First First Finder (Times Four!)

Today was another letterboxing first for me.  I just wish Zairabear could have been there with me to share it.

When I checked my email last night I noticed that Lisascenic and Robb had planted a new series in Fremont on Saturday and no one had logged it as found at either LbNA or Atlas Quest.  Knowing this was my opportunity to be a first finder as well as having no particular plans for today I decided to go for it.  Unfortunately, Zairabear had to be in school in the morning and already had after school plans.  So this was a solo mission.

I headed up 880 to Fremont and easily found Coyote Hills park which is the location of the Micro/Macro series.  I first parked at the visitor center, but quickly realized that the Dairy Glen parking lot was actually more centrally located and, being lazy, I parked there instead.  The location for the first two boxes were visible from the road as I initially drove into the park, so they were pretty simple finds.  When Lisa says micro she means micro.  These are, by far, the smallest boxes I have discovered as of yet.  In fact, the logbook had room for less than 1/8th of my stamp, so stamping into all of these boxes was interesting.

Box #1 Orient Yourself is a great little hiding spot.  The clues lead you right to it and the bench it occupies is a perfect place to log in.  Plus ducks were having a meeting of some sort on the little abandoned dock, so I got entertainment to boot ;-)

As I approached Box #2 The Atomic Letterbox I began to be concerned that this spot wouldn't last long as anyone actually using the sluiceway device would clearly see the box.  But Lisa and Robb are wise folx and the hiding place is both easily accessible and ingenious.

Box #3 The Earth and The Moon was a bit of a challenge for me as official park vehicles kept coming down the road.  Although the spot is described as a "rock bench" at what point it doesn't seem a very natural spot to be in, so I sat on the concrete wall instead and wrote while awaiting my moment.  Once the coast was clear I got the box easily enough, but the Velcro that was holding the box in place came off completely.  It seems the adhesive attaching the Velcro to the rock surface isn't strong enough.  After stamping in I replaced it as best I could, but I'm concerned about this box's welfare.  (EDIT:  I've emailed Lisa and she's going to try adding epoxy of some sort so that this box will be more secure.)

Box #4 Macro Economics was well placed as well.  Dairy Glen truly is a "ground squirrel jamboree" as there were at least 50 of them playing some sort of intricate freeze tag game as I approached :-)  If a lot of people go after this series in a short time a "usage path" may be created to the box's hiding spot, but I don't know that any park official examining the "new path" will spot the box.

All in all it was a pretty good letterboxing day.  This is a nice enjoyable series that actually took less than an hour for four finds.  I'll definitely need to bring Team Aahz in its entirety to do this series as I think it will even be good for the not-so-discrete Liderbox Kid.

P0 F27 X4

Tags: first finder, Fremont, Lisascenic, Robb, Coyote Hills, microboxes, velcro