I started letterboxing about three years ago. I had a friend who talked about amazing secret hikes they found through letterboxing, and after doing a little research, I found that she was right on the money. Letterboxing opened up a world of hiking and treasure hunting for my entire family, and the best part about it is that it's free. So there are no excuses to keep being lazy. Put on your hiking shoes and let’s do this.
Here’s the info: Letterboxing is made up of treasure hunting, navigation, and hiking into scenic areas you probably never would have found on a casual stroll through the trees.
Letterboxing started in England in 1854. Clues were placed in the visitor’s center and day hikers would be sent out on an adventure to find small boxes with postcards in them. The concept really hasn't changed much over the years. If you are familiar with Geocaching, it’s a modern day version of Letterboxing. I'm a bit old fashioned and like to stick with the tradition of paper, stamps, and honest riddle solving. Geocaching seems too easy for me. I like the challenge Letterboxing lends.
To get started, you need a few things: a notebook, a rubber stamp, a pen, walking shoes, and clues. You can register on www.letterboxing.org or you can just go there to search for Letterboxing locations. The site is very user friendly, and all you have to do is enter in your city before several clues pop up. Most of the clues will be given a level of difficulty or number of miles. I prefer the clues that are in riddle form. It's like I've tricked my children into a fun activity that also includes some mental challenge. They still have not caught on.
The rubber stamp is a pretty big deal in the Letterboxing world. Letterboxers take pride in "the stamp”, and you will come across some amazing artistic stamps that are all handmade. I would love to be that creative, and have even purchased all the materials to create my own stamp, but at the end of the day I'm at the dollar store picking out one with a puppy on it. So much for inspiration.
Some people don’t respect the Letterboxing world, and are real jerks about it. I will never forget our second Letterboxing experience. It was called "Can O’ Spam." We spent an entire day trying to decipher this very difficult riddle that had us running in circles. Every clue we decoded was followed by high fives and screams. We chipped away at it and finally we found the pink house, and we knew the treasure was close by. However, something wasn't adding up, so we continued searching up and down the street of the pink house. The Letterbox should have been hidden near a large hedge, but it wasn't there. HOW COULD THIS BE????!!! My husband tried to convince me that the box was stolen, but I just couldn't wrap my head around why anyone would want to do that, ESPECIALLY when the riddle was worthy of ripping out fistfuls of hair. I refused to give up (typical me, insane and determined). Finally, our answer came to us from a lovely couple who lived in the home where the treasure was buried. Yes, my husband was right… the box had been stolen. But before he could even start the "I told you so dance", I was granted a little validation. The new owners saw so many disappointed Letterboxers come through the neighborhood, they decided to paint the bottom of a garden frog, marking where the Letterbox was supposed to be and noting that it has been stolen. With bittersweet smiles, we took a picture with the frog. I at least considered it a small victory, while the rest of my family walked away feeling cheated. Worst of all, this was not the first time this would happen to us. Unfortunately, as a Letterboxer, you will find there are people out there with no lives and traumatic childhoods who just want to steal your fun. Or maybe they see a box in a tree with a stamp in it and are too lame to think it might mean something, so they say, “Cool, I bet no one uses THIS for anything. I'll take it home with me.” So it's important to the Letterboxing culture that when you are close to your treasure, you hide and sneak up on it when no one is looking, like the true ninja of “finding free shit to do” that I know you are.
If you’re more into technology or aren’t smart enough to solve riddles, Geocaching is for you. Geocaching is similar to letterboxing but instead of clues you are given GPS coordinates. Typically a Geocaching box is larger than a letterbox and contains small toys. If you decide to take home a treasure from the geocaching box, you are expected to leave something in return. Geocaching information can be found at www.geocaching.com.
My family and I discovered Geocaching while we were out on a Letterboxing excursion in San Simeon. We passed a couple, who appeared to be Letterboxers, lurking around the same tree we were. However, you are not to reveal that you are a Letterboxing or Geocaching ninja to anyone. Identities must be kept a secret. I'm not sure if I made this up or just play along because it seems more mysterious. But I digress. So we are walking back and forth up this trail, passing this huge tree that has fallen over. The ocean is to our backs and it's really a gorgeous day, as all of our central coast days usually are. We end up finding this HUGE military style Letterbox, and it's all wrong. Yes, it had the book, but no stamp. Instead are a bunch of toys, like rubber bracelets, duckies, and army men. I decide that some poor fool misunderstood the Letterboxing rules, and I decide to place my stamp inside their book, in hopes that Letterboxers around the world will help correct this most grievous error. We pass the couple, and they’re carrying a GPS device. So we decide to tell them that if they are Letterboxers, then they are very close. They give us a strange look and I fear that I've compromised the weird Letterbox we found, until they tell us they are Geocachers. We gave the same strange looks, and we both proceeded to explain what each one is. So the box we found was, in fact, a Geocaching box, not a weird-looking and wrongly set-up Letterbox. The nice couple helped us find "hermits by the sea", and we showed them the adorable handmade hermit stamp. They shrugged their shoulders and began looking up new GPS coordinates for their next Geocaching adventure.
In all honesty, Geocaching started in 2000, and I personally feel that it is a copycat idea of Letterboxing. However, after meeting the nice couple on our hike I now see that Geocaching is an attractive idea for some. It's not for me though, as I would feel as though I am cheating on Letterboxing, my 117 year old boyfriend, for a much younger 11 year old.
The fact remains that if Letterboxing lended the idea to Geocaching, it's keeping the tradition alive through technology. If it gets people out of the house and into nature, then misson accomplished.
