Letterboxing

We just finished our first "treasure hunt" otherwise known as letterboxing. I found out about it and just started digging deeper into it. I have always wanted to go geocaching so when I heard about this I was instantly curious. It requires nothing much more than a compass and time. We were able to find our first box without a compass, just simple clues.
I am not a "Hey lets take a walk and see what we see" kind of mom. I kinda have to have a goal and destination. Well this is the way for me to get out, hike, walk and school my kids along the way. On this particular hunt we went to a local nature trail. The clues were very simple... follow this trail, look for a fork in the road go east, pass two Braille signs and look toward 300 degrees and in the middle of the tree you will find it! And we did! As we looked we talked about a fork in the road, and about the reasons for Braille signs. We found several tiny frogs and saw turtles and fish. We talked about leaves of 3, let them be. We also saw some cool trees and flowers. All while hunting for a plastic box. When we got to the box we were not really sure what to do as it was our first. We just looked at it funny.
Then I got to explain... We opened the box and found a stamp and a book. The stamp was of a hand and a tree, the clue was in the "palm" of the tree. Perfect sense. We took scrapbook paper for this one so we each stamped our paper and we kept that. Next we looked at the book. This book started in 2006. In it was stamps from a Girl scout troupe and folks from all over, very cool! Now it was our turn to say "we were here". Each girl had a stamp they had gotten out of their crafts, and stamped a page in the book. On it they wrote their names and the date. Just another in a long list but very neat to see where they all came from. We did put that on there also.
One of the unusual things about box we found is that it had been there for 5+ years! How fun is that. I bet I have walked past letterboxes and never knew they were there! They are all over the city and parks, and there are LOTS all over the country.
We had a great time, even the boy enjoyed exploring nature. He told me the places he needed his hammer and when he was working.
Overall, I will put this on our list of things to do on vacation from now on! I had a ball, and the next day we introduce Daddy to the hunt. He had as much fun as we had the evening before. It was a good thing he was there, I didn't understand the clues as well this time but he did. I guess that's the fun of it, sometimes you find it, sometimes you don't!
I hope you get a chance to look up some places close to you and enjoy the game! Here are some sites for ya! http://www.atlasquest.com/ and LbNA