When a homeschooling friend first told me about letterboxing, I was intrigued. I had heard of geocaching, which is similar, but I wasn’t interested in buying expensive GPS equipment. But letterboxing? It’s inexpensive, widely available, and it sounded like a great way to get the kids outside.
I read up on letterboxing at www.letterboxing.org. It turns out that all you need to get started is a stamp, an inkpad, a sketchbook, and a pen. You find a clue on the website, follow the directions, and hopefully in the end, you find a box containing a stamp and a journal. Stamp your journal with the stamp in the box, and stamp the journal in the box with your stamp. Sign their journal and write something about the day in your journal. Then return the box to it’s hiding place. That’s all there is to it!
Of Hiking and Wrong Turns
Tuesday was a beautiful day, so I talked Sportsguy and Bug into hunting for our first box. Stargirl was away with her youth group, so she missed the adventure. We picked a box in the town where Sportsguy grew up, because I figured that might make it more interesting for him.
We started out enthusiastically. Actually, I started out enthusiastically. Sportsguy was reluctant, but willing to give letterboxing a try. Bug was downright unhappy about going. Still, we forged ahead.
We got stuck a little bit on the second clue, but quickly figured it out. At least we thought we figured it out. We hiked down a beautiful trail, looking for a marker with the number 20. We saw 11. Then 8. By the time we got to 1, we figured out we were going the wrong direction.
Fortunately both Sportsguy and Bug were getting a little more enthusiastic about our hike, so they didn’t throttle me on the spot for my bad sense of direction. We turned around and retraced our steps.
The hike was much longer than I had anticipated. Not taking any water was a big mistake. Still, we enjoyed the scenery and walked on. Then we had to hike quite a ways uphill. At that point, Sportsguy and Bug were still happily hiking along, and I was the one huffing and puffing and wondering why I’d talked everyone into hiking that day. That uphill stretch seemed like it would never end.
Shortly after we reached the top, the trail ended. The box was near! We read the last clue and started searching. We searched and searched and couldn’t find the box. Had it been removed? The box had been placed three years ago, so it was possible. I was disheartened. If we didn’t find that box, I don’t think Bug would have ever been convinced to try again.
Striking Gold!
Suddenly Sportsguy yelled from a few feet away. Eureka! He’d found it!
We carried the box to a nearby bench to rest and do our stamping. I wrote a note to the owners of the box, thanking them for the great experience. Then I wrote an entry in our journal, detailing our climb. Soon I’ll add a picture or two (or three!) to our journal.
We took in the breathtaking scenery and just sat quietly for a while, admiring God’s beautiful creation. Then we returned the letterbox to it’s hiding place and followed the trail back to our starting place. On the way back down the trail, we talked about how much fun the hike had been and how exciting it was to find our “treasure.” It’s amazing how we quickly forgot about the wrong turns and the long hike up.
By the time we got back to our car, we were all very hungry and thirsty. I hadn’t anticipated that the hike would take two hours. We headed to a local restaurant, and we all astounded the waitress with our ability to finish our drinks so quickly! Next time we’ll take water.
Our first letterboxing experience was a great one. We hiked a trail we never would have found, had we not heard of letterboxing. We spent an afternoon away from electronics, just walking and talking with each other. We banded together and accomplished a mission that was not easy, but was totally worthwhile. I can’t wait to find our next box!
{ 7 comments }
We’ve never done letterboxing, but it sounds like it was great fun!
Thanks for following my blog. When I clicked on your picture in my Google Friend Connect, it would not allow me to see your blog, only the ones you are following. I wanted to follow back, but couldn’t. Thankfully, I just saw you in the Crew forum and found your blog that way. I just wanted to mention this because there may be others who want to follow but can’t find your blog too! I’m glad I found you!
Thanks for letting me know. This whole friend connect thing is new to me. I’m not sure how it works with non-google blogs. I’ll try to fix it.
I was filled with wonder while reading this, and imagining I could do such a thing. I was always an adventurer when I was younger. Keep this special tradition alive. I enjoyed reading this.
Yaaaaay! Now you are hooked! LOL Letterboxing can be slightly addictive and it is especially fun when used as a break while driving on a long trip – well, hopefully not a 2 hour break! ;-P Shoot, I was just in Reno and did not even look up the boxes there! I have already outlined a couple to do on our trip to Portland this August. There are even ones at the Oregon Zoo!
Oh man, we’re headed to Spokane this summer, probably going through Portland. I might just have to visit the zoo!
We have been letterboxing for over 2 years now and just took a trip last weekend where we went over 750 miles one way. We did this trip from Saturday evening and came back home Monday evening. There is also another website for letterboxing besides letterboxing.org that is much easier to use, the site is atlasquest.com. Our trail name is Countryduo. We went to the first letterbox convention last year where the founders of letterbox.org and atlasquest.com was present. There will be another convention next year, the city has not been chosen yet but it is narrowed down to Chicago and Charlotte.
I discovered letterboxing a couple of years ago when a friend of mine was looking for something free for her and her kids to do. Our town has 100s of them!!!! Not all require a long hike!!!! Check it out. It’s addidicting!!!!
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