605. Sad Little Oak Leaf
In memory of our original "Animas Overlook Box" planted so many years ago on a hill west of Durango, CO

Well, we don't usually replant boxes of ours that go missing. This one has a special story, though, because it was the first box ever planted in a that part of southwestern Colorado back when there were no other boxes for many miles around, and it featured a lovely little mountain scene stamp carved by RTRW of CT. (See box #54 on our index listing.) At that time, having finished backpacking both the Colorado Trail and The Continental Divide years earlier, my goal was to hike all the hikes in the "100 Hikes in Colorado" book, as well as those in "Best Hikes in Colorado with Children", and the Animas Overlook hike from the latter book seemed a likely candidate for that particular stamp of RTRW's. I remember being concerned, however, that that "children's hike" was far too short to support a letterbox, being well under 3/4 of a mile at a time when most letterboxes were still singles on hikes of over a mile. I justified choosing that spot however, because of the easily attained views that would hopefully inspire more local letterboxers to get out and further explore this vast mountain region with so many other wonderful trails to share.

Well, imagine my surprise when, a few months later, I got an e-mail requesting my permission to add another letterbox to that very same trail I had originally planted on! Naturally, I was delighted that people had enjoyed that particular little trail so much that they would want to do that, so I said that it would probably be fine to add another box there, but secretly I was rather amused that with hundreds of miles of then "boxless territory" all around, anyone would choose to plant in the exact same area where there already was a box! I didn't think much further about it, though, until maybe a decade later, when I finally got back out that way, and suddenly I was flabbergasted to see that there was not just one more box, but maybe a dozen - all on that one little trail that I had thought was too short for even just my own original one! I had planted at one of the info signs about half way around the little loop, and now just about every info sign along the way had a box - and then some! Worst of all, my original box with the RTRW stamp had gone missing while all these newer ones had taken over, and one newer boxer, apparently completely unaware of my part, as a letterboxer from RI planting stamps carved by a letterboxer from CT, had even written something erroneously implying that this trail was originally introduced to letterboxing by Colorado letterboxers for showing off Colorado carving skills! Well, naturally I had to set the record straight on that one!!! (LOL)

Anyway, when passing through southwestern Colorado again after some more recent trail projects, I couldn't resist the chance to leave something behind once again near that same spot where I had staked my first CO "letterbox claim" so many years ago. All I had left with me to plant by that point was a little emergency foam stamp of an oak leaf attached to the back of a small finger-shaped stone. So, if you go to that same "Basketmakers of Falls Creek" info sign where my original "Animas Overlook Box" was, this time just look down at its northwest corner and remove a top jagged reddish finger rock to see a 5" jagged reddish finger rock below. Under that is a 2" tannish finger stone with a sad-looking little blood-red oak leaf crushed onto its backside. Please watch those fingers and replace exactly as found!

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