Letterboxing is a sport similar to Geocaching in some ways. Someone hides a box somewhere and you find it. With Letterboxing, the seeker uses clues, riddles, poems and sometimes a compass. With Geocaching, it can be mostly about the GPSr.
Letterboxing traditionally includes creating a personalized stamp and leaving a stamp impression in the box's book and collecting the box's stamp impression in your book.
There doesn't seem to be as many Letterboxes as Geocaches (probably because there's not as much money to be made selling gear and GPSr, but also perhaps because it's largely a hand-made, low-tech activity).
Sunday after church, we headed out to find a few of these treasures in our local parks. All are within a mile or so of the Buckeye Trail and one is only a dozen feet off the blue blazes!
We started in the Brecksville Reservation, on the Hemlock Trail near the Brecksville Nature Center.
A Sassafras tenaciously holds onto its unique leaves.
After seeing and capturing a snake and seeing yet another one, we backtracked the suggested number of paces and found the box!
We were prepared to continue around the loop and see the rest of this trail but the "Letterboxing Bug" had bitten the crew and we were off to find another one, this time in Bedford Reservation.
What a glorious day for a hike and a Letterbox! For this one, we hiked a bit of a loop, saw the Fall Foliage, a crayfish and on the return path to where we started, found the tree and the other tree and there was the box!
This Letterbox's stamp was a bit interactive and all the more fun because of it. If you want to find out what that means, go find the Letterbox yourself!
The next one was closest to the Buckeye Trail and we followed the blue blazes for quite a while over trails we'd hiked before.
I think this serves to remind me that at any point in your day, there might be a Geocache or a Letterbox just around the corner from you.
Afterward, we took a break to enjoy the weather, the bright blue sky, the bright orange leaves and the swingset at the end of that trail.
And lastly, in the last light of (perhaps) the last nice day of this year, we went into Bedford to find a Letterbox Hybrid, a combination Letterbox and Geocache. There really is a Geocacher etiquette and a Letterboxing etiquette. If you don't believe me, go do a few of each and compare what you find.
Letterbox Hybrids accentuate the differences. At least in NE Ohio. They can both be delightful to find, please don't misunderstand me. Letterboxers and Geocachers are just different!
This one is found in an out-of-the-way little park with a Skilligimink playground and a winding little creek on its edge. The Geocacher known as sirIan claims this find.
It was a great day to be out-of-doors in north-east Ohio!
