::plucks two pennies on the counter::

Just figured I would prepay for this one though it will be short since we have been home about an hour and I should probably sleep...

Chestnut Ridge is freaking amazing!!! Plan to go.

The Ridge has boxes that require you to hike up creekbeds (of which they have many), what has to be 20+ miles of MARKED trails all over the place, hills and valleys everywhere, picnic shelters scattered all over the park, waterfalls, horse trails, all kinds of stuff. For the local Georgia folks, try to visualize something like the area of Stone Mountain combined with the trails/terrain of Little Mulberry and the Gwinnett Environmental and Heritage Center and that might give you a general feel.

From a boxing standpoint, Chestnut Ridge is what out of town folks THINK Stone Mountain will be. What I mean is that while there are a ton of boxes at both, you can walk into Chestnut ridge as a non-local and find every box in the park by reading the clues. A large number of the boxes at Stone Mountain require what amounts to random walking to find the correct starting point and hoping that you actually REALIZE you found it. The style of clues at SM has become very cryptic. Chestnut Ridge is the opposite as what chadams has done is make a guide, grouping the boxes into areas and loops so you can spend more time walking around the park and looking than having to juggle 15 sets of clues and try to figure out what box you will come to next. Granted, it helps that he planted most of the boxes so putting together a "helpful list" does not step on people's toes like it might at Stone Mountain. Maybe I am wrong, but I have never heard of anyone finding more than 25ish boxes on a trip to SM without someone literally taking them from box to box yet Artemis and I found 100+ boxes all over Chestnut Ridge in a what added up to two solid days of boxing.

I am not saying either theory is better, it is just a different style for the two parks. Boxers in both places want to take you to find hidden/interesting parts of the park but Stone Mountain boxes make you work to find them by not actually leading you there and instead saying "if you happen to be here, keep your eyes open" while Chestnut Ridge boxes seem to be saying "I want to show you some hidden gems, so follow these clues and pick up a box while you are there".

Just one last comment; chadams has done a LOT of work both planting and planning to make that park something special for letterboxing and I would strongly encourage people to print out his Guide to the Ridge (or whatever he calls it) and make a trip to Buffalo to see what has been put together there; you won't be disappointed.

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... Eidolon and Artemis from Georgia... have been up in The Ridge boxing ALL weekend long! As of 8 o'clock this morning... they had found 95 boxes at the Ridge and were going for a couple more this morning... —chadams

Insane. The man's insane, I tell ya! Just look at the trouble that follows him: kidney stones on the trail, ducking the Stone Mtn. cops... what else?

Insane? I just call it another day at the office. As for what is next? Ask Green Tortuga about the night boxing Saturday. Or maybe ask chadams and Lady Lilac the same question to get THEIR perspective on it. That Tortuga is the real troublemaker, I swear!!!

::whistles innocently because I most certainly did not "encourage" him or "offer suggestions" but will always make it a point to be in his group in the future b/c we had fun and it is safer::

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whistles innocently because I most certainly did not "encourage" him or "offer suggestions

that's not the way I heard it :) he totally blames you for the "missing" box

d123

Boxers in both places want to take you to find hidden/interesting parts of the park but Stone Mountain boxes make you work to find them by not actually leading you there and instead saying "if you happen to be here, keep your eyes open" while Chestnut Ridge boxes seem to be saying "I want to show you some hidden gems, so follow these clues and pick up a box while you are there".

I suspect there are a couple of reasons for this. One, that's just part of the "personality" that develops in various regions. I planted the first box at Stone Mountain and deliberately made the clues vague enough so people would not have any idea where around the mountain the box was actually located. They were expected to hike around the mountain until the "ah-ha!" moment struck. (I like making people walk long and far, and work for my boxes.) At the time I planted it, there was only one other box in Georgia, so that could have seeded the idea of "mysterious" clues, or at least do more than straight-forward clues.

I also suspect time plays a roll in the matter, where as more time goes by, people think of more creative ideas for clues to keep the game interesting. Given enough time, the clues for Chestnut Ridge might become as twisted, sick, and challenging as those at Stone Mountain. ;o)

But each region does tend to develop a letterboxing "personality" to it, though, since different regions develop just a little bit differently. The game is the same, but the dialect changes.

