The Letterbox

It seems I have found a treasure! I told you awhile ago that I bought a hiking GPS so I could enhance my adventures a bit. I soon discovered the world of Geocaching, which is a treasure hunting game using GPS. The further I looked into it, I discovered many different types of these caches. One type is what is called a Letterbox.

A letterbox is just a sealed container with a rubber stamp and paper to record your visit. There's usually no real treasure. You're usually given clues to find oneof these boxes. If you can figure it out, you'll find the letterbox. The fun is in the hunt.

Well, while I was doing a small bit of research on a normal geocache I was hunting, I came across the information for this letterbox. It happened to be in a place I sometimes go, and I recognized the place that they described. So I knew I had to search for this one.

When I arrived at the general location, I looked around for a few seconds. It took me only that long to instinctively know right where to find this letterbox. I walked right over to where I knew it had to be, and there it was as plain as day! The only problem was that any body would have been able to find it.

Part of the rules are that ordinary people, who they embarrassingly call muggles, aren't supposed to know about this stuff. I'm telling you about these things because I am a great rebel, the rule breaker of the ages, and an all around rascal! And nobody can stop me! So there!

Anyway, since this box was pretty much laying there in plain sight, I put it back and hid it correctly. Nobody would stumble upon it now! I had to do this while evading three other people who annoyingly entered my trail. After doing my duty I left the park. I've been back and found that it has since been hidden even better now.

So that's it. That is the account of how I found one small treasure. Soon I will become rich with all of these treasures. I will still behave the same as when I had none. That's just because I'm such a good guy. Thank you all. Thank you all.

(Do you believe this guy? What a jerk!)

The Unsolved Mystery

I have a little story about a mystery to tell you. As a few of you know, a short while ago I bought a little toy called a GPS device. I have been using it to help me know my general location when I'm out hiking. Mine is specially made for things like that. There's another use for it too.

The other use for this little hand held device is a thing called geocaching. Geocaching is a treasure hunting game, using GPS, that is now being played all over the world. You use these devices to hunt little treasures that other players hide. There are hundreds of these things within ten miles of me. I started doing this as a way to bring you new stories here.

Since my device is still new, I'm really only a beginner at this game, so it's understandable that I have some learning to do. So far though I've been a complete failure at it. I just haven't really been able to find any of these caches yet. I know I'll get better, but no luck so far.

"But what does this have to do with the title of this post", you ask. "What is the unsolved mystery?" Well, while I was searching for one of these caches I found something. It was a similar thing to a cache but there was no treasure, and it was not in a location where a cache should be. It was only a plastic baggy with some things inside.

I didn't get a chance to examine it or even look much closer because there were people coming. You might guess why it's not good to let most others know about the location of these things. So I decided to continue my hike through the park that day. I knew I could come back at a better time, when there weren't so many other people.

So I went back yesterday. It was a good time of day to look without being disturbed, but I must have picked the wrong day. The place was crowded! When I got back to the site, there was a family of people walking by, so I decided to walk through the park and then come back. This place is not large for a nature park, so even kids can walk all the way through.

When I was finally able to investigate this place alone, I found that everything was gone! I searched for it a little bit, but then gave up. Maybe somebody hid it better, maybe somebody stole it. I didn't get a chance to find out if there was something interesting in there or just a baggy full of junk.

Now I'm left with an unsolved mystery! I should have stayed around there that first day I saw it. I guess I'm just too impatient right now. I could have just ignored this thing I found, but I have become obsessed with it. I could have shown you the pretty little birds I got pictures of, but instead I'm showing you the hole in an old fallen tree. How's that for fun?

You gotta admit though, this post is a little different from most of my others. It still has Ratty written all over it though. Who else would give you a story of an old plastic baggy in a fallen tree? One of these times I'll actually find something on a little treasure hunt, so the story ends up actually good!

The End. (I told you it was unsolved)

A New Discovery

My new GPS that I mentioned in Saturday's post is already paying off. There was a place I saw over a year ago, but I couldn't find where it was anymore. I wanted to visit it, but how could I find out anything about it if I didn't know where it was? The worst thing was that it was only a few miles away from me. I wasn't even sure if it was a public place or not.

