Reflection on 2011

Greetings everyone and I hope you are enjoying your last day of 2011!!

This will obviously be my last post of the year, so I wanted to take the opportunity to reflect on my letterboxing experiences over the past year - and what better way to do that than to look at the numbers :)

In 2011, I found just over 200 letterboxes... for reference, in 2010 I found only 38.  In 2010 I had just learned about letterboxing, so there you go - that's why the numbers have changed so much.  I suspect though that next year will bring me fewer finds since I've now moved to an area with far fewer letterboxes.

I think my favourite letterbox of the year must be a tie between Norasta's Edwin Holgate letterbox and Fiddleheads'  Neoclassical Revival letterbox. Both for different reasons, but both the boxes, the clues and the amazing locations, along with my personal experiences in finding the boxes make those two stick well out in my mind as favourite boxes for the year.  I highly recommend both.

I also had an amazing outdoor experience whilst seeking Sylvie... I do have a number of amazing memories from this year's letterboxing.

This year, I also had the opportunity to do some cross-border letterboxing, starting with a trip I made to Charleston, South Carolina.  While there, I found the South Carolina State Butterfly, the Lost Ring of Charleston, and Batty for Bats. It was the idillic letterboxing/vacation trip: I had the day to spend in Charleston and spent it for essentially free, letterboxing, while nevertheless seeing all the best parts of that gorgeous city.  Perfect.

Later in the year, I got down to San Diego for the International Comic Con (cuz you know, I'm a geek like that) and while there I danced for the jumbo tron.  Great quick find despite having no time to do any real letterboxing. Finally, I did my first cross border event in upper New York state, the Boneyard Boxing tour - and nabbed a lot of cemetery boxes that day.

I also did a lot of carving and planting this year 67 in total, up from 19 in 2010.  My favourites are the Numbers Station (which I fully intend to do a blog post about the making of that clue), the Purloined Letter, and Hic Sunt Dracones. None of these have a lot of finds on them - Numbers Station has a lone find on it - likely because the clues look difficult.  When really, once you figure them out, not so much.  My favourite carve would have to be one of my most recent plants, A Touch of Voodoo, which from a clue/hide standpoint isn't the best, but it's still my favourite carve.

Anyway, it's been a fantastic year of letterboxing and I'm looking forward to some good experiences in 2012 (not the least of which are my two events, Wink Wink, Nudge Nudge, and Box ON! 2012. I hope to see you there or on the trail!  I'll leave you with a Wordle generated from the text from my blog for the year.  Happy trails!