As if I needed to make it harder, I often find myself boxing in the dark, or in the rain, or both, or when certain places are closed or when an event nearby makes retreating and re-planting near impossible. But these are the times when stories are made. There is no great letterboxing story when it was easy. So when it's hard, that's when it's fun. Planting boxes is also not as easy as you might think. You put a lot of time and thought into creating the box and you want to find a pace it won't get "muggled."
I'm interrupting this blog for a quick vocabulary check. Muggle is a stolen term letterboxers use to describe anyone who is not a letterboxer. When a box is muggled, that means it's stolen. Another stolen term I am working hard to make famous is squib, a non-letterboxer who goes letterboxing with letterboxers.
The first time I letterboxed in the dark I was still a fledgling letterboxer. It was near Detroit in November, at a campground that was closed for the season. I was with my letterboxing mentor and my boyfriend, who was a squib at the time, now he is Jetman. We had to park by the side of the road because the gate was closed. We had flashlights but didn't use them because we weren't sure the place wasn't being guarded. There was a light on by the shack next to the message board. We sneaked back until we were far enough we could turn on our flashlights. It started raining by the time we found the box and we had to stamp in the rain. That wasn't our last box that night though, the next one we went to led us up a dark forest hiking trail and the box itself was up a steep hill by the trail. It was raining harder and very muddy by the time we got there. I managed to scramble up to the tree and found the box, which we were very proud to have spotted in the dark with only a couple flashlights. I threw the box down and they stamped in for me then threw the box back up to me, because I was not about to come down and go back up there again, it was a miracle I didn't twist my ankle since I'm so good at doing that. We got back to the car wet, cold, and very happy.
Yes, many stories from the Wilamette Valley in Oregon will include rainy boxing conditions, but boxers around here are impervious to that, and good planters will collect desiccants from vitamin or aspirin bottles, shoe boxes, etc, and put them in letterboxes they plant outdoors. This is a trick I was ignorant to till I met another letterboxing friend from Eugene who is a master at boxing first aid.
December is one of the wetter months here in the Willamette Valley, but some of us consider it the best time to box. Yes, the weather's worse, but there are less muggles about so stealth becomes less of a concern.
Happy Winter boxing!
Mrs. Mumble
