Letterboxing

Spent a good four hours today volunteering at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. It's my 3rd year there and it's pretty fun. Since it's my third year, that means I get to volunteer in a specific region of the zoo if I so choose to. I got accepted into the Australia region. What do we get to do there? Clean up poop. Yes, that's right, I get to clean up after the kangaroos and koalas. I also get to clean windows and sweep and pick up trash. Today I got to make fish treats! This meant I took some containers, filled them up with water, and put half frozen fish in the water. Livin' the life! Well after that Mother Hen and Tyrus picked me up and we were off to the Dublin Cemetery! We parked over by the cupcake shoppe and walked over to the cemetery. After we arrived at the cemetery and pulled out the clues, we discovered we could have ridden in the car to find the boxes. Oh well. Walking wouldn't kill us. Had a nice long walk through the cemetery in search for these boxes. Ran into a tick or two (eww) and tried our best to stay secretive looking for the boxes. There were a ton of maintenance workers cleaning up the cemetery while we were there. They also took a bush that one of the boxes was hidden in before we arrived. Over all the cemetery was beautiful! So well taken care of, mausoleums built into hills, random "couches" made from stone to sit one, and plenty of trees. The only issue is... since it's well taken care of it can cause some issues for boxes. Boxes can easily go missing because of high maintenance. The entire letterboxing adventure we were racing to save Princess Zelda. Poor Zelda trapped all alone... Even then while getting supplies and fighting our way to save her, she was no longer there! Zelda and the logbook were missing. After a long hard search for her we came up empty. Princess Zelda is still in need of saving. With or without the last two boxes, this series has earned my "Llama Herd" award! Congrats Ratliff Gang and psycho smiths! The series was well done. Nicely carved stamps, good hiding spots, neat pouches, and well thought out and written story line. After that adventure, and on the way back to the car, we stopped by Jenni's Icecream. We got my favorite, Dark Chocolate, and scarfed it down pretty quick! We should have gotten a triple scoop rather than double scoop. Now we know! Jenni's had some really good and unique flavors but it's a bit pricey. $4.50 for double and $5.50 for triple scoop. That's in a bowl. They do have free water though!

Welcome to letterboxing.org!

I like atlasquest but that's just me. Both have their advantages.

This is what the site will look like:

You can click on the book, stamp, note book, globe and such in the image which will take you to different places on the site. click on the book it takes you here:

Click on the state of which you will be looking for clues. You DO NOT need to be a member on here to look for clues. After you pick your state you'll have to pick one of the divided regions. It will give you the box name, who planted it, near by city, and county. Now you just have to sort though the boxes and find the ones near you and what you want to do. Note: Unlike atlasquest it does not tell if you need a compass or how many finds it may have or the boxes' status.

However, if you do not wish to sort through the boxes listed you"ll have to sign up. It's easy. Email, trailname, password and done really. Now that you have signed up go to the letterboxes tab and click on "Search Clues." Then at the top you can enter an address and it will pull up boxes near by that location.

A lot of times people will post their clues on atlasquest then the will post it on LbNA (Letterboxing North America aka letterboxing.org). They will often times just post the link to the clues on atlasquest and the link takes you there. When you click on the clues and none are listed and only the boxes' name in blue where the clue should be, click on that because it is the link. People also do the same on atlasquest. They link LbNA to their clue.

That's pretty much the basics for this site. Oh! It was also the first site for North America. Atlasquest came after letterboxing.org.

“Sad to report……we could not find a trace of any of these boxes in any of the defined locations…..they were all completely missing :(“

When I got this message… I thought I was going to cry.

So far I have planted 13 traditional letterboxes. We planted the ♣ Patrick O’Darby’s Map ♣ series at Darby Creek park. This was a 5 box series and our first. We put a lot of work and thoughts into creating this series. You have to find 4 boxes, each of which were a corner to Patrick O’Darby’s map. When you put the 4 pieces together it created, well, a map. You had to actually follow the map in order to the last stamp of wist was O’Darby’s pot of gold. About a month later, after planting these boxes, I stumbled apon the park rules on geocashing. All geocashing rules apply to letterboxing as well. I learned we needed a permit to plant our boxes. Great. Before I learned this we had planted another series in the same park. I thought “Another boxers has boxes hidden there and haven’t been found by the rangers for over a year so our boxes will be fine.” So days went by and I was approached by a good friend that I shouldn’t place boxes in the mettro parks. I finally decided that we’ll go pull the boxes from the park. Between the plant and the pulling of the boxes, two letterboxers found our box. After a couple of weeks of hard thinking and procrastinating, I decided to retire ♣ Patrick O’Darby’s Map ♣ Only out there for a mont and it’s already retired! We were thinking about relocating the map parts and then getting a permit for the last one but we just didn’t do it. Now these stamps have been recycled and await a new home.

