All year I’ve wanted to get to this letterbox, but I spent most of my time in Delaware Water Gap this year across the way on Mt. Tammany. In fact, this was my first trip to Mt. Minsi since late last summer. (Of course, even though finding the letterbox was my main purpose for this hike, I was distracted by the possibility of also locating some benchmarks, and almost walked out the door without the letterbox clues. Typical.) Aaron came along on this one, unsure how he would feel about GPS-free hunting. We took the AT up the mountain, as usual, and had no trouble finding the box. It’s been there almost four years, and it’s in great shape! I was surprised to see that Geeoh had found it, as well. I didn’t recognize any of the other names. (We were astounded by the log from “Wendy from RI” who claims to have done like 1,000,000+ miles of solo hiking and backpacking. Well, maybe not that much, but once it gets over 30,000, does it make a difference?!) Finally, we had a nice day to do our stamp-trading. It really made a big difference. Now, if I could only find those benchmarks…

Zhannich at the second overlook on Mount Minsi. That’s Mount Tammany in the background. There’s a letterbox and several geocaches over there; I’ve found the caches, but I haven’t looked for the letterbox yet.

Fall view from the powerline cut very near the letterbox. Too bad those powerlines are there!

The letterbox itself. It was pretty easy to locate, and is in great shape after almost four years! It will need a new logbook soon, though.

The view from a little further up the trail. No powerlines this time.

“Salt Spring” was my first official non-hybrid letterbox. And of course, since it’s done almost nothing else but rain this October, this one was found in the rain. The morning began with a trip to Woodbourne Forest, where I ran into Rich, located the Woodbourne Forest Cache, got wet, caught my hand on a thorn and bled all over the place, and just generally had an awesome time. After that cache I went alone to the Liberty Park Cache, which I found without incident, and from there finally to Salt Springs. The letterbox wasn’t too tough to find, though I had to retrace my steps on two of the legs to get to the right place. The box was somewhat visible when I arrived at the area, but it was a good distance off the trail. In order to look through the logbook and to stamp it myself, I had to set up my little umbrella on the hillside and hold the book underneath it. (By this time the rain was a mere drizzle, but there was still plenty dripping from the trees.) The hider had included stamped, addressed postcards that you could send her to comment on the letterbox. I only wish she’d included an e-mail address, too. After locating the letterbox, I checked on my own nearby Penny Rock Cache, which someone had moved to a new spot. Good thing I located it! (I moved it back.)

Note: As of 18 January 2004, this letterbox listing seems to have disappeared from letterboxing.org. Does anyone know if it’s still in place?

The letterbox, with me under an umbrella… I was trying hard to protect it from the rain!

After several days of rain, the stream was full.