Letterboxing

Two weeks ago I went letterboxing for the first time and had a blast. My friend Nikki went with me and we wandered around in the rain and managed to find three letterboxes.

For those of you who have never heard of letterboxing, it is a nifty hobby. The basic idea is to walk or drive or hike to a place, following a set of clues laid out by the hider of the box, puzzle out where it is (which can be simple or difficult), and then exchange stamps. Your gear includes a book or journal of some sort and a personal rubber stamp. These can be bought or hand-carved. I only have a purchased one for now, but hopefully I will manage to carve something that is not hideous before too long. The letterbox will also contain a stamp and a book. You stamp your stamp in their book and their stamp in your book and voila, you just letterboxed.

A lot of people I tell about letterboxing are not interested and think that it sounds boring or crazy or pointless. I don't think they are correct, but it's very individual. I love to go on walks or drives anyway, so the letterbox is almost a bonus for me. I think I am a little nuts, but I am okay with that and definitely not alone. There are tons of people interested in letterboxing around the country and the world. The last complaint, about it being pointless, is again, sort of subjective. I think it's neat to collect stamps and hunt for them. It is kinda like a treasure hunt to me. One of the stamps we found shows a hand-carved wild stallion from the Horse Heaven Hills and it is amazing! The person who made that stamp was an artist. The stamps collected are art and it is fun to have my own personal art collecting in a little book or box. Also, it is neat to look at the log book in the box. Everyone who has found that box signs the book with their stamp and info. They are dated and often have information on where the person is from and what the day was like. I find that fascinating. Some of the people who found the boxes we hunted that day were from the other side of the country.

I have great plans for letterboxing. Nikki and I will hopefully go out as often as possible and find all of the boxes in this area. Also, whenever Shane and I travel, I will try to find a box or two as a kind of souvenir. I am already looking for clues to boxes at the ports we will stop at on our Alaska cruise. My co-worker Chantel just shakes her head and laughs at me when I get going on all of this, but I love it.