-- Ryan

-- Ryan

malkovich

malkovich

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Just one last comment; chadams has done a LOT of work both planting and planning to make that park something special for letterboxing and I would strongly encourage people to print out his Guide to the Ridge (or whatever he calls it) and make a trip to Buffalo to see what has been put together there; you won't be disappointed.

Oh, SNAP! Am I to be cast aside like some lonely cheese in the WIND????

Actually, props MUST be given to chadams and The Phoenix both for the first 50 or so plants in that park. They really do love that park with a passion and chadams' excitement in particular (and the need to throw an event closer to Dagonell's stomping grounds) was what clinched our decision to hold the gathering there instead of anywhere else. He's the one that merged the original boxes into groups to make life easier for me and other boxers once. All I did after that was just plant more boxes with CQ, type up the the clues into the webpage, print that off as the booklet and bam! instant gathering!

When are you coming back, Eidolon? I missed you guys so much I slept nearly all day today! :-)

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Oh, SNAP! Am I to be cast aside like some lonely cheese in the WIND????

Well, since you said it...

::smile::

But actually I was not tossing aside Sprite or The Phoenix or the others who have planted around the park. I was focusing on the fact chadams has planted 50+ boxes all over that park and made that nifty guide which we all know and love.

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When are you coming back, Eidolon? I missed you guys so much I slept nearly all day today! :-)

Sleep?!? What a novel idea... I missed you so much that I actually did NOT curse you while boxing Monday. Granted, I was not looking for your boxes so that might have helped but still, I sometimes just curse you anyway for fun. You know how it is; "I can't find (some box planted in Georgia), damn that Sprite".

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But actually I was not tossing aside Sprite or The Phoenix or the others who have planted around the park. I was focusing on the fact chadams has planted 50+ boxes all over that park and made that nifty guide which we all know and love.

Oh, I'm the first to admit Chadams OWNS that park...seriously, I wouldn't doubt that he's actually NOT living at home, but in some remote corner of Chestnut Ridge and is just PRETENDING to come in from elsewhere! ;-) I'm really glad he made that guide, too...made life a LOT easier when trying to get this thing set up. It really is the only difference that I see between Stone Mountain and us...if you guys had someone who could bind all the clues together for an event, you'd have the same deal.

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Sleep?!? What a novel idea... I missed you so much that I actually did NOT curse you while boxing Monday. Granted, I was not looking for your boxes so that might have helped but still, I sometimes just curse you anyway for fun. You know how it is; "I can't find (some box planted in Georgia), damn that Sprite".

Which is WEIRD, because I blame all my stuff on Wassamatta! It's the trickle down theory, I guess! Wonder who takes heat from him???

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Which is WEIRD, because I blame all my stuff on Wassamatta! It's the trickle down theory, I guess! Wonder who takes heat from him???

He probably blames Green Tortuga, who as we have seen is trying to blame me for everything so it is just a vicious cycle...

Which is WEIRD, because I blame all my stuff on Wassamatta! It's the trickle down theory, I guess! Wonder who takes heat from him???

Shiloh. Pretty much all bad Boxing things that happen to me are shiloh's fault. Don't ask how, I can't explain it... but I know in my heart it is true. Shiloh, you're next: who do YOU blame?

wassamatta_u_did_this_to_me

I'm really glad he made that guide, too...made life a LOT easier when trying to get this thing set up. It really is the only difference that I see between Stone Mountain and us...if you guys had someone who could bind all the clues together for an event, you'd have the same deal.

DONE. To some extent.

Due to the "keep your eyes open" nature of many of the boxes' clues, it's never been publicly released. Thankfully it's been too darn hot for anybody to plant recently—I've actually been able to almost finish the update. And it doesn't list the clues. It just goes from one parking area to another and tells you which boxes (non-Mystery) you can get from there... if you keep your eyes open.

Now, for the Summit Tour I guided at the SE Gathering, I included the clues for most of the boxes on the rock itself.

But those pale in comparison to the 119" wide x 103" tall, 366 MB map of the park I stitched together from MapQuest aerial photos and have "pinned" with the locations of the boxes I've found. No, you can't have a copy of it unless you've found all the boxes, too!