Letterboxing the Day Away - Lake Geneva - Williams Bay

 photo credit: thecasualperfectionist.com

Gentle Reader, I'm certain that you have experienced a place that seems to be stamped upon your very soul, even after years has passed. Lake Geneva has that kind of hold on me.  I'm sure it is part of a psychological imprint due to the fact that I lived here for four years during a very impressionable time of my life.  Psychology and Insanity aside, I am grateful that I possess this feeling.

So the hubby and I went on holiday this past weekend, staying at the Holiday Inn located at the Grand Geneva Resort.  If you have not gone to this fine establishment, I beg of you to try it.  Even during the "off season" the place was quite busy, but the city traffic was manageable.  If you have never gone to Lake Geneva, always visit during the off season ( anytime before Memorial Day and after Labor Day).  When staying at the Holiday Inn, you have the same access to dining/activities at the Grand Geneva. Their on site Starbucks cafe opens at 6 am and is located inside the main resort building. Try to get in early. Seriously, I lack the patience to be the 4th+ person waiting in line behind people and their travel mates while trying to actively ignore the people jibber-jabbering about their personal nonsense.

So what is a swanky couple to do to wile the time?  Letterboxing of course, but you probably guessed from the title, right?  Letterboxing and eating,  more eating than letterboxing to be honest.

The Geneva Resort has it's own letterbox, that I found easily enough on my own.  Right after reinstalling this lovely cache, my husband texted me to meet up for breakfast. We ate heartily before getting ready to start our next letterboxing search together, called How to Find A Dragon, located at Big Foot Beach State Park (day pass or season permit required) which should have had 3 boxes total.  Unfortunately, due to the passage of time and a recent brush cleanup, the last 2 boxes could not be found. The owner has since been notified and after lunch, we decided to try to find the Sail Away letterbox at Williams Bay (also found here at Altas Quest Entry).  With a hiking weary husband, we located this cache and by then it was time to head back and plan the rest of our evening.

I must report that from our travels at Big Foot Beach State Park we brought home two hitchhikers.

Ticks, that is.   Next to finding those caches, the ticks were the most excitement we've encountered in a long time and I'm still checking my head.

Wheretogo:  To reiterate, there are 2 American Letterboxing sites, the original Letterboxing.org site and AtlasQuest.com.  Both sites contain searchable locations based on city/state.  The letterboxing.org site ALSO includes MYSTERY Boxes, which are varying levels of difficulty. The Atlas Quest site allows you to leave comments. Sometimes the boxes are registered in both sites, sometimes not.  If you decide to start letterboxing, you'll need the following: 
1) A medium-small size stamp. You CAN make your own, but I paid $3 for a butterfly one at Hobby Lobby. The size will be important, most of the logbooks I find are pretty small, about 2 x 3" max.
2) Stamp Pad - again small-medium size.  Because I'm a beginner I chose one that can be washed out if the ink gets on your skin/clothing.
3) Logbook.   I'd make it a medium size - 5 x 7" or smaller.  
4) Compass.
5) Plan A, and a Plan B.  
4) Appropriate clothing/footwear.  Be ready to walk through brush and over difficult terrain  During the spring you will want to protect yourself against ticks; in the summer you'll need sunscreen and mosquito spray.   Should you be letterboxing in the winter, you'll need boots/gloves/hats.

Whattoexpect:   A pleasant scavenger hunt. The clues are varying degrees of difficulty, many requiring calculations in order to know what heading is needed. In fact, I learned that a math teacher used Letterboxing as extra credit for his/her Algebra/Calculus students.   How cool is that!?  If you think about it, you can probably find a way to use this with any subject matter. LETTERBOXING LOCATIONS!

Shore Walkers - Lake Geneva

Lake Geneva, Fontana, Williams Bay (Walworth Cty)

Back to relive some very old childhood memories. In 1970-s, there were no posted signs marking the lake path. Shore walkers did not exist as a class of tourists. This post isn't really to advertise that the shore path exists. There are plenty of ways of learning that. But for the sake of being consistent to the Wheretogo viewers I promise to provide such details. This post is a purely selfish move so that I can relive my most recent excursion into reliving this particular time in my life. I am returning again, hopefully later after the Chicagoans have all gone home. While the shore hike was pleasant and relatively bug free (if you don't count the humans, of course), it was too humid and it the clinging haze really effected some of the shots.

This leg of the shore path starts from Linn Rd, heading east towards the Country Club. This headstone is the last remaining piece of a family plot that existed long ago, now gone. To see more details I would recommend reading my Shore Walker Photostream. It doesn't make sense to use up my precious blogger space with photos that also exist on my Flickr page, plus they don't really move the story along.

The Shore Path (or lake path as I always called it) was originally an Indian Footpath and in order for this path to remain for public use a county ordinance was set. For lakefront owners who fought the right of way, the city had historical relevance to rest upon. The shore path is unique to Geneva Lake. I know of no other place that allows unfettered access onto private property. My last visit, about 10 years ago, those cute shore path signs didn't exist. I know that because my oldest, who was 14 at the time would not follow his mother onto the lake.


WheretoFind:The lake path can be picked up at several points around the lake: Big Foot Beach State Park (Park Sticker Req'd) also Big Foot Beach Park same area,different parking lot), Lake Geneva's Library Park, Williams Bay Beach, Fontana Beach, Chapin Road, Linn Pier Road. A list of distances between hiking points on the shore path as provided by silentsports.net:
Fontana to Williams Bay 3.2 miles
Williams Bay to Chapin Road 3.3 miles
Chapin Road to Library Park, town of Lake Geneva 3.3 miles
Library Park to Linn Pier Road 5.3 miles
Linn Pier Road to Fontana 5.2 miles



What to expect: 
If you decide you want to hike the entire tour around the lake, plan about 14 hours, and to choose a starting point beside Lake Geneva's downtown area. I suggest the Linn Rd location, but there are probably better points but that is my preference.  It is isolated from the madness that is part of Lake Geneva every summer.  This location is also a popular boat launch, so arrive early.


Update 04/03/2015:  For the shore walkers that are still in town, there are little boat taxi's called Mouettes that run 4 routes.  These are not the same as the water taxi.

Newspaper articles discussing the history of the City's Name
It is Geneva Lake
Old records tell story of the discovery and naming of beautiful Lake Geneva