Friday, March 20, 2009

A New Hobby...

Letterboxing!

Oddly it involves neither writing letters or prancing around in satin shorts hitting someone!

It is the most beautiful combination of treasure-hunting, hiking, and stamps.

A great hobby for men, women and kids! It gets you out of the house into nature and challenges your mind with clues!

Here's how it works. You get a book (a log book, if you will) and a stamp (lots of people hand carve original designs, lots don't!) and an inkpad. You look on line at Atlas Quest or Letterboxing North America and find clues to a box in your area.

Finally you pack the same gear you would for a walk or hike, (water bottle, sunscreen, etc.) and you set forth. Once you find the box (sometimes as small as a film canister!) you take the stamp from inside the box and stamp your logbook with it - then you use your stamp to stamp the log book in the box!

Always leave the nature around you the same or better as you found it. Use stealth so no one sees you find your treasure.... and always, always make sure to re-hide the box as well or better as you found it.

I promise once you start this hobby you will quickly be addicted!

If you want more info check out this article published in The Smithsonian in 1998 - this article is widely credited for the popularity of Letterboxing in the US today.

Even in our little 'middle of nowhere' town in Central Texas there are several boxes to find!

Copper's Fox

6 comments:

Melody said...

Is it geocaching that you are doing? I've heard a lot of people love doing it.

Good for you for finding something that you love to do!

Melody said...

OH! Letterboxing! Sorry, if I would have read it closer I wouldn't have been confused!

That is awesome! I'll have to look into it.

Copper's Fox said...

It is similar to geocaching but does not require GPS - the instructions are more basic and sometimes clue like - a tree with two trunks might be called "twins" etc.

Eternal Sunshine said...

Oh man, like I need more hobbies!!

I'm going to have to give this a try - For my little Cub Scout - Yeah, that's it!!

Keeper of the Skies Wife said...

Interesting! Glad you found something you enjoy!!

Copper's Fox said...

I think you can actually earn a badge in letterboxing in Cub Scouts - or maybe its in Girl Scouts... could be both.