CMW Poem Series: Handiwork Divine

When I lived in Idaho City, we would take drives along the Boise River. The Middle Fork Drive was our favorite, we would drive up to Atlanta and hot spring, swim hole hop all the way down to the reservoir. I decided our favorite hot spring would be the perfect place to hide my "Handiwork Divine" letterbox. This is a long, slow drive along the reservoir, so take a picnic lunch and your swimming suit.

I thought it would be fun to include
some pictures of Buckblackhoof, Music Chick, and Crazy Mountain Woman in those younger times. Buckblackhoof and Music Chick pose on a rock above the pools with Whisper and Nakina. Crazy Mountain Woman and Whisper relax in the hot water. 

 CLUES:  From Boise, go north on Highway 21 to the turn off to Spring Shores. This is the road that goes to Atlanta. Drive past Spring Shores and Arrowrock Dam. You will follow this road for 46 to 47 miles to Roaring River Road. Take the bridge across the river. On the south side of the river there are parking spots on both sides of the road, park in one of them. On the left side of the road is a trail that leads to the hot springs. At the beginning of the trail there is a sign that warns "Don't get in hot water!" which lists the dangers of hot springs. Follow the trail up the river. You will first go downhill, then the trail levels out for a little bit. Before you start back up hill, there will be a large boulder on the right side of the trail. Face this boulder and look up the hill at a boulder slide. Slightly up the hill is another boulder, bigger than any surrounding it. On the south west side of this boulder you will find Handiwork Divine. (This is a fairly large stamp so bring a piece of 3 1/2 x 5-inch paper.)

There is plenty of room in this letterbox. If you would like to add a stamp that portrays the beauty of God's handiwork, you are more than welcome to add it to this box.

 To return to Boise, it will be faster to continue up toward Atlanta and take the road after the Dutch Creek forest service complex (FR 327) toward the North Fork of the Boise River. There are two ways from here to reach Highway 21. I prefer the Little Owl Creek Road which brings you to Highway 21 at the Edna Creek Campground.

CMW Poem Series: Point of View

Several years ago I used to do a lot of traveling for work. One time I had the opportunity to travel to New Mexico, where I passed by these ruins. I couldn't resist stopping to take pictures, and eventually this picture inspired a poem.

Crazy Mountain Woman and I share a birthday, so we took another birthday trip to St. George, UT, (we did the same thing two years ago). Today we journeyed back up to Cedar City to find the rest of the letterboxes in that area. We went up SR 14 and came across this beautiful vista point where you could see Zion National Park. What a great place to plant "Point of View"!

Directions:  From Cedar City, UT, take SR 14 up the canyon. Between mileposts 16 and 17 there is an overlook or view point. When we stopped there on April 25, 2013, there was a place for an informational sign, but no sign. I don't know if it is taken down for the winter and put back up in the summer or if it has been permanently removed.

Clues:  Stand facing the sign (or the view towards Zion if the sign is still gone). To your left is a tall group of aspen with four sub-alpine spruce to the left of them. There is a trail going down hill on both the near side of this group of trees and on the far side. Take the second trail, but don't go down very far. See the two fallen trees to your left? The letterbox is hidden between those to logs, about two feet from the west end. There is a knotty limb that looks like it is joining the two trees just to the east of the letterboxe's hiding place.

I do not get down this way very often, so if the box is in need of maintenance or goes missing, please AQ mail me.  Thanks!

CMW Poem Series: Carma

When I lived in Idaho City, Crazy Mountain Woman, Buckblackhoof, and I would trailer our horses up to Pine Creek to do our riding. It was always enjoyable, and if Buck didn't ride with us, we would let friends ride his horse. I was surprised to see how much the area has changed. Instead of turning the sharp corner in the clue below, you used to be able to keep going straight up the hill. Now you can barely tell there was a road there.

The fun and laughter we shared together will always be a treasured memory. Sometimes I wish I still lived there so that we could make more memories on fantastic rides. I wish I had a picture for this poem, maybe someday I will. So, Crazy Mountain Woman, here is your poem:

Carma

Remember the ride 

Where we sang as we rode

Beneath towering pines

On that old forest road?

 The sun shone so bright

In the sky, summer blue

We laughed and we chattered

As sisters will do.

We've always been close

In both mind and heart

Born on the same day

Though five years apart.

