Letterboxing

Letterboxing is a mix of treasure hunting, hiking, beautiful scenery, navigation, and art. It can take you to nearby locations or to exotic locales around the world. It’s based on the ancient traditions of placing a rock on a cairn (pile of rocks) when you reached the summit of a mountain. It apparently became letterboxing when an Englishman left his calling card in a bottle on the moors of Dartmoor, England, according to Letterboxing North America.

All you need to start is a notebook, a rubber stamp, and a waterproof container.

FYI Shorthand: P F X are used by many letterboxers to keep track of the following:
P = boxes they have placed
F = boxes they have found
X = stamps that they have exchanged with other hikers they’ve met along the way.

Hitchhikers
This is an odd breed of letterboxing that has sprung up in recent times. It’s a letterbox set that is stashed in another letterbox. Someone that finds it is expected to take it to a different letterbox and stash it in a new how. It’s a bit of a vagabond letterbox.

Geocaching
Recently there is a new twist on this popular pastime, called geocaching. In order to play this particular version you need to be able to go a bit more high-tech. The directions in this version require a GPS or Global Positioning System. Although these used to be only for the rich and famous, the price of some of the hand-held version has dropped down to the $100 range. So, if letterboxing is your thing and you’d like to take it to the next level, yo can with a little saving.

Letterboxing North America
This site gives you the background on this pastime and houses clues for all 50 states and seven different countries (so far).
Source: Letterboxing North America

Letterboxing
This letterboxing site covers getting started, carving your stamp, articles about the pastime and locations of boxes, mostly in the Pennsylvania and New York area.
Source: Douglas Gerlach Letterboxing

They live and Breathe Letterboxing
The Smithsonian wrote this article about letterboxing in the original Dartmoor area. Read a little on the history of this popular hobby.
Source: Smithsonian Magazine

How to Make a Rubber Stamp
Make your own rubber stamp by carving a rubber eraser. This is a great way to leave you’re own special mark in the journals.
Source: Der Mad Stamper

How to do Rubber Carving
This is a clearly created tutorial on carving a rubber stamp, complete with illustrative photographs. You’ll need some special tools to do these, but they should be available at your local crafts store or DIY center.
Source: Fran Baker

Geocaching
From their searchable clues, geocaching looks as those it’s outstripping letterboxing in popularity. Either that or they just appear to be more organized.
Use their clue sheets to get started. The international caches are especially fun for travelers. Advanced clues are sometimes encrypted, so brush up on your cryptology skills as well.
Source: Geocaching

Geocaching Worldwide
Another well organized site, Geocaching Worldwide has two especially good features: Seek lets you do a cache search, and Sights 2 See lets you look for cool places to visit in the country of your choice. This site even has competitions at times.
Source: Geocaching Worldwide

Buxley’s Geocaching Waypoint
This site features clickable maps of countries and states in the U.S. Their clue pages are easy to read read and sometimes contain photos and logs from geocachers. Once again, the advanced clues are encrypted.
Source: Buxley’s Geocaching Waypoint

Geocaching with Navicache
Use this search for additional geocache resources. Search in the US or Internationally.
Source: Geocaching with Navicache