When we did go out and pull our boxes from the park all was well… until we came to the last box of our second series. With all the crazy storms that hit Ohio and surrounding areas, it had knocked over a ton of trees. The tree of which the last box was hidden got split and knocked over. We searched the entire tree and came to the conclusion that the rangers probably took the box. This series we can relocate but now we have to recarve the last box. Along with that box was also our K-9 Hitch Hiker that I carved. Two stamps gone in one box. Well, I’ve recareved the stamp (it’s not as good as the original) and this series awaits its relocation.

Then there’s the Franklin County Fair box which is only available during the fair.

So out of 13 boxes we have 5 retired, 3 unavailable, along with the limited time unavailable box. That leaves us with 4 active boxes.

One box is hidden at Packrat Comics and I know that’s not going anywhere so that leaves the three hidden at Greenlawn Cemetery. The Sailor and His Lover series are our most found boxes. When I got the message that they were gone I was on the verge of tears. That would have left us with only 1 active box. So a few days later we were off to Greenlawn to check up on the boxes. As soon as we parked near the first box we notices two women walking around and they were putting back our second pot! “They’re letterboxers! They are finding OUR boxes!” I screamed. Tyrus opened his door and I nearly pushed him out of the car. We ran over to the two boxers with wide grins on our faces. “Are you guys looking for these boxes too?” One of the ladies asked. “No, we are actually the planters!” Tyrus replied. “So Cat-chow? Is that how you say it?” The same women asked. “Yep! Cat-chow. We came to check up on our boxes because someone said our boxes were gone.” “Nope, They’re all here. We found the first two and are on to the third.” The other women said. we were so relieved to know our boxes were still there. We traded personal travelers and had a quick chat before going our separate ways. We ran into letterboxers only one other time and that was also at Greenlawn. But these were the first two with personal travelers. The two we met were ohiosportsfans and kleppert. They were very nice people.

So after all of that We showed my grandpa P. our boxes and then went on the hunt for a couple of other boxes. We found two of them but the the third box was complicated and we left. My grandpa took us to Tommy’s Diner. They have great food and service and aren’t that far from Greenlawn.

Well after all of that, and while writing this, I realized that the message about my boxes missing was about the 3 boxes I have to relocate, not the boxes at Greenlawn Cemetery. Well… I guess the moral is to check which boxes the letterboxer is talking about before you freak out.

This was interesting.

From the day I was born to about the age of 6 I grew up in Indiana. We moved to Ohio and left my dad's side of the family back in Indiana but we'll go visit them about once a year or more. Out of every time we went there never did I think "Maybe we should go letterboxing!" Well this pass weekend Wile in Indiana we went letterboxing! None of my Indiana family go letterboxing. For Christmas one year we got my aunt and all her kids personalized log books and stamp pads, even the first edition of the Letterboxing Companion. After all of that they never went. Very upsetting. This trip we did get my grandparents to go with us. The closest box to my grandparents house was only two minuets away! So on the way to my Uncle's house for pancakes, we stopped at the small church to make sure the box was there. we didn't want my grandparents first time letterboxing to not have a letterbox there. When we got back my parents, my grandparents, and I, all jumped into the car and headed out to the church. The clues led us to this row of pine trees, where we had to go to the southern most tree. The trees were right next to two sheds so there was a sorta isle way you could walk through. In this walk way there were dead leaves and sticks, as well as a ladder. My grandma and I started making our way through the walk way when my grandpa suggested that we walk around the sheds to the tree.        "We could, but this way is more adventurous." was my grandma's response. Well we found the box and stamped in and then headed to a park that was relatively close by. We were searching for two boxes hidden by different people. We found neither. I think is was an off day for us because every one seemed tense and frustrated. While looking for the second box we found that the box was hidden in a Frisbee golf field. The resent storms blew down these huge trees where we thing the box may have been hidden. While standing there frustrated by the fallen trees, the people playing in the near by field almost took my head off with their Frisbee. They thought it was funny and we left.