We like the same things

But we are different, too,

My hair is brown, yours is blonde

My eyes green, yours are blue.

We laugh at Dad's jokes

Though his humor is dry

And we keep Mom posted

On every new talent we try.

We like to sing together

We're sisters, so we blend

And I can truly say

You are my closest friend.

I know you'll always be there

When I need a listening ear

Sharing joy and sorrow,

Sad or happy tears.

And I will be here for you

As a sister and a friend

Because I will always love you,

Worlds without end. 

Clue to the Letterbox:

North of Idaho City approximately 9/10ths of a mile is the Bannock Creek/Pine Creek/Thorne Butte Lookout road. Turn right onto this road, cross the creek and take the right fork. Do not cross the creek again, but follow Forest Road 304 uphill. Take Forest Road 347 (about 1.4 miles from the highway). Turn the sharp corner and park in the second small pull out (1.5 miles from the highway). Off the road, downhill, to the right just in front of where you parked is a group of boulders. One of the boulders (the largest) is relatively flat. On the creek side of this boulder beneath branches and duff you will find "Carma".

Note:  This stamp is large (4 inches by 3 1/2 inches).           

CMW Poem Series: My Mountain

For as long as I can remember, I have always had a mountain in my life. In Ammon, Idaho, it was Taylor Mountain. When we moved to Boise, Idaho, it was stack rock and Mount McGowan at Stanley Lake. Then, when I was twelve years old, we hiked to Boulder Lake near McCall, Idaho, for the first time. During the next few years we backpacked and camped at Boulder Lake quite often. I loved to climb the rocky mound on the north side of the dam and sit at the top with Boulder Lake sparkling in the sun behind me, Boulder Meadows Reservoir winking below me, and far out in the valley I could see Cascade Reservoir. For many, many years, that was MY mountain.
When it came time to plant this letterbox, my mountain had once again changed. I now live in eastern Idaho, and The Grand Teton has been my mountain. In fact, it was the inspiration for this poem/song. But, I went back to Boulder Lake to plant this box because it was the first mountain that I wrote stories around.

Clues to the Letterbox:

From Highway 55 just south of McCall, Idaho, turn on Elo Road and follow it to Boulder Lake Road. Turn left on Boulder Lake Road and drive 4 to 5 miles to the Louie Lake and Boulder Lake Trailhead. When you reach the trailhead, the road will make a T. To the right is the Louie Lake Trail, to the left is the Boulder Lake Trail. The Boulder Lake trail starts to the left of the Boulder Meadows Reservoir dam. Follow the trail to Boulder Lake. When you reach the dam at Boulder Lake, turn left and follow it until it ends.

At the Northwest edge of the dam is a huge round boulder (see photo to right). Stand near this boulder and face north, looking up the rocky ridge. Follow the ridge up--there is a distinct white crack in the rock that you can use as a guide. Go to the stunted tree near the top of the ridge before it dips down (see photo to left). Stand on the east side of this tree and face south. Take 10 paces across the rock. At your feet should be a bush and some broken boulders. Take two steps slightly sideways so that you are standing on the 8 foot long boulder. Five small steps will put you above a patch of dirt with a medium sized boulder on the west. Look under this boulder, around a small corner and behind some SPOR to find "My Mountain". Crazy Mountain Woman's day pack is sitting on the boulder next to the hiding place and north of the little patch of dirt.

Enjoy your hike. I had originally planned to plant this box on September 1, 2012. Crazy Mountain Woman, Music Chick, Quilt Lady2, and I were going to find the Louie Lake Series, continue across a 2 mile trail to Boulder Lake, plant this box, then hike back down the Boulder Lake trail. We missed the short, 2 mile trail, and ended up taking a five mile trail--extending our hike by 4 miles when you include hiking from the back of Boulder Lake to the dam. We were tired and eager to get to the car by the time we reached the dam, so instead of climbing the mound to plant the box, we just hiked back down to the car. If you like long hikes, this one was exceptionally beautiful. Just be prepared with plenty of water. :)

CMW Poem Series: Take the Time

In this hectic, crazy world, sometimes we just need to take the time to see how our lives are blessed.

