Letterboxing is an adventurous mix of mystery solving, orienteering, art and the outdoors. While geocaching is the high-tech version of seek-and-find activities, letterboxing is more intuitive, the thinking man’s game. It involves following clues to find a hidden box, where you will find a stamp – often homemade – with which you can stamp your log book. You also leave your own stamp on a log kept in the letterbox.
The clues can be as simple as set of directions from Mapquest. Others are based on compass headings. Some are far more complicated, woven into a story where you have to pluck the clues from the characters’ conversations.
“Sometimes you have to track down the clues to get the clues to find the letterbox,” said Laura Burgess, a Tacoma letterbox fan.
Burgess and I thought we were on a hot streak when we quickly found the first location on a rainy day at Fort Steilacoom Park. We did find something, but it was a geocaching log. So we filled it out, wrote down the coordinates, and took off in search of another letterbox.
Walking along the water-logged trails with her 1-year-old black German shepherd, Hemi, Burgess talked about her passion for letterboxing. She got started when her father needed to go walking because of health issues.
Deciphering the clues and meeting fellow letterboxers are the primary reasons the Tacoma woman is still seeking boxes, six years after she started. She wore a backpack filled with a three-ring binder full of clues, her stamps, plastic bags to keep everything dry and a few “hitchhikers,” log books meant to be moved from letterbox to letterbox as people find them.
“It’s the hunt and the creativity people use in writing their clues. You can get some pretty elaborate stories that you have to interpret to get the clues,” Burgess said.
After two hours, and two empty locations, Burgess and I finally found a cache.
As we leafed through a log book left in the cache we found, she pointed out a homemade stamp that was the clue itself to another cache.
“There’s also the camaraderie. If you run into someone out there, you have an instant connection,” she said. “My dad and I were in the middle of the desert in Laughlin, Ariz., a couple of years ago and ran into two letterboxers from around here.”
Burgess said there are two factions of letterboxing fans. One group wants to promote it as a family activity and one wants to keep it quiet. She understands the reasoning for both.
She also relates to geocachers, which she also participates in.
“The joy there is the treasure. In letterboxing, it’s the hunt,” Burgess said.
Chuck Nail and his family started letterboxing in 2002 when they were planning a family vacation and wanted to find an inexpensive family activity.
Nail’s wife sought ideas from an online community of home schooling families and received suggestions on letterboxing and geocaching.
“We looked into both of those activities. We were very intrigued with both ideas, but since we did not own a GPS unit, we decided to try letterboxing first,” Nail said.
“We like letterboxing because it gets us outdoors and keeps us active. Also, there are so many avenues for creativity — stamp carving, clue writing, exploring, etc. It is artful but in an accessible way,” the Olympia resident said.
The Nail children, all boys, were 12, 10, 8 and 6 when the family began letterboxing.
“All ages can participate and enjoy the sport. It also has taken us to some places that we would likely never have visited before letterboxing, many in our own community,” Nail said.
A prime attraction is how inexpensive the sport is, Nail said.
“We have even made a game out of spending as little as possible while letterboxing by reusing various containers, Ziplock bags, and even old rubber shoe soles as carving media,” he said.
For Bethany Lee, letterboxing allowed her to learn more about the Puget Sound area and its history while living in DuPont from 2002-06. In the Army Reserves, Lee now lives in Arlington, Va.
“I actually created two letterboxes to plant before I ever found my first box. The clue was a poem that was based on the very interesting albeit little known history behind the original Fort Nisqually that was located in DuPont along Sequalitchew Creek,” Lee said.
“Researching the area’s history in order to write that clue got me excited about letterboxing, as I enjoyed learning about where we lived. Then, when I actually found a letterbox after sleuthing a somewhat difficult clue, I was absolutely hooked on it.
“Not only did I enjoy the challenge of solving puzzles and working through the difficult clues, I really loved discovering new parks, trails, historical sites, and gorgeous vistas around the region.”
Lee said she even tried to find a letterbox last year while deployed in Baghdad. It wasn’t there.
“There are just so many layers to it. It’s definitely like an onion you just peel off the layers,” Lee said. “Some people just want to find a few boxes and then they’re done. Some people get into setting out their own boxes. Others get into writing the clues and creating really elaborate stamps.”
Jeffrey P. Mayor: 253-597-8640
blog.thenewstribune.com/adventure
Getting started
Start here: letterboxing.org
Local boxes: There are 150 locations listed in Pierce and Thurston counties. Some listings have multiple boxes, such as the Ferrell’s Marsh Series in Steilacoom, which has three. There are 185 listings in King County and 117 on the Olympic and Kitsap peninsulas.
More than the find: Many of the listings include suggestions of other things to see and do in places where boxes are hidden. The Nail family recommends you spend some time on the beach at Tolmie State Park in Lacey before looking for the Huckleberry letterbox the family has hidden.
Beginner’s guide: “The Letterboxer’s Companion” by Randy Hall
Another source: www.atlasquest.com is a Northwest-based Web site that lists clues to locations.
Tips: Get a compass because some clues call for you to look in or follow a specific direction. Bring plastic bags and sheet protectors, to keep your log book, stamps and clue sheets dry – an important factor in the South Sound this time of year.
Jeffrey P. Mayor, staff writer
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