5^th Annual Western New York Letterbox Gathering

 (LB)WNY is ON THE AIR! 2007 & Block Party W(NY)eekend

(last updated July 1, 2007)

NOTE: If you plan on printing info from this page, the yellow will probably NOT show up on your paper! Either print in grayscale, or cut and paste the text into a Word document where you can change the font color to whatever you like! J

General Info: Alright THIS time, it’s the Southern Tier all the way (thanks to Chadams for suggesting and pimping out the best park EVER!). For our day event, (LB)WNY is ON THE AIR!!! 2007, we’re going to be at Chestnut Ridge Park, just south of Buffalo in Erie County and soon to be the letterboxing mecca of the KNOWN UNIVERSE (muhahahahahahahaaaaaa!). It's on August 25^th and will go from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM for those interested in a day trip. With the success of last year’s camping event, we’ve also decided to do another full weekend for those wanting to hang out and do some more night boxing. The Block Party W(NY)eekend will begin on Friday, August 24^th and continue until checkout time on August 26^th at Sprague Brook County Park (also south of Buffalo in Erie County). You can drop in whenever you like if you can’t stay Friday night, but if you plan to stay overnight in the park with us at ALL, be SURE to sign up for both the day and ESPECIALLY the night event so we can reserve a site near the action for you.

Directions: Chestnut Ridge is off Route 219, which is an easy jump from the New York State Thruway Exit 55 (Orchard Park/Springville). From here, you’ll hop on US 219/Orchard Park until you get to the Route 240 exit (Armor Duells Road/Chestnut Ridge Park). Take off here and go about a mile until you reach Route 277 (Chestnut Ridge Road). Go past the big wooden sign announcing the park and the underpass to the next entrance on the left (about 100 yards or across the street from the wooden train). From here, just head straight past the right turn to the first shelter on left.  Thanks to Chadams, we’ll be at Shelter 12, which you can find on this map of the park. It’s the perfect location with bathrooms and playgrounds easily accessible.

The weekend event will be at nearby Sprague Brook County Park, which is off Route 240. From what we’re told, two of the bridges on some of the normal routes to this park are under construction, so we’ll get back to you with the best route.

Event Schedule: We always try to maximize your boxing time, so the schedule is simple:

Saturday, 11:00am: Event begins. Come stamp into the event book, get the event stamps, exchange with other boxers and get some food. You can do this at ANY time between 11:00 and 4:30, but the food DOES run out and people will be in and out all day! IF YOU HAVE NEVER BEEN TO A GATHERING, BE SURE TO COME AT THIS TIME SO WE CAN HAVE TIME TO MEET YOU AND HELP YOU GET ORIENTED! Also, feel free to check at AQ for tips on attending a gathering to help you out.

11:00-4:30pm: Boxing all over the park. You can also use this time to exchange at the pavilion or just talk to other folks in the area

4:30pm:  Group photo. Be sure to come back in time to get everyone in the shot so we’ve got something to share on the boards!

4:45pm: Raffle & Award time! Pay a $1 per ticket and get a shot at winning some great boxing supplies or win a stamping award for the day!

5:00pm: Day event ends. Join up with the local folks for dinner at one of the nearby restaurants (TBA) or head home/to your hotel/to the campgrounds to relax.

8:00pm: Night boxing event. We will start as soon as the sun goes down that night, so be at Sprague Brook around this time.

Sunday, all day: Box on your own. Come back to get what boxes you missed!

Food: Like all gatherings, our bounty will be potluck, so bring your favorite dish and let us know what it is (so we don’t have too little or too much of anything!). We'll provide hotdogs and soda if you bring the side dishes!

Accommodations: Your first choice for lodging that weekend should be camping at Sprague Brook, since you’ll get to do the extra evening events that the day visitors won’t be a part of. We’ll be checking out the sites ourselves on the weekend of July 13^th-15^th, so we’ll get back to you on which sites our group will be centered around. If outdoor living’s just not where it’s at for you, there’s basically only one close hotel, which is the Red Carpet Inn in Orchard Park. If you don’t mind staying just a little further away, you can look at what Yahoo gave us for hotel search results or Google’s search. If you have kids, Chadams told us there are two Hampton Inns with indoor pools. One is in West Seneca which is 9.4 miles away from the ridge and is closer to the main highway, while the other is in East Aurora, which is 9.5 miles away, but not near the thruway.

Boxes: Chestnut Ridge Park is fast becoming a boxer’s paradise. There’s already about 50 boxes in the Mecca section (how appropriate!), and another 50 or more will be added by the date of the event. Clues for the park boxes will be posted on our gathering clues page on Thursday the 23^rd, so no peeking until then. We’ll also have a booklet of the park clues to give out at the pavilion, but only until we run out, so don’t come too late. Topographical maps of the park trails are available courtesy of the Buffalo Orienteering Club and can be purchased at Hyatts (http://www.hyatts.com/art/chestnut-ridge-map-hike-Y79601) or found here: http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/asl/maps/mapimages/crp.html! This park is REALLY huge, so please make use of these…we’d hate to see anyone get lost!

Our box theme is all about music, so let us know if you’d like to donate a box based on your favorite band, song, genre or anything else! More importantly, though, let us know if you want to donate raffle items! Any boxing supplies or fun items you can send to add to our list would really help make the whole thing worthwhile. Proceeds for this raffle will go toward the cost of the pavilion, the grill food and...well, other raffle items! :-).

Getting Around & Other Boxes: There’s the Thruway boxes on your way into town, but also check Atlas Quest for Orchard Park boxes (you’ll want to expand your search to at least 25 miles). Many of those boxes are currently in the park, so you won’t have to go far. If you don’t mind leaving the park, check for boxes in Niagara and Erie County on LBNA (Genesee and Orleans if you have more time to spend)!  If you DO want to make a weekend out of it, don't forget that any boxes in Buffalo, Tonawanda, Depew & Amherst are good or cities along the thruway (Batavia, Henrietta and Williamsville especially!). Mapworks sells an EXCELLENT map of the Western New York area with all the little side streets and rabbit runs, so you might want to invest the 4 or 5 bucks on one.

 Questions?: Let us know (the Sprite & the Highlander) if WE can be of more help. This is the fourth WNY gathering we’ve planned (sixth for the area) and we always strive for a relaxing weekend amongst friends, old and new. Chadams, our local host, knows all about this park, so feel free to check in with him about anything in Chestnut Ridge or Orchard Park in general. Celtic Quinn and Kitten Without Mittens should also be among us, so be sure to keep your pockets zipped and your bags closed (unless you WANT the Royal Couple of Cooties attacking you)! If you know of anyone else that's interested, please feel free to pass this info along to them and have them sign up on Atlas Quest! Hope to see you there!

The (already getting her list of boxes to carve from JACK-FM) Sprite & the (watching the whole summer budget fly out the window) Highlander

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E-mail us at dasprite222@yahoo.com so we can keep you informed of updates to this page and the event.