M-166's Scenic Gem

Location: Mystery, Ionia County, Mi
Planted By: familyof6
Find Date: n/a
Find #: n/a

Comments: Another box that I went to alone. Again, I found the place, couldn't break the code. I used to think that I was good any ciphers and such. But apparently not! This place is truly a gem, though. Gorgeous location. I'll keep working on it and figure it out eventually!

The Roadside Table

Location: Mystery, Ionia County, MI
Planted By: SpringChick
Find Date: n/a
Find #: n/a

Comments: I went out alone to find this box but failed in the attempt! I found the place and tried for a long, long time to break the code, to no avail. One of these days I'll figure it out. It has been found since my attempt, so it must be doable!

Sunshine Box

Location: Mystery, MI
Planted By: JustHappy2Cya
Find Date: n/a
Find #: n/a

Comments: I went to this one alone. I figure out that I'm not a huge fan of solo-boxing! I left a message with my whereabouts on my answering machine "Just in Case", but I wasn't thrilled about the added dangers (real or perceived) of being alone in the middle of "nowhere" without anyone really knowing where I was. I was able to find the right place for this box and the right "general area of hiding spot" but I couldn't find the actual box. I think the heat, the bugs and my nerves contributed to me giving up earlier than I should have. Someone else found this box a few weeks after me, so it's definitely there! I'll have to go back sometime.

Leggo My Lego

Location: Lewis Center, Delaware County, OH
Planted By: trailtracker
Find Date: 6/2/2007
Find #: 61

Comments: Continuation of trailtrackers' series. Found the first box with no trouble. On to the second box. We looked and looked and looked, to no avail. It was getting late, almost time for dinner, we were tired and dehydrated. We decided to skip this box and go on to the Barbie series. But, we messed up something major and couldn't get back on track. We thought we followed the clues right, but ended up at a dead end at the lake. I don't think trailtracker wanted us to swim to the box! Anyway, we got lost good. We were all tired and crabby and we couldn't find our way out! There were a lot of twists and turns in this part of the park. We finally found our way out and found the place where I had planted the Only You box the night before. We "unplanted" Smokey and took him back to the gathering with us so we wouldn't have to pick him up Sunday before we left. All in all, we decided we spent way too much time at the gathering place doing exchanges and stamping event stamps. It was a blast to meet everyone, but there were so many cool stamps that were planted in the area that we missed out on!

Season's Letterbox - Spring Box

Location: Orchard Lake, Oakland County, MI
Planted By: Sealpoint
Find Date: 4/22/2007
Find #: 45

Comments: Today was 2nd attempt day. Went back to look for the 4th box in this series that alluded us back in December. We were successful this time! We both specifically remember looking in the place that we found it, so we are 100% convinced that the box was not in place while we were looking for it the first time. Unfortunately, the logbooks were filling up and the placer replaced them right after we were there in December, so we couldn't tell for sure if someone else was out there the same day as us. We saw other people in the park, but no one was in the area while we were looking for the spring box and no one looked suspicious! I guess we'll never know the truth about what happened. But, I SWEAR it wasn't there. Anyway, glad it was there this time.

Wandering in the Wetlands (box 3)

Location: West Bloomfield Nature Preserve, West Bloomfield, Oakland County, MI
Planted By: Trail Troll
Find Date: 4/22/2007
Find #: 44

Comments: WOW, Camo tape rocks. We did manage to find this box on our second attempt, but it was HARD! That damn box was right out in the open, in plain sight and it took us forever to find it. There are a bunch of trees that could maybe fit the clues, so we weren't positive of the exact place we should look. But, we searched and searched and searched around and under and near every single possible tree in this area. This was the exact same area we searched and searched and searched back in November on our first attempt. We almost gave up a second time even though TT had confirmed that it was in place. Then, lo and behold, there it was!! I found it! Sweet victory! I swear it wasn't hidden or covered by anything but the tape. It was nearly impossible to see. Very cute stamp, well worth the second attempt. I didn't even fall and hurt myself this time! WooHoo! The woodland creature isn't the one I was expecting to see, but he's cuter!

Claude Allison

Location: Redford, Wayne County MI
Planted By: theresa
Find Date: attempted 3/18/2007
Find #: n/a

Comments: Tried unsuccessfully to find these two boxes. Really didn't think they'd be there, since there were so many "attempted" listings on LbNA and no finds. I really wish that planters would update their clues or archive the boxes when the boxes go missing or they decide not to be active letterboxers anymore. Very annoying!

Strongheart

Location: Maybury State Park, Northville, Wayne County, MI
Planted By: clickermom3
Find Date: 3/18/2007
Find #: 42

Comments: Very cool stamp! Found this one on our second attempt. Someone found this box last week on the same day we were looking for it. We originally thought the hiding place was frozen, but it turns out that place wasn't the right place after all. We did look in the place that it really was too, but it wasn't there last week. So, now we think that the box was "checked out" when we were there looking for it. Had to come back for Lovebirds and Laika anyway so no big deal. Great stamp. Worth the return trip.

Laika

Location: Maybury State Park, Northville, Wayne County, MI
Planted By: Clickermom3
Find Date: 3/18/2007
Find #: 41

Comments: Awesome stamp carving! Again, second attempt for this one. We followed the wrong set of trail numbers for this one. Dumb! We met a cool Bull Mastiff while stamping in. Lots of people here today.

