We actually planted this letterbox quite a while ago, but are only just now getting around to posting it. (Guess we were waiting for October to go along with the name of the area it is planted in!) To reach this scenic and fairly remote part of Massachusetts - we even saw a black bear here while planting! - it is probably easiest to start from Pittsfield. Heading east from route 7 on Williams St, bear right on Mt Washington Rd for 5.6 miles as it turns into Pittsfield Rd. Then turn right on gravel West Branch Rd (right near the house where Mrs Hutchinson used to pass out cookies to AT hikers in the 1970's), and go just over 1/2 mile west to a small parking space on the left at the AT crossing.

Hike south on the AT up the rooty trail, continuing to follow white blazes for about half a mile to the new October Mt. backpackers' shelter. After checking out the shelter area, start heading back the way you came, but stop, still within sight of the outhouse, just south of a U-shaped white birch practically in the middle of the trail. Note "Garv" carved on the beech tree to the left. From "Garv", it is only 3 steps at 210 degrees (south from the U-tree) to a small moss covered rock with a gray lichen spot. (We left a quartz cobble on top and some small pieces of wood in front of it) Tucked underneath in a snug bed is the "June Bride" in her "white attire"! Please re-hide her carefully so that she blends in perfectly with her natural surroundings. She is very close to the trail and would not like to be awakened accidentally!

To find this box, first find exactly where Wanda made her "historic F 10,000 find" on March 30, 2006. (Hint: it's written up in one of our webpage reports and has to do with a little red dog!) Next, go to the easternmost swing - the one that Wanda used to take her "celebratory swing" after finding that box. From there, you have 2 step options:
A. The "straight forward (bushwack)" - 16 S to #1 Heel Flex, then 16 E to foot of nondescript, medium-sized oak, or
B. The "curvaceous (non-bushwack)" - 26 S, 16 E, 16 N & 2 W behind first oak on L. (We'd hoped to make it into a Fibonacci curl in appreciation of Archimedes Screw, but couldn't quite get that to work!)
Anyway, hope you'll join in the letterbox celebration and have fun swinging!

Between my two trips to the Southwest in the fall of 2007, including my half day south-to-north rim-to-rim hike of the Grand Canyon in Arizona in September, and my Frijoles Canyon trip in New Mexico in November, I briefly had a chance to breeze back east for Justin's 12th birthday party at the Moose Hill Audubon Sanctuary in Sharon, MA. Since for many years I was known in the backpacking world as the "Breeze", I thought it might be fun to carve something based on that image to share my adventure with Justin. Well, it took a while for me to get back up that way with the carving I did based on the actual bandana I was wearing when I hiked those great southwestern canyons, but the box is now finally in place. To find it simply go less than 1/2 mile north from the area where Justin's birthday party was held, turn into a parking lot on the left, and find a sign that describes what Jethro Wood and Deborah Sampson were famous for doing in the 1700s. Then look left (south) and see the end of a stone wall. Go to its north end and look behind a rock low on its front right (western) side.

Most folks seem to just zoom through this part of the state on their way to the Cape, but we have so enjoyed our several meanderings along the "coastal villages" of southern MA - picking up bits of history here and there, petting the animals, making pumpkin faces, etc. - that we felt like leaving a small memento of our passing through. So, we picked up a historic map of the Dartmouth area, and went in search of the cute little Hixville Railroad Station pictured therein. When you find the site, put your back to the sign that says "Hixville Railroad Station circa 1875". Look across the road diagonally at about 265 degrees, and find your wee replica tucked behind leaves and a stone under the front middle eastern side of the smaller, more southern of two large boulders. Please be very discreet in this area, and do not park on the grass - there is a parking lot nearby.

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