Letterboxing

We first heard about Letterboxing from the Hartzogs last year. Jessica told me when Devin and Julia first told her about it she thought it might involve boxing each other while trying to grab letters out of each others pockets. I am happy to report it does not involve either of those actions. In a nutshell: there are boxes with stamps and notebooks hidden in various places. You follow the clues to find the box and then you stamp your personal stamp into their notebook and stamp their stamp into yours. It is a fun treasure hunt. I thought the kids might like it and it might get us out more (of course as I write this it is Sunday afternoon and we have gone no where today).

Last Sunday we headed out to the Ludlow Reservoir, one of our favorite places to take a walk. I looked the location on the letterboxing site and found 3 different boxes that are placed at the reservoir. The first one is at the 1mile mark and that is as far as we have ever walked so we decided to try that one. We headed out on our adventure. We got the 1 mile mark and follwed the directions- take 6 paces (one pace = 2 steps- info that Sandy on Survivor could have used) then on your left look behind a hard wood tree for another tree with its roots growing over a rock. So far so good. Then we had to reach under the rock and remove a smaller rock and the box was supposed to be in there. I took a deep breath- please let it be there- they would not have been impressed with this at all if nothing was there. But Voila! or Walla! as Justin says we found the box. Very fun and exciting. We put the box back and hid it behind the rock again. As we were heading back on the path I realized I forgot to take pics. So here is one of them by the rock- it is hidden next to Justin's left foot.


It is supposed to be this secretive thing- because pretty sure the reservoir people wouldn't be pleased to know there are a few tupperware containers hiding in the forest. Justin, of course, has a hard time keeping it to himself. As we were leaving he asked some passersby if they were looking too and he showed them where to look. They smiled and nodded because they had NO idea what the crazy boy carrying the stick was talking about. As the weather gets nicer I think we will go on some more hunts.