Random Thoughts on Letterboxing

Over the past several months I’ve been analyzing letterboxing a bit — what makes a good box? what frustrates people? where do things fall apart? is it all about the journey? the stamp? Certainly the letterboxing experience is different for each person and even for the same person when in their own neighborhood where things are familiar and time is not limited versus when traveling and there is no knowledge of local landmarks, limited time and perhaps no online access, so any conclusions are of course generalizations based on my personal experience and objectives. That being said, a couple of things I have found/will be keeping in mind going forward…

- First and foremost, who is my audience? is the box I am planting intended for locals or for vacationers? this distinction makes a lot of difference in terms of type of box, placement and the presentation of clues.

- In general, I have found that travelers tend to like series of boxes in established places — i.e. a 4 box series in a state park is much more likely to tempt most travelers than 4 individual boxes located at places that are only locally known and not found on a map.

- While I am generally planted firmly in the school of thought that the journey is just as rewarding/important as the destination (or in the case of letterboxing, the box), when traveling, the pendulum does tend to swing the other way in correlation with the amount of time I have and I am particularly disappointed to find missing boxes when the hike itself provided little enjoyment or interest.

- When faced with limited time, I tend to choose boxes based on planter and find record… yes, I admit it. While I am one who wishes the “find record” had never been implemented in the first place, since it is there, I do use it when choosing boxes — why spend the few hours I have looking for a box that 5 people have been unable to find? Sure, there is a part of me that sees that as a challenge, but based on experience, the likelihood is far greater that the box is missing than that the last 5 people to look for it just weren’t so good at finding boxes. As for choosing based on planter — I am drawn to names I recognize, people who post to the lists, people I have met in person at gatherings, people who have found my boxes and sent me an email… while I realize I may be missing out on some great boxes from letterboxers who are new or just play under the radar, there is a feeling that involved boxers probably tend to maintain their boxes better (though not always true).

- There is little excuse for poorly maintained boxes. While I understand and accept the thinking that it is not necessary to provide finders with an up-to-the-minute status, I am less tolerant when it comes to maintaining boxes. When you plant a box, it is your responsibility to check on it periodically, keep the clues current with the surroundings and keep the box in good order… if you don’t have the time to keep up with all of your boxes, you have too many boxes (even if it is just a single box). In keeping with this, I am not a proponent of planting a box while visiting a place you do not get back to at least once a year, unless you are able to enlist assistance from local letterboxers in keeping the box maintained. All this being said, I admit I am guilty of letting my boxes go and admit I have more boxes than I can keep up with — this is my primary goal going forward, to scale back to a manageable number of accessible boxes that are kept in good order.

- I am more convinced than ever that ambiguous clues are evil — particularly when the guessing game is at the end of the hunt. I don’t mind if there is research I need to do to decipher the clues or find the starting point (I actually enjoy this); I don’t even mind if the clues require a certain amount of reasoning skills once I am on the trail (as long as this is the type of figuring one can do while out in the woods, away from a computer), but I absolutely abhor when I get to the end of the clue, am in the “vicinity” of where the box should be, but am given no idea as to where I should be looking for the box. At this point I feel like a geocacher and am torn between “I’ve come all this way and don’t want to go away empty-handed” and “do I really want to tear up this area more than the 15 people who were here before me already have?” I generally think like a letterboxer and ask myself “where would I put a box if I were hiding it right here?” and if a check of those places yields no box, I leave empty-handed, as disappointing as that may be. I do make exception to this thinking in the case of mystery boxes where the finder entered into the hunt with the understanding that they were facing a significant challenge *and* where searching the final area does not have an adverse affect on the environment, although I still think it is best to put the mystery elements at the front end of the search rather than the back end.

- Ink pads do not belong in letterboxes. Period.

- Placing a letterbox behind a tree covered by a small pile of leaves, bark and sticks is just asking for your box to go missing. If you’re going to plant a box, take the time to find a secure hiding spot. While we beg and complain about “rehiding better than you found it” the fact is that some people don’t, not to mention you cannot control nature itself — animals, the wind, etc. Find a place where the box is not going to be completely exposed if a muggle comes along, finds the box and just sets it back down where he found it… [sturdy] hollow stumps — either standing or fallen, rock crevices, hollow knots in trees, tree roots, log piles, fallen trees and limbs (large enough that they are not easily moved), etc.

- While I delight in finding skillfully crafted hand-carved stamps, I realize stamp-carving is not every letterboxer’s forte. However, I personally would rather find a very rudimentary hand-carved stamp than a store-bought stamp, unless the store-bought stamp is unique and specifically suited to the location or theme of the box.

- Lock-n-locks are great and while they do keep boxes safer and drier, you still need to put the contents in baggies inside the box. On the other hand, outer bags do more harm than good.

Nothing profound… just organizing my thoughts and thinking out loud.

Missing Boxes

I find lately that I am doing a lot of apologizing to people for missing boxes and quite frankly it is a little irritating. I plant letterboxes for people to enjoy. I spend my time breathing life into an idea, carving a stamp, finding a hiding spot, writing [hopefully creative] clues and maintaining my letterboxes. Despite my best efforts, boxes go missing. Although I follow up on missing box reports and keep the status of my boxes updated on the clues as best as I can (and still have a normal life where I work, eat, sleep, etc.), I am not usually able to immediately run out and replace missing boxes, nor do I feel that I owe it to anyone to do so.

When I note on my clues that a box is missing and will be replaced, this is my intention, but that is not to say that it will be next week, next month or even next year. I would consider the replacement of a missing box to be something I can do at my convenience, particularly if it is not near where I live.

So why do I get e-mails from people grumbling because such-and-such letterbox is missing and has not been replaced yet? And why an earth do I apologize to them for this?