Letterboxing
Letterboxing is a fun activity for the whole family or the lone explorer. It involves hunting around parks and public places for creative personal rubber stamps left in boxes by an active internet community. Put your detective skills to the test by decoding the clues you find online then get out and hit the trails to find the hidden boxes.
- Personalized rubber stamp
- Ink pad
- Log book
- Printed directions from the internet (and anything the online clues tell you to bring)
- A mode of transportation
Go online to www.AtlasQuest.com or www.letterboxing.org/ and search for a letterbox near you by using your zip code. Pick out which box looks interesting to you. Print out the clues that are given for the box. You may want to print out multiple boxes close to each other to make a day of the activity. Once you've gathered your supplies, get to the beginning of the hunt!
Each letterbox's directions are different, depending on who wrote them and the kind of adventure they have planned for you. Some directions they provide to their boxes are straightforward, while others are more cryptic, using riddles and puns. Follow the directions you have and once you find you box, you'll find a stamp and a log book. At this point, stamp your own personal stamp into the box's log and stamp the box's stamp into your log. See how many you can collect! Don't forget to flip through the box's log to see the stamps of all the other letterboxers who have been on the same adventure that you did!
1. Make sure to put the box back exactly the way you found it so the next letterboxer can find it.
2. The boxes are often hidden in public places, so make sure to be stealthy and not let anyone see you retrieve it. Letterboxes are often removed by people who don't know what they are or who want to ruin other people's fun.
3. Start out with easier hunts at first until you get the hang of it.
4. There's a certain lingo and terminology to the letterboxing culture (e.g., "SPOR" stands for "suspicious pile of rocks"), so make sure you look at all the jargon on the website and that you understand the clues on your print out before you start.
Often the boxes will tell you a story about the area they're hidden in, give you information on the area's history, or tell you the history of the theme of the stamp inside the box.