But today I was online trying to figure out how to use my little GPS, and I found a few things. I was looking through Geocaching.com, which is a site that organizes the details of a fun scavenger hunting game you can do with a GPS. That's where I found directions and a few details of this place.

My new place is a boardwalk that goes over a little pond. The place is nestled in front of several office buildings and on the same street as one of our local TV stations. It's called the American Commerce Centre Nature Preserve. It's on the north side of 11 Mile Rd. about a mile east of Inkster.

I went there hunting for treasure, and I found it! Just not the treasure I was looking for. What I found was a place that was loaded with birds of all kinds, and a few other unexpected things. The only problem was that I couldn't really find a good place to park. All the parking I saw was private.

The funny thing is that it looks like a sunny afternoon in the pictures, but it was actually about 8:30 PM. The sun was going down but I got some beautiful pictures because it was till at just the right height if I took pictures to the east. All of my pictures that point the other way look like it's nighttime. You can see my shadow in a few of these.

In this shot you can see the beginning of the place where the boardwalk goes over the water. It happens to be the best picture in that section that I got of this structure. There's a good reason for that. It's because I got mugged by three robbers right after this picture was taken! Just kidding!

The real reason is that I saw so many birds that I filled my camera's memory card with pictures of them. I've only done that once before. There were even a few types of birds that I've never seen before! I read that there were a lot of birds here, but I wasn't prepared for what greeted me.

As I begin to wrap this post up, I know that I haven't shown you any of these birds I keep going on and on about. That will come at another time. I had to show you this place first. Discovering something new is the most important thing for an Everyday Adventurer. And this place is a prime example of that.

I have so many things to show you from the past week. Some of them will inevitably be lost to time. I hope to show as much as I can though. It will be a shame for you not to be able to see some of these things. I'll be back tomorrow with something good from one of these recent trips.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I don't know how much anyone has noticed, but I have been falling behind with a few things on here recently. This has actually been a good thing for me. The reason for this is because I've been spending even more time with nature.

I think I mentioned about a week ago that I discovered a new place where I could go hiking. I originally saw it a last summer while I was driving by an alternate entrance. I had just gotten through applying for a different job in the area. Apparently they weren't smart enough to hire the best person for the job.

Because I didn't have a big reason to go back to the area, I didn't go back to investigate this new nature place. It looked very small and I had other things to keep e busy.Well, I finally got around to going back and I discovered that this place is huge.

It has over six miles of hiking trails. That's bigger than any other place in this area. There are three times that many combined hiking, biking, and horseback riding trails too. You can hike on them all. Thebest thing is that it isn't really that far away from me.

I've been spending most of my available time there just trying to find my way around. I took my compass, which I don't usually have to do, and it promptly got lost in this huge pond. It was dropped through the cracks of this dock.

This wasn't such a good thing because this pond is at the farthest point away from the entrance. It was a good thing I have a good sense of direction. The trails twist and turn all through the park, and I had to find my way back. It turned out to be easier than I thought it would be.

I'll be giving more details on this park this week some time. I have plenty of things to show you from my visits there. In the meantime I decided to show you some pictures that demonstrate what I saw.

I have been getting home very late and very tired after visiting these trails. It's a good kind of tired. Walking through here so much has helped me work out the pain in my legs from running from those baby raccoons I've been telling you about for the last few days.

This new place isn't the only thing I've been doing. I have a new little device that I hope will enhance my experiences with nature. I hope to begin hiking bigger areas and do many new and exciting things that I never dreamed about before.

My new toy is a GPS(Global Positioning System) that's specially made for hiking. It's much better than a compass, and besides, it has one built right in. As soon as I learn how to use it I'll be doing some bigger and better things. I'll still tell every experience through the eyes of a beginner though.
There you have it! I'll try to catch up on everything here on the internet this week. This recent outdoor stuff has made me very tired. I've now been awake all night trying to get everything, including this post, reasonably caught up. I'm not quite there yet.

Okay, that's enough typing for me. It's very early in the morning, and also time for me to go to sleep. I hope you enjoy these pictures. I'll talk to you again soon you soon!