Clues to the Letterbox:

From the Mesa Falls Scenic Highway, park in the Lower Falls overlook parking lot. Meander down the path, passing the bathrooms and the circular overview of the falls, continuing to the dirt path beyond. At the fork in the trail stay right. You will see a standing snag near a ledge. Go to it and look at the view. Now walk carefully down past the snag (watch out for the rock in the path!) to the biggest rock straight in front of you. Turn your back to that rock and look back at the snag. It should be at 100 degrees. Take four careful steps in that direction. Hidden behind rocks beneath the sloping rock directly below the snag you will find one of my favorite reasons to Take the Time.

CMW Poem Series: Lady Remembered

This letterbox is dedicated to my second horse, Lady. She was a sorrel Morgan mare that I owned for twelve years. Not long after I bought her, my sister and I went horse camping at Pole Bridge Campground in Island Park, Idaho. We rode from the campground down the old railroad bed to Mesa Falls on our first day there (about 26 miles round trip). This was before the many improvements at Upper Mesa Falls, and we were able to ride down an old jeep trail to the top of the Lower Falls. It was a day that will be forever imprinted in my heart.
Years later I moved to Island Park. I rented pasture in the summer so that the horses could be over here with me. Just before the 4th of July on my third summer in Island Park, Lady was struck by lightning and killed. I wrote the following poem to keep her memory alive.

Lady in the pasture in Island Park

Clues to the Letterbox:

From the Mesa Falls Scenic Highway, turn as if going to Upper Mesa Falls. Before the fee entrance sign, turn left into a dirt parking area with a sign that says "Day Use Parking Lot". This is a left turn almost immediately following your turn to Upper Mesa Falls. Park here. Walk along the well defined path that is on the left as you pulled into the parking lot. Look for a large snag on your right at the edge of the canyon. Make your way to the snag. On the east side of the snag, at the base, you will find a crevice in the rocks that houses my favorite animal.

Beginning

This blog will be entirely dedicated to the letterboxes I have planted under my Rydes with Eagles trail name. I have only planted 14 letterboxes so far, but have many more waiting to be planted. I went over to Boise this weekend for a letterboxing event and planted two boxes for my poem series. I have already planted two in this series, and plan to change the listings to this blog so that I can add the poem/picture to the clues. This is not a letterboxing series in the technical term, as all the boxes will be planted in different areas.

So, to begin, I will explain about the names, why we have the trail names that I picked, and why it might be confusing.

Original Crazy Mountain Woman Logo Colored

My sister, nephew and I moved to the mountains above Boise in 1992. We found out that life can be a little more complicated there. I designed a logo and came up with a name for a business that we wanted to create. The name I came up with was Crazy Mountain Women, LLC. I drew a logo that represented Carma and I with our (then) baby horses, Mistidawn and Tess. We became the Crazy Mountain Women.

I also came up with a secondary logo for another part of the business we were planning with a horse running and an eagle flying above. I called it Rydes With Eagles. I spelled Rydes with a "Y" because that is actually the Native American name my nephew (Ryder) used in kindergarten and we wanted him to be included in our business venture.

I came across the hobby of letterboxing in Disney's Family Fun magazine, but it wasn't until a year after I had read about it that I actually found my first box. Carma and I needed to go to Tennessee and move her son back to Idaho. We decided to make a vacation out of it and invited our parents to join us on the trip. I like to collect souvenirs whenever I travel and this particular year I didn't have much money. I remembered the article in Family Fun and decided that would be a good way to document our trip, by collecting stamped images. Without telling my sister, I had two custom stamps made with our two logos. I chose the Rydes With Eagles image as my trail name and gave Carma the logo stamp for Crazy Mountain Women as a birthday present to use as her trail name.

Rydes With Eagles Logo embroidered

We missed the exit for the first clue I had downloaded, but stopped in Evanston, Wyoming, at a rest area where there were two letterboxes. We found the first box planted by CW Sunseeker. Inside the container was a clue for a bonus box! We were hooked. Carma has since changed her name to Crazy Mountain Woman, and I changed the logo to design her new stamp so that it was just her and Mistidawn.

Now, here comes the confusing part. I have written some short stories, poems, and songs; and the titles for each of these compilations are as follows:  Tales of a Crazy Mountain Woman, Poems of a Crazy Mountain Woman, and Songs of a Crazy Mountain Woman. I planted two letterboxes last year that relate to my poems, and started calling it the CMW poem series because of the titles of my notebooks and CD.

Now...on to the planting!