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Raiders of the Lost Box: Exploring the Art of Letterboxing

by Rianna Lange

It was seven months into our relationship and we were sick of our weekend routine. We needed something new and adventurous. I wanted to surprise him and spark his interest with something he has never tried before. I showed him a little bit of my creative side when I hit him with, “Let’s go letterboxing.” He looked at me like I had spoken a foreign language. I pulled out a backpack with two stamps, an inkpad, a compass, a notebook, and directions to our first letterbox. Now he was looking at me like I was from another planet. I explained to him how it works and he was impressed.

Letterboxing, or geocaching, combines treasure hunting, hiking, art, navigation, and exploring in one. It was inspired by the ancient practice of placing a rock on a cairn upon reaching the summit of a mountain to let others know you have been there. Today, letterboxing enthusiasts hide a watertight box containing a logbook, a rubber stamp and other surprises in a remote location. Once the box is hidden, you write clues, map coordinates or compass headings and send them to others or post them on a web site for other letterbox hunters to follow. Once you find the letterbox, you stamp the logbook in the box with your personal stamp, and stamp your personal logbook with the box's stamp. The box's logbook records all visitors and the hunter’s logbook records all the logbooks you’ve found.

I told my boyfriend stories of all the letterboxes I found with my mother when I was younger. I described the beautiful waterfalls, mountains, and trails I’ve experienced. While I was rambling on, I realized that this would be the perfect hobby for us to share.

It was Saturday morning and we set out to look for our first letterbox, Skipper’s Hiding Place. We pulled into the parking lot at the park and read our first clue; “This is where Skipper started his journey to find a place to hide from the artillery fire that was occurring in this area in 1941 for preparation of World War II. Skipper took the trail that went through fence posts that were made out of tree logs.”

We got out of the car and looked around for anything that looked like a fence. I turned and saw my boyfriend already at the fence posts waving his hands for me to hurry up and read the next clue. I thought to myself, “Well I guess I sparked some interest.”

I ran to catch up with him and read the next clue. “Skipper followed the trail until he came to a clearing where it looked like some horses were barrel racing. He stayed close to the woods as he turned left and continued to follow the trail. He followed the trial as it turned left and went into the woods again.”

We crossed through the fence posts and started following the trail. I started telling him how big letterboxing was, and I explained that there were not only hundreds in the state but thousands of letterboxes across the nation.

We continued on the trail, talking, and enjoying the time together so much that we forgot to check the directions. We read the next clue and it said, “As Skipper followed the trail he could see he was going around the lake so if he needed water he could get some. He came to a sign on his left that said ‘Bridge out, due to repairs’.” When we read that, we both looked at each other and laughed. We had passed that sign ten minutes ago. We turned around and stayed focused this time.

We reached the sign and the directions told us that, “Skipper turned left and started down the trail to the Lake to get some water, as he was getting thirsty. On the right of the trail Skipper saw a big deep gulley, which would make a good place to hide if he heard any artillery fire. He went down to the lake and got a drink, but he had to find a place to hide fast as he heard some artillery fire.“

We walked down to the lake and were looking around and enjoying the view. I walked a little further, ignoring the directions and found a dock. As I was looking over the lake I noticed how beautiful everything was, and found a perfect spot for lunch. As you can tell, we were not in any rush so we had a picnic, devouring our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. We cleaned up everything and set out once again to find where Skipper was hiding.

The next clue read, “He started back up the hill and saw a group of three medium size trees on the left side of him very close to the edge of the gully. Under these you will find Skipper hiding.”

Both of our eyes grew big and we started racing to find these medium-sized trees. The excitement kept building as we searched then, once we found the trees, we looked at each other and smiled. We circled them a couple of times and didn’t find the box. My boyfriend circled the trees one more time, lifted a branch and found it.

He brought it over to me and I handed him his stamp, a frog with a crown on its head. He laughed and said, “Is this supposed to be me?” Then I showed him mine — a princess. I explained to him that we get to leave our stamp in every letterbox we find to let everyone know we found it. “The princess and the prince, huh?” he said. I laughed and said told him how cute I thought it was.

He started going through the rest of the box and found another stamp with a dog on it. I told him that was Skipper. He stamped our notebook and wrote next to it, “The prince and the princess found Skipper. Our first of many letterboxes to find.” My smile couldn’t have been any bigger. I was happy that he appreciated letterboxing the way I do. After stamping the books, we replaced everything just like we found it and spent the rest of the day around the park.

We have now been letterboxing all around both Carolinas. This weekend we are going to Clay County to look for “The Fires Creek Letterbox” and “The Dirty Dancing Letterbox” in Rutherford County. My boyfriend and I have become so much closer since we’ve started letterboxing. The long talks that we fall into, the beautiful scenery we see together, the way we appreciate nature and the simple things in life together are wonderful and I wouldn’t trade those experiences for anything.

To find letterboxes throughout North Carolina:
The best way to find letterbox locations, maps, guides, directions, even GPS coordinates is through a search on the internet.
• Go to a reliable search engine such as Google, Dogpile, or Yahoo
• Enter "letterboxing North Carolina," "geocaching North Carolina" or "letterboxing NC" or "geocaching NC" in the search window
• Click on the entries that you interest you in your area
• Put on your Indiana Jones fedora. follow the directions
and get ready to answer the call of adventure!

Comments

- Posted by: Kathy at October 12, 2005 11:40 PM

- Posted by: Katherine at October 13, 2005 03:49 PM

- Posted by: Richard at October 18, 2005 11:34 AM

- Posted by: Dawn at November 2, 2005 10:48 AM

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