So what is letterboxing and why do I want to blog about it? I will say first I am not the first or the only one to blog about letterboxing. Many letterboxers out there with a much higher profile than I, have been blogging about it for longer than I've been boxing myself. In short, it's a hobby, a madness you catch like the flu. Once you have the bug you always have it. Sometimes it'll lay dormant for a while, then sneak up on you and all the symptoms come back like an itch. It's a kid friendly hobby, great for family bonding, great for making friends especially if you just moved to a new state, and a great way to get you out and exploring your home town and surrounding areas. It'll also get you to beautiful lesser known spots you never would have known were there if someone hadn't hung a carrot there for you to find. So now that I've got you all confused by saying what it is to me, I'm going to quote the best website for the hobby (best in my opinion anyway) to give you a better description.
Letterboxing is an intriguing pastime combining artistic ability with "treasure-hunts" in parks, forests, and cities around the world. Participants seek out hidden letterboxes by cracking codes and following clues. The prize: an image from a miniature piece of art known as a rubber stamp—usually a unique, hand-carved creation. Letterboxers stamp their discoveries in a personal journal, then use their own rubber stamp, called a signature stamp, by stamping it into the logbook found with the letterbox, perhaps writing a note about the weather or their adventures in finding the letterbox.- (www.atlasquest.com, 10/18/10)
There is another website I'm aware of that provides service for clues to letterboxers, www.letterboxing.org but I rarely go directly to this site as I find it difficult to navigate. Plus I have enjoyed the sense of social community provided by Atlas Quest (AQ). Never the less many boxers DO use both and it is still a good resource for clues that are not posted on AQ.
Letterboxers use trail names instead of their real names, especially at boxing events. If you become friends with another letterboxer they may tell you their real name, and then it becomes a challenge what you should call them when! My trail name is Mrs. Mumble and here is an image from my hand carved signature stamp.
I started boxing in November of 2008. To this day I have logged 194 letterboxes (I've found more but not all could be logged), which may sound impressive, but all the big wig letterboxers have thousands under their belts, so I'm still pretty small potatoes and I'm still learning new things. What you'll find in this blog are accounts of my adventures on the trail, lessons learned from sometimes humorous mistakes, the wonderful people I meet, and I may even share some of the art I create as I learn to carve better.
If you follow this blog I hope you will catch the madness yourself if you don't already have it.
Live, Laugh, Love
Mrs. Mumble
