Quest Scout Get-together

We had planned to travel to the Pacific Northwest for a letterbox gathering, so when we discovered that the founder of Quest Scouts lived in Portland, I emailed him to see if we could get together w/him.  Although he was a confirmed geocacher, he was open to the idea of letterboxing, especially since several different letterboxers had begun to participate in Quest Scouts.  He said he would come to the "Exploring the Seas" letterboxing event and hoped to spend some time with us.

I contacted our friend Baqash, a Washington state letterboxer and Quest Scout, to ask if she knew of any other people that would be attending the event that were also interested in Quest Scouts.  I also posted some info on the Quest Scouts Facebook page.  As a result, we ended up with a small group of people that were interested in meeting on Friday evening, July 10.  

This being a bunch of letterboxers getting together, of course I carved a stamp (Quest Scouts logo) for the mini-meet.  We were all happy to meet Dylan (aka "Mannard", his letterboxing trail name) and discuss Quest Scouts with him.  He began the venture with a Kickstarter campaign and interest has been slowly growing.  I personally think the prime audience/market is active baby boomers, but it seems some younger people w/o kids are also a good fit.

Our Quest Scouts mini-meet at Fort Stevens State Park in Warrenton, OR on 10-JUL-15

After the get-together, Martini Man and I showed him around the event and campsites and then went night-boxing with him and Magical Music Man from Pennsylvania.  It was a great series and we didn't finish until midnight.  Unfortunately we weren't supposed to be parked in the day-use area past 10 pm.  UH-OH!!!  A ranger was waiting for us, but somehow we escaped getting a ticket. However Dylan was not so lucky.  I think he had a different sort of pass on his car and received a $120 ticket - NOT a good way to introduce him to letterboxing!

Luckily he was able to shrug it off and returned again the next day to do some more letterboxing with us.  We did a series along the lake with Magical Music Man in the morning and then took a break for lunch.  In the afternoon Martini Man & I & Dylan headed to the beach to try an "X Marks the Spot" series.  We were able to decode the first clue, but the weather was getting a bit fierce - very gusty winds and a misty rain.  Martini Man took a stab at looking for the next clue/box, but returned to a sheltered area.  Dylan/Manard then headed out to give it a try and was successful!! He tried texting us, but we didn't realize it was him, so he ended up trekking all the way back to get us.  We then joined him and returned to the clue. Luckily the rain stopped and we proceeded to find all the boxes in the series.  He did a great job and we were impressed with his doggedness!

Saturday letterboxing with "Mr. Quest Scouts"