1065. "RI Smiley Face 10th Birthday Cake"Continues into the 20's ...
Exeter, RI

The coronavirus pandemic of 2020 has given us a chance to check on some of the many old boxes we planted in RI years ago, but haven't bothered to check in more recent times. Let's face it, with over 1000 plants now around the world and far too many other things to do, checking old boxes has not really been a high priority for us!;-) Besides, sometimes it seems that trails, terrain, trees and such have changed so much over time that we can't even find our own old boxes! Once in a while, though, we might get lucky, and find an old box of ours buried beneath a tree that fell over on it long ago or something like that, so we might decide to relocate it to a nearby spot. Or we might decide to "demystify"some of our old clues for "mystery"boxes of ours that have never been found or that haven't been found for a very long time. These, then, are some of the boxes that we have decided to label with "Continues into the 20's…"and this one continues with almost the same clue as originally written, too - just with the box moved a bit because of that fallen tree!;-)

RI LETTERBOXING'S 10th BIRTHDAY - STILL SMILIN THRU!

A stamp to commemorate the 10th birthday of RI's first letterbox, planted in Arcadia.

What a wonderful New Years trek through the snows of Arcadia we had to celebrate RI letterboxing's 10th birthday on Jan 1, 2009! By the time we met at "Appie Crossing" (near the junction of route 165 and Frosty Hollow Road) most of the people who had expressed an interest in this New Years Day hike had already dropped out due to the snow, the single digit morning temperatures, and various other reasons. However, three intrepid characters called We Who Wander (Chuck, Barbara and their chocolate lab Amy) decided to join us on this adventure in spite of the wintry conditions and the fact that "Breaking Hearts at Breakheart”, that first box planted in RI that we were celebrating having reached its 10th birthday that day had not been found for well over three years! Chuck had recently been suffering from back problems, so doing the whole hike might have been a concern, and Barbara had never been on XC skis before, but was game to try it on an extra pair of skis that we had brought. So, off we went hiking and skiing on some of the old dirt roads that had not been plowed heading toward Breakheart Pond to see if that original RI box, with its store-bought, smiley-face stamp was still there!

The sun shining through chill air and illuminating the snow-laden pines was absolutely breathtaking, and the trek would have been well worth the effort even if we had not been able to find the box. Indeed, after much searching, we were just about to give up when persistence paid off for a big "Woohoo" in the woods! Just as we were getting ready to plant our 10th birthday bonus box, however, Pete reached into his pocket and realized he didn't have it with him! (Instead he had a yellow tennis ball that he had been throwing for Amy to bound through the snow to fetch!;-) So, back towards the car we trudged and glided, hoping to find the box dropped in the snow somewhere along the way. It turned out that the box was lying in the snow almost all the way back to the junction of Frosty Hollow and Breakheart Pond Road, so we decided to plant it near that junction sporting a small brown wooden sign with two arrows pointing in different directions, to Breakheart Pond and to Route 165. From that sign, we left that little pill bottle letterbox that we thought we had lost in the snow just a dozen or so steps east between a boulder and a tall dead tree. We followed up our adventure with some nearby tailgating (hot chocolate and cookies), then went home for some hot soup, pasta, pizza, sandwich wraps, desserts and good conversation with friends. What a great way to spend New Years Day and celebrate RI letterboxing's 10th birthday!

Well, naturally, after another decade or so had passed, that dead tree had long since fallen over and rotted, so we thought we had lost the box yet again! But, no, we dug and dug and finally found it well buried under that fallen tree! So, for easier access, we moved it to under a small flat stone on the north side of the 3 x 4' rectangular rock that is just about 7 steps from the above-mentioned sign at that junction. Please be especially careful not to draw attention to what you are doing if vehicles happen to be passing by while you are there. We realize that it is not much of an adventure getting this 10th birthday box now just as a drive-by, but there are still plenty of other trails in the area to plant letterboxes on, so that we can all hopefully still keep celebrating RI letterboxing for many years to come!

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