Letterboxing

Today I was looking for something to do with the boys and I stumbled across letterboxing. “What is letterboxing?” you ask. Good question! Letterboxes are little caches that are hidden around the country (actually, around the world).  Each box contains a log book, a stamp and sometimes an ink pad or another treasure. Once a person hides a letterbox, they provide clues to find it. Letterbox hunters search out the boxes and when they find them, they use the stamp in the box to stamp their personal log books. They then take their personal stamp that they have brought along with them and stamp it in the box’s log book, along with any message they’d like to write. Need more info? Check out http://www.letterboxing.org or http://www.atlasquest.com.

So back to our story. The boys and I looked for some clues online and found two letterboxes that appeared to be located just a few blocks from out house. We bundled up in our warm clothes (with Wyatt in his adventure cowboy hat and Augie in his Harley-Davidson beanie) and set out on our walk!

The first box we tried to find was a bust. We located where the box was supposed to be with no troubles, but despite digging in some disgusting ivy for about a half hour, we never did find a letterbox.  I did, however, find numerous pieces of paper, several food wrappers, a Bartles and James bottle half-filled with stagnant water and a plastic bag filled with dog poop. This was pretty disappointing for us, but Wyatt was agreeable to more walking in order to continue our adventure, so we headed a few blocks further to follow the other clues we had. This time we were victorious! The letterbox was well-hidden in a clever way, but I’m not going to share that info because I don’t want to spoil the surprise for other hunters.

Here’s a picture of the outside of the box:

And here’s what the inside looked like. The stamp and the log book were both wrapped up in a baggie to keep them dry.

We used the stamp in our log book and I noted the location of the box (blurred to preserve the surprise), the date and that Wyatt and I were the ones who found it.

I didn’t take any pictures of the pages of the log book because I’m not sure if that’s OK, but there were entries going back two years and someone from as far away as Alaska had stamped her image in there. This is what we put into the log book. We used a store-bought stamp for today, but if we keep doing this — which I think we will — I’ll be carving a new stamp for us. Our team name is Kitty Pants.

Tagged as: letterbox, letterboxing, treasure hunt