830. Getting RI Letterboxing Back in the Pink
A short stroll on the pink Pulaski XC ski bunny trail

1. Love in Heart
2. Heart in Hands
3. One Last Kiss

We were wondering where to put these three lovely little stamps carved by Spoiled Rotten of Ohio when we recently had occasion to write up a list of who the early planters were in RI for celebrating 20 years of letterboxing in our little state. We were actually surprised to see just how active things were back then in the early years of letterboxing, with some folks like Jay Drew of CT planting dozens of boxes all over RI even before we planted over 300 boxes just in our own South County area of RI alone! Plus pretty much everyone who was involved in any way in the hobby in RI back then planted at least one or two boxes to help cover many of our state parks and preserves, and some did much more!

My, have things changed! We sensed that things had seemed to have gotten very slow these past few years as far as planting new boxes in RI goes, but we didn’t realize just how much new growth in the hobby had diminished until we did a comparison. We used to be able to go away for several months at a time, and always seemed to have plenty of new boxes to keep us busy for awhile when we got back. Lately, though, when we came back from long trips, there would sometimes be scarcely enough letterboxing for us to do to occupy an afternoon! It seemed like more attention was being given by some folks to just putting out whole bunches of temporary stamps at limited gathering times, with not much actual traditional letterbox planting at all happening in between, and we were saddened to think that the good foundations laid down for planting letterboxes in so many wonderful natural areas years ago would be lost to the point where newer letterboxers from “outta state” might think that RI letterboxing was about nothing but zoo parties and backyard egg hunts!

Of course, we haven’t been doing that much in recent years to try to to preserve traditional letterboxing in RI either. Ever since our so-called “letterboxing retirement” in 2011, we’ve mostly just been planting boxes on trips and we’ve pretty much let our old boxes in RI slide into oblivion. Many have probably gone missing by now, and for some, the environment has changed so much that we wouldn’t even be able to find them ourselves anymore! (See our clue for “Logging Your Finds - The Traditional Way” for one such story.) So, when we heard about a project in NC to try to get the newer generation planting permanent traditional letterboxes again, rather than just doing the “time-limited stamp collecting thing” at gatherings, we thought that was a wonderful initiative, and we’re hoping that it might work here in RI, too - to try get more boxes back out in parks where people can go for an adventure any time they want and help get RI letterboxing “back in the pink”!

Anyway, as our contribution to fun memories of XC skiing and letterboxing in Pulaski Park (as well as it being the site of one of our earliest mystery boxes from long ago), go to the parking lot that is at the end of the first road to the right after entering the park and park at the far left end. There near the picnic tables, pick up the pink triangle trail (XC ski trail in winter, so if you visit then, make sure NOT to step in the ski tracks!!!) and head slightly left downhill until the trail curves right to a more secluded picnic table tucked into the edge of the woods on the right. Just past that table, check the far end of an old log, behind a couple of stones for a little round box of letterboxing love!

Continue shortly to where pink triangles join with red, green and yellow ones to head right up a slight hill, then right again with the other three colors until pink peels off from the others by going right when the others go left. Head gently downhill and stop at the corner where the trail curves back left. Look behind the far side of the largest boulder near the tree for another box with heart.

Finally, head gently back uphill, but before reaching the last pink triangle on the left before the sharp right turn back to you car, look under the rock by the short leaning stump on the left for one last kiss in a little black pouch, with our heartfelt thanks to everyone contributing to keeping traditional letterboxing alive and well in RI - and the rest of the world, too!

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