Lovebirds

Location: Maybury State Park, Northville, Wayne County, MI
Planted By: vassar
Find Date: 3/18/2007
Find #: 40

Comments: Found it! Second attempt for this one, but we succeeded, finally. Helps if you follow the right trail! That's what we get for trying to "cheat" and find multiple boxes at the same time. Made a bad assumption and suffered for it. Very cool carving! Worth the second trip.

The Lion King

Location: Maybury State Park, Northville, Wayne County, MI
Planted By: J-Walkers
Find Date: 3/11/2006
Find #: 39

Comments: Another lesson for us about reading clues. This time we took them too literally and got off track. Eventually found the right place. Very sloppy, muddy spring day. Also tried to find Lovebirds, Laika and Strongheart boxes today, but no luck. We were trying to find all three of these boxes simultaneously. That didn't work out so well. We accidentally followed the wrong trail numbers for Lovebirds and Laika and couldn't find the right places. The place that we thought the Strongheart box was hidden was still frozen solid and we couldn't get in.

Wildflower box #1 - Sagebush Buttercup

Location: Littleton, Arapahoe County, CO
Planted By: The Pug Posse
Find Date: 12/26/2006
Find #: 36

Comments: I've been to Colorado every Christmas in the past 10 years. Never, never in that time has there been any more than a couple inches of snow. Whenever it has snowed, it evaporated so fast it wasn't ever an issue. So, what happens the one Christmas I go to Denver when I now know about letterboxing? Snow, snow, and you guessed it, more snow. I've never seen so much snow in my life. My flight into Denver was delayed by 2 days due to snow, my flight out of Denver was delayed, rescheduled and rebooked for the original time due to snow. And my hours and hours of research and reams and reams of pages printed about awesome letterboxes in the Denver area pretty much went to complete waste. I told my sister-in-law all about letterboxing, got her all excited about it and selected several boxes to go find the day after Christmas. I am not even going to list these boxes as "attempted", because it's not my fault I couldn't find them. There was really just no way with several feet of snow on the ground! What a disappointment. We did manage to find this box because the city was nice enough to plow the sidewalks in the park. We did have to run around like idiots making tracks in all the snow around all the trees in the area to obscure our path. Very nice stamp. Clever clues. At least I didn't leave Colorado empty handed! It better not snow next Christmas, though!

Season's Letterbox

Location: Orchard Lake Nature Sanctuary, Orchard Lake, Oakland County, MI
Planted By: Sealpoint
Find Date: 12/2/2006
Find #: 33-35

Comments: This was a four part series, one stamp for each season of the year. We didn't find the "spring" box while we were here the first time. We didn't bring the compass, but didn't need it until the last part of the clues. We had a pretty good sense of direction and knew approximately where we should be looking. But, in any case we looked by every single "lone big tree" within reasonable proximity to where it should have been. No box! We did see a gigantic buck, though.

Wandering in the Wetlands

Location: West Bloomfield Nature Preserve, West Bloomfield, Oakland County, MI
Planted By: TrailTroll
Find Date: 11/25/2006
Find #: 30-31

Comments: Very cool preserve, beautiful. Nice stamps, too. We found the first two boxes, but didn't manage to find the third box. We looked and looked, to no avail. There are so many squirrels or other critters here! We kept hearing them all around us. After while, it really started feeling like we were being followed! Weird. On the way from box 2 to 3, while I was rounding a bend, turning a corner and passing a dude coming from the opposite direction, I lost my balance and fell down with a yell and a thump. I messed up my ankle pretty bad and we were only about at the 1/2 way point on this looooong, hilly trail. I had to suck it up and walk the rest of the way out. What we won't do for letterboxing!

Happy Birthday in May

Location: Clinton, Lenawee County, MI
Planted By: John316
Find Date: attempted 10/14/2006
Find #: n/a

Comments: Couldn't find this one. I'm sure we were in the right place. No one else has reported it found for quite a while either so I'm sure this is missing. No contact from placer.

Intrigue at Aiden Lair

Location: McCourtie Park, Somerset Center, Hillsdale County, MI
Planted By: Munchkin Stamper (The Four Clovers)
Find Date: 10/14/2006
Find #: 13-17

Comments: This is an awesome 7 box series. Box #2 was reported missing before we went there. We found 5 of the active 6 boxes, but we're about 99.9% sure that the unfound box (#3) was also missing. This is the coolest place I've seen. I highly recommend this series. The clues are very creatively written to make it seem like you have 4 other buddies with you on the find. The park is incredible and according to local legend, haunted. Found the "Get Your Kicks" Hitchhiker in box #4. It was an unseasonably freezing cold day when we were there. Had to be overly patient as we were being "followed" from "landmark to landmark" by a couple being photographed. There's supposedly a geocache really close to one of the boxes in this series but we couldn't divine our way to it.

Faces Of Nature

Location: Robert Long Park, Commerce, MI
Planted By: ?
Find Date: n/a (attemped 9/20/2006)
Find #: n/a

Comments: Cool park and good clues. Lots and lots of birds here. Box nowhere to be found, though! We are quite positive we were in the right place, not just confused! (The box has since had several attempts and has been deleted from the LbNA site as of 7/2007.)