Sunday, August 30, 2009

The Letterbox

It seems I have found a treasure! I told you awhile ago that I bought a hiking GPS so I could enhance my adventures a bit. I soon discovered the world of Geocaching, which is a treasure hunting game using GPS. The further I looked into it, I discovered many different types of these caches. One type is what is called a Letterbox.

A letterbox is just a sealed container with a rubber stamp and paper to record your visit. There's usually no real treasure. You're usually given clues to find oneof these boxes. If you can figure it out, you'll find the letterbox. The fun is in the hunt.

Well, while I was doing a small bit of research on a normal geocache I was hunting, I came across the information for this letterbox. It happened to be in a place I sometimes go, and I recognized the place that they described. So I knew I had to search for this one.

When I arrived at the general location, I looked around for a few seconds. It took me only that long to instinctively know right where to find this letterbox. I walked right over to where I knew it had to be, and there it was as plain as day! The only problem was that any body would have been able to find it.

Part of the rules are that ordinary people, who they embarrassingly call muggles, aren't supposed to know about this stuff. I'm telling you about these things because I am a great rebel, the rule breaker of the ages, and an all around rascal! And nobody can stop me! So there!

Anyway, since this box was pretty much laying there in plain sight, I put it back and hid it correctly. Nobody would stumble upon it now! I had to do this while evading three other people who annoyingly entered my trail. After doing my duty I left the park. I've been back and found that it has since been hidden even better now.

So that's it. That is the account of how I found one small treasure. Soon I will become rich with all of these treasures. I will still behave the same as when I had none. That's just because I'm such a good guy. Thank you all. Thank you all.

(Do you believe this guy? What a jerk!)

23 comments:

  1. I didn't realise there are different kinds of cache. Next time I go caving I'm going to look for a couple in the area. Unfortunately I'm quite hopeless at geocaching :-(

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  2. What a great find. I didn't realize there were other types of caches.

    I got a giggle out of "muggles", they took that from the Harry Potter series.

    Have a great day,
    SQ

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  3. Success is so rewarding. I do hope that once you are rich and famous you will still share your wonderful photos with us. You are a rebel though aren't you? Even doing your "duty" right there on the trail....lol

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  4. Letterboxes like this can be found all over Dartmoor in the UK. I believe each one holds a clue to the whereabouts of another. I didn't know you can find them elsewhere. Thanks for sharing.

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  5. I didn't know there are hidden letterboxes. What a great find!

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  6. We played the letter box game a few years ago in Connecticut. It was a fun game. Maybe we will have to try it again.

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  7. Interesting little game Ratty. Have fun with it. By the way. Thank you for always leaving comments on my blog posts. I think you should experiment with the video part of your camera. Just carry extra batteries at all times. And it all depends on how large your memory card is too. I take short clips in between my still shots. I like doing this for my slide shows . Good luck!

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  8. Well I had not heard of this before, how interesting. BTW what a coincedence, I have just set an archive treasure challenge for this blog over at Scribbles.

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  9. Wow!! Hidden cache! even its only a letter box, its fun! Great hunt Ratty!

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  10. The letter box game sounds very interesting. I do not think we have it in my place.

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  11. Very interesting. To be honest I have never heard of this before but it sounds like fun.

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  12. oh that is such a cool adventure ratty! i would love to go on adventures like that! have a great day my friend...xoxox

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  13. How fun! What an excellent treasure. I had no idea that letterboxes even existed! Maybe I will find one someday!

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  14. Treasure hunts are so much fun. That must have been a great find for you. Even more exciting that when you returned you had found it was re-hidden. Pretty cool. Ratty, you need to write a book of all your adventures.

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  15. Goes to show you how much of an adventurer I am. I didn't know these types of boxes existed and you're out there breaking all the rules.Usually that's my job, I like being naughty. I'm so jealous. lol

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  16. congratulations n finding a cache, i always jump with joy when i see one, as if problem solved :) and yes, hope one day you get rich from all the geocache you find.

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  17. Great find and what an interesting idea.

    I must admit I love these treasure hunt type games via the Internet-great fun.

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  18. I was really flummuxed when a big group moved into the campground last summer...to do a big cache event in our area. I learned how serious these folks were...came to see it was pretty cool, but never tried it myself.

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  19. wow this is very interesting and sounds like so much fun!! Goo for you for hiding the box to protect it.

    You are a true and excellent adventurer!!

    I can't wait to see what treasures you find. My satellites have been down and I had blog problems so I apologize for missing the last few days.

    Hopefully all is okay now and my normal routine is back!!

    I hope you have a great week filled with lots of treasures and surprises!!

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  20. A friend of mine told me about the letterbox game just last week...we have it in the notts and lincs area in the uk too. The boxes here do have nonperishable treasure in as well as a log list...you can take a treasure providing you leave one and you write you name to record that you found it. I thought it sounded great fun and now want a gps so i can go hunting with my kids!!

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  21. I love geocaching! Being without GPS, I do "poor man's geocaching" (my words), using satellite maps and my own keen map reading skills. (snort!)

    Letterboxing sounds even more fun, but I rarely live in a place with letterboxes around, so I haven't actually done it yet. Looks great!

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  22. We have many geocaches in our beautiful area of Southeast Ohio. This activity has become huge in our area. People have gotton permission to put caches on state park land. This is getting people into the parks and getting them to experience what they have to offer. I love to hunt for treasures and love the trinkets left behind from the muggles before me. I always try to leave something special myself!

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  23. I knew about the GPS geo hunting thing, but I didn't know the details (muggles/caches, etc..) Wow..what a different world..I must be living in a cave up here. ha
    I am glad you properly HID it to make it more challenging for those that play the game. I like the rebel in you!

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