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Geocaching And Letterboxing


Ghostcat78

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Does anybody do both hobbies? I'm thinking Letterboxing would be of equal fun and a little more challenging since you just go off clues. I haven't found any yet, but I was excited to find out that there are 3 within 20 miles of my home from the letterboxing website. I would be anxious to hear about anybody who does letterboxing and what kind/size stamps they have found previously.

 

( I acknowledge that this only slightly pertains to geocaching. So moderators please go easy on me for asking this )

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I do both. There are far more geocaches in this area though, so I only have a handful of letterbox finds. I also have a bad habit of going out and forgetting to check for letterboxes near my destination, and getting home and finding there was one right where I was.

 

It certainly is as much fun as geocaching and a nice change of pace.

 

I probably would if I knew where a list or website (letterboxing.com?) of letterboxes was.

The biggest one in the US is Letterboxing.org. Letterboxing isn't as centralized as geocaching though, so letterboxing.org isn't the only place to go for letterbox clues. You can find them in other letterboxes, get them verbally from other letterboxers and many letterboxers have personal websites with their clues listed there.

Edited by briansnat
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I've found 2 letterboxes in about 2.5 years of geocaching. I didn't care for the first one, the second one I liked alot.

 

My next cache is going to be a letterbox hybrid mainly because there are not alot of the around.

 

 

The hobbies both have alot in common, and in the end finding a box in the woods is fun.

 

Joe Smith

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i do both...i didnt have a gps unit until recently and relied on the clues for geocaches...i have found several letterboxes and have planted about 3 so far...one has since been taken/lost....and i thought that stamp turned out good..there are not alot of letterboxes in my area...

 

as far as the stamps are concerned...people utilize both hand carved and store bought...me??..i use both..my hand carved dont always turn out good and the one that turned out rreeaallllyyyyy nice is the one that is missing...so i also buy store bought if i want a theme stamp....like say an indian headdress for comanche park...

 

they are both fun...and some of the stamps ive found are quite impressive on how they are carved..

 

i have about 3 more letterboxes to plant....all hand carved..now just to find the spots...;o

 

wanda texas

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My biggest problem is that there's no way to log the letterboxes you've found. I think that being able to log them would go a long way to getting more people to the site.

 

I have issues with there being no way to know if there have been problems with what you're looking for, if it's been found ever, etc..

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I do both. I discovered both around the same time. When I first got started, neither geocaching nor letterboxing had enough objects hidden to make a decent hobby by itself. How things have changed in that regard.

 

Not using GPS makes both hobbies seem a bit closer to being the same as well.

 

There is a new letterboxing site that allows logging of finds. That site is Atlasquest. But only a limited number of letterboxers use that site. It is growing at a decent pace.

 

Secrecy is part of letterboxing that comes from its origins back in England. To my knowledge, there isn't any site that lists Dartmoor letterboxes as close to comprehensively as letterboxing.org covers American letterboxes (briansnat mentioned other sources for clues here), let alone as comprehensively as geocaching.com covers geocaches. Some owners simply don't want their creations to be logged publicly, or even talked about publicly. In the case of certain mystery boxes, that view is justified. There are some letterboxes where determining the right park, or even the right state, is part of the puzzle. Publicly mentioning/logging that you found a mystery letterbox, then mentioning/logging the non-mystery letterboxes (or geocaches, or restaurants, or towns, etc.) found that same day (or even weekend) would lessen the mystery, since you've narrowed down the area.

 

DNF reports tend to be useless too. How can a DNF be considered a problem if you may have been searching 1000 miles away from the actual location?

 

The problem of missing boxes is more prevelent and that just a difference that you'll have to decide to accept as part of the game, or not accept it and stick to caching. The letterboxing PTB decided that they were going to letterbox in one fashion while the geocaching PTB decided differently. There are flaws in each approach. Posted clues leading to a letterbox that missing is the downside there. Removing clues/coordinates based on an owner's non-response while possibly leaving geolitter in the field is the downside of the geocaching approach.

 

(edited for grammar)

Edited by QOCMike
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Hmm, interesting. I never heard of letterboxing. So you just have a stamp and stamp the book when you find it? Caching sounds like more fun. Maybe I am missing something. <_<

That's about all. You stamp your book with the stamp in the cache and stamp the cache's book with your stamp.

 

Doesn't that sound exciting?!?! <_<

 

I've never tried it though...

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Hmm, interesting. I never heard of letterboxing. So you just have a stamp and stamp the book when you find it? Caching sounds like more fun. Maybe I am missing something. <_<

Just like geocaching, the fun is in the hunt. In letterboxing, you stamp the logbook. In geocaching, you sign it and trade McToys. If you're into geocaching for the McToys, then letterboxing obviously isn't for you.

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I do both Letterboxing and Geocaching, with the emphisis on letterboxing.

Still, why can't I log into their damned site. I would like to log my finds damnit.

 

My biggest problem is that there's no way to log the letterboxes you've found.  I think that being able to log them would go a long way to getting more people to the site.

 

I have issues with there being no way to know if there have been problems with what you're looking for, if it's been found ever, etc..

 

The only reason to log into the LBNA (www.letterboxing.org) is to post and edit clues to the boxes you hide. Your keep track of findsin your personal journal. If someone says that their F count (finds) is 500, then we just take it on faith that they are right. If anyone wanted to check, they could count your images, but most of us don't care about numbers. The only person you cheat is yourself.

 

As for problems with a letterbox. Most people email the placer when a box is attempted, either found or not. On my clues and most others, there will be a status line saying "Alive and well as of 12/20/04" or "Reported missing 12/20/04." Hopefully the former. If the box has been verified as missing, it is either replaced or the clues deleted.

 

Wait till you guys find out about postal letterboxes.

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