to have been sold and there were some pretty intimidating signs up saying "danger" and "no trespassing".  Also, while I stood debating whether to make the last jog and just get the box anyway, I surly looking plane guy gave me the evil eye as he went past.  No thanks.  Moving on.

Next up was Water Lily's hubcaps series, the Acura 007.  Cute find in a place that I'm pretty sure I've been to before... The experience wasn't the best though: I ended up walking face first into a huge spider web (with very strong webbing, I might add).  The irate spider, now on my face, made a mad dash and I only just managed to fling it away from me.  It was huge but managed to hide in leaf litter.  I was literally paralyzed on the spot.  I could see the letterbox but was afraid to move in case the spider came back.  Worse yet, I was convinced that if I didn't move soon, the spider would be back with reinforcements.  Since the only thing worse than one spider is more than one spider, I stamped in and got the heck out.  (Based on my recollection, this seems to be an accurate representation of that spider. Except I was shrieking.)

Anyways, to end the day on a higher note, I finished off with Lone R's box in her Cemetery Series, the Cove Pioneer Cemetery.  It was beautiful, it was peaceful, it was perfect.

And that ended my day in Guelph.  I did a couple more boxes over the weekend - more to come on that - but all in all, it was a fantastic letterboxing day in Guelph!