Letterbox: Sleeping Giant, Hamden Connecticut

 We Nowhere Nerds are super proud to announce the first fallenpeach letterbox! It's actually an old box of Matt's that we are re-purposing. We replaced the filled notebook, the dried out stamp pad, the stubby pencil and added a special surprise inside.

If you've never gone letterboxing, please check this link for more information about letterboxing. Also, check out the description on our website here. Be sure to bring a rubber stamp, a COMPASS, plenty of water, bug spray if you want and your adventurous spirit!

 LOCATION: The Tower Box is located at Sleeping Giant State Park in Hamden Connecticut. This link has a pretty good set of directions to the park.

DIRECTIONS:

From the Entrance Parking Lot, walk up a paved road past until you reach a sign that reads: Tower Trail (with arrow pointing right) / Restrooms (with arrow pointing left).

Walk along the tower trail the whole way (1.6 miles). At a steady, moderate walk this takes about 40 minutes.

When you reach the top you will see the Tower. With your back facing the tower, stand underneath the CSP and Spider Web windows in front of a false door (an arched door frame blocked by stone wall). Face North North West  and take 10 steps at 340 degrees - you should step down from a small ledge here.

Continue walking at 340 degrees another 20 steps across the grass, you should find the head of a small, unmarked trail here. In the Summer there is a lot of brush, but the path is still visible. In the Winter, you should be able to see two pine trees in the near distance at about 340-350 degrees.

Walk along the path about 12 steps and you will come to a rock. Go left around the rock patch and you will arrive at a pine tree.

Once you find this pine tree you should continue on the path 10 steps following 340 degrees until you see a rock in front of you. Behind the rock there will be a second pine tree, somewhat bigger than the first. Walk to the second pine tree behind the rock.

When you reach the second pine tree you will notice that it's the biggest pine tree in the immediate area. To see if you are at the right tree, you can test it by hugging it and seeing if your arms will wrap all the way around it. If they can't that means this is probably the correct tree.

Now, once you are done hugging the tree, turn around and from here you should be able to see the tower (in the winter at 130 degrees. Look down and see a cluster of rocks. If you peek inside these rocks you should find the TOWER LETTERBOX! Congratulations!

Before you set out, please read the waiver of responsibility and disclaimer.

Please be sure to reseal baggies and boxes carefully so that they stay dry and rehide boxes in their original location, completely hidden from view.

Letterboxing

Day 3 of our Niagara trip is on it's way, but I currently don't have access to my photos - so it'll have to wait another day or so.

For today, I'd like to talk about Letterboxing. From our website:

Our second favorite thing, after making things, is going on Adventures. We love hiking, road trips and adventures of all kinds. We love adventuring so much, we've started a second blog to focus on just our adventures: Nowhere Nerds. Letterboxing is a fun, easy adventure that we want to invite you to join in on. Have we said the word adventuring enough ? 

First, a quick description: Letterboxing is sort of like treasure hunting. You bring a notebook, a pen, a stamp and a stamp pad on a hike in the woods and follow written instructions to find a hidden letterbox. Inside the box will be a notebook, a stamp and a stamp pad. You stamp their stamp into your notebook and stamp your own stamp into their book. 

Matt already has several letterboxes set up in Connecticut, and we are currently in the process of taking them one by one - making sure each still has the parts it needs, that it isn't missing or leaking, making sure the instructions are understandable etc etc. We are also updating the information on these letterboxes and plan on including special cards with special offers from our alter-egos over at fallenpeach. After we complete those, we'll be setting up even more boxes - but for now we're starting simple. Stay tuned to this blog, because the first one should be ready to go within the next couple of days and I'll be listing the instructions here first! 

In the comments: do you letterbox? if you don't, are you interested in letterboxing after reading this small blog post? 

For more information about letterboxes in the Northeast, see letterboxing.org or google letterboxing for boxes in other areas.