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Letterboxing & Geocaching

Posted: Fri Aug 06, 2010 6:50 am
by Luet
Has anyone heard of it or done it? My husband and I are just getting into letterboxing. It's like a treasure hunt of sorts with clues to boxes listed on the internet. Once you find them, you record the stamp from the box into your log book. You also leave your personal stamp in the log book of the box. Geocaching is the high-tech version using GPS to find boxes.

Anyway, here is the website:
www.letterboxing.org

They have boxes listed for Canada (even St. John's) as well! :)

Posted: Fri Aug 06, 2010 7:59 am
by Psudo
I've heard of Geocaching. I've never really been into it, but I've tagged along with friends who are. It can be kinda interesting to know pretty exactly where something is and still not be able to find it.

There's a fairly nerdy offshoot of it called Geohashing. In short, it uses computer encryption to choose a near-random location where everyone who knows about it can meet up to say hi and see what there is to do there. It's kind of a random adventure generator.

Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2010 3:51 pm
by v-girl
I know a resident who goes geo-caching pretty much every day he has off. He had to explain it to me though! I think he thought I was pretty dense when I asked if I could do it with my Garmin.

Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2010 8:11 pm
by Luet
We found 5 letterboxes this weekend. It was fun and I got way more exercise from the hiking than I have in a long time. I hope some of you will try it out and let me know what you think.

Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2010 8:18 pm
by ender1
I know a resident who goes geo-caching pretty much every day he has off. He had to explain it to me though! I think he thought I was pretty dense when I asked if I could do it with my Garmin.
There shouldn't be a reason why you couldn't. The Garmin I've used has a screen where you can view coordinates and altitude, etc.

Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2011 8:07 pm
by Luet
I haven't gotten to do any letterboxing since my trip to CA in December. It's not a hobby you can do easily in the snow. But we're taking a little road trip to do a bunch of indoor library letterboxes tomorrow. I'm excited!

Also, I planted a letterbox in my local library a couple months ago. Since then, the librarians have gotten into the hobby. They are having a children's program on letterboxing later this month and having me as a guest speaker/helper.

And in case anyone is interested, a more user-friendly site for more info is www.atlasquest.com.

Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2011 9:08 pm
by Jayelle
I know a resident who goes geo-caching pretty much every day he has off. He had to explain it to me though! I think he thought I was pretty dense when I asked if I could do it with my Garmin.
There shouldn't be a reason why you couldn't. The Garmin I've used has a screen where you can view coordinates and altitude, etc.
The ones for a car tend not to be precise enough. Or so I've heard.

I wish there were letterboxes in my area! There are Geocaches for sure, but we don't have a GPS.

Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2011 11:25 am
by Mitchi
Geocaching is.actually one of my main hobbies. a friend of mine in Texas got me into it and I've been hooked ever since. I've actually got a cache in the works for when I find the perfect spot (its going to be a large one with little pre-made caches (ie already camo'd with a logbook and all) for people to take and hide). I'll probably wait till after I move before I plant it.

Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2011 4:58 pm
by Luet
I wish there were letterboxes in my area!
There are! Here are eight within 20 miles (most closer) of St. John's. And the nice thing is that you can always look up letterboxes if you travel to other areas.

Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2011 5:07 pm
by Jayelle
Ooh! Thanks. There were none listed on the letterboxing site.

Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2011 5:33 pm
by Wil
The atlasquest website has a more specific search (difficulty, basically), but it seems that the geocaching.com website doesn't allow this without paying. Anyone know of a website that allows sorting of geocaches by difficulty?

Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2011 5:49 pm
by Luet
Yeah, that's why I added that atlasquest site. It has way more boxes listed and is more user friendly. Go letterboxing!

Sorry, Wil, I can't help you with the geocaching. :)

Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2011 8:08 pm
by zeldagirl1234
I'm really confused. what is this exactly?

Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2011 8:18 pm
by Luet
It's kind of a treasure hunt and you find clues online. Go to any of the above websites to read more about it. Or try google!