It was an interesting adventure letterboxing in Indiana...

Beginning on atlasquest.com

You will see this screen. It is the home page for the site. *Note the background chances different days and you can choose your own theme to see.

You DO NOT need to sign up to veiw the boxes and it's clues, but it's nice to make an account to log your finds.

For your user name on the site you will use your trail name. Go ahead and fill out the info for your profile, you don't have to if you don't want to.

If you put your mouse over the bar near the top at each word a bar will drop down with different things to pick from. There are three bars you will use the most.

The "Home" bar will take you to "What is Letterboxing?" "Code of Conduct" "Help" and "Glossary." The glossary will come very helpful to figure out what things are.

The "Letterboxes" bar will help you find, record, and add letterboxes. This is VERY useful and not too hard to use.

The "My Page" bar lets you see your page, your online logbook (this records your finds and plants that you record on the site), your mail and such.

Now when you are searching for boxes you will see many symbols at the right of the box name under the collumn that says "Attributes." Now these symbols tell you different things.   Means a compass is needed to find this box.   Park is dog friendly.  Bikes are allowed.  There is a code you need to decipher or there is a mental puzzle.  There is a fee of some sort to get to the box like a donation to a dog shelter, entrance to a fair or payed entry location.   The trail or path to the letterbox should be accessible by wheelchairs or strollers the entire way.   Box is located indoors.   Will drive by location of box.   Will be a mile walk or less to find the box(es).   Will be a mile or two walk to find the box(es).  Means the stamp is hand carved.   Means stamp is store bought.

These are just a handful of the different symbols and their meanings. But these are the basic ones you will see. If you put your mouse over the image on the site it will give you a couple worded description.

Hope this helps on your quest of using atlasquest!

Today Catchow, Mother Hen (my mother), I went to the Park of Roses and the Village Green of Worthington  in Central Ohio.

Having left at around 1000 hours EST, it started out as a relatively cool day with some intermitant shade from the fluffy white clouds hovering gracefully above us. We did a series of seven letterboxes known as: Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, at the Park of Roses that took us on quite the journey.

The first box that we had found was the body for Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head. Being as it was located in a park that straddles a creek, I was eaten up by mosquitos for the first time in a month (as the whole of the USA is in a drought and there haven't been many breeding opportunites for the buggers). I was slightly surprised and terribly irritated that I was being attacked (I absolutely loathe mosquitos). After we stamped the stamps and replaced the box, we began our search for the other boxes.

All the while we counted steps and took measurements I was practicing my Martial Arts. This may seem strange to people (I got this feeling from the looks I got from passers-by) but I really needed to practice. I had forgotten what a move in one of the forms was, but then I remember and I burst out, "That's it!" This was unintentional, of course. Mother Hen and Catchow just looked at me awkwardly and continued walking. I'm happy there wasn't a pack of strangers nearby.

Anyway, we had stopped at the pond at the Park of Roses for a moment to catch a breeze in the shade. At this point, the clouds were burned off and the sun was cooking us at a fine 94 degrees. At this pond were Mallord ducks. They were SO cute! I wish we had brought bread to feed them because they were just looking at us expectantly like, "Well... you got something for us, or what?" There were some teenage ducks that we weren't entirely sure if they were male or female because none of the young ones had any defining colourings. Mother Hen took pictures and I tried to feed the ducks some greens that I had pulled up while Catchow watched me make a fool of myself.

When we moved on, we came to a place that was slightly wooded and was overgrown with poison ivy. Being the only one that is immune to poison ivy and oak, I was drafted into crawling through the brush. After finding the letterbox we sat down in some shade and began stamping. We soon found out that we had sat down in a fire ant hill. We quickly stamped and got out of there.

After finishing this series, we decided to search for a box that was also located in the park. But right off the bat we ran into some problems. The clues were poorly written as if they were written in a hurry. Soon, many more issues began to manifest themselves. Some landmarks were missing and some were changed by the violent storm that we had on the 26th of June. We had, however, reached the location of which the box was to be located. But to our disappointment, we could not find it.

We returned to our car and drove down to Worthington to search for another series. When we reached the Village Green, I noticed a tune in the air. A church that was close by was ringing its bells in a song. We unfortunatly caught the tail end of the song and were then graced by the gross sound of nearby traffic. We tried finding the first box but were disappointed with that one. But the second box was found and we had a mild celebration because this meant that not all of them were missing (plus this one had the logbook). At this point the sun was blocked out by some rather dark clouds and we were able to remove our sunglasses. The next box was another disappointing loss. We conjectured that the grounds keepers had probably found them. We did, however, find the last of the four boxes (albeit with some out of date clues). After stamping this one, we decided to give the first box a second try but came up empty handed. I had to pull Catchow out of the bush for this one. We had thought that we had found it but we had been sadly decieved by a pack of Christmas lights.

All in all I would have to say that today was a rather good day. We ended the day with a disappointing trip to a camera shop, an awesome lunch at Steak 'n Shake, a disappointing trip to a thrift store, and an amazing drive through a wicked thunderstorm. I would like to thank Mother Hen for making this trip possible, as neither Catchow or I own a powered vehicle of our own.

Have an awesome day!

"Watch out comic book shops! I'm comin' for you!" *As I shake my logbook at the building*

Ah, yes. This adventure has started at Packrat Comics in Hillard Ohio. Tyrus takes kungfu in Hillard and there is a comic shop only a yard or two away from his dojo! I was lucky enough one day, after the Franklin County Fair, to go with him to his class. Since I am not a student I got to sit with his mother for an hour (boring...). Well we got there early and had time to kill so we checked out Packrat Comics. What a neat place! I had never been there but Tyrus has many times. I shortly fell in love with this store when I saw all the Doctor Who merchandise. All bubbly and excited of this discovery, a thought popped into my head... "What if we made a letterbox for this place!?" Well that thought soon became reality. July 24th, 2012 we planted a letterbox at their store! They were very excited to receive the box!

Check out the clues here: http://www.atlasquest.com/boxes/clue/?gBoxId=202879

Now that we have done this box we are looking for more comic book shops to continue on this series!

On July 22 Tyrus and I went down to Lancaster to see "The Dark Knight Rises" at the drive-in theater. That was a little over an hour away, so if we are going an hour away we might as well go letterboxing!

We hiked around Shallenberger Nature Preserve looking for some boxes. It was a LONG hike! It was a mile long hike but we had to go up a large hill! The stamps were cool but the log books were wet. The boxes were made from large spice containers. Even with duct tape covering the wholes, it is possible that's how the water got in. Anyways, there were 7 boxes in the series but one was traped under a tree so it wasn't available. We tried looking for the box but yes, it was definitely trapped. The 6th box was all the way up on the top of Allen's Knob. That was a painful hike. Up this hill and down, but it was worth it. Mother Hen was really funny while we were letterboxing. We then went to Forest Rose Cemetery and it was scary! Not because it was a cemetery or anything, but the entire place was nothing but hills. Driving up and around the hills the hills was terrifying. we found only 2 of the 5 boxes we were looking for. We spent too much time looking for these boxes because we kept going the wrong way or pass the place we should be going. When we found the hiding place of one of the boxes we found two toads rather then the box! The toads made up for the lost box.

After the (tiring) letterboxing, we went to this awesome restaurant called Fiesta Tropicana. They had amazing food! I always judge the Hispanic restaurant by their cheese. They had good cheese! I got Pollo a la Crema and it was awesome! If ever in Lancaster, Ohio I recommend this place!

Well after all the letterboxing and the tacos it was time to see Batman. Great movie! Not going to spoil anything!

Tyrus and I planted a box a our local fair in hopes to "save" it. We herd that the fair might not come back next year if there wasn't a high attendance. So we made the box in hopes to draw in some letterboxers. Well about half a dozen boxers found our box! Our box was a limited time box, meaning the box is only out for a limited amount of time. It was at the fair ground from Saturday-Friday and no one went out to find it till Friday! Well I'm just happy people found it.

Any ways... The last letterboxer to find our box was my friend, who was also new to letterboxing! Tyrus and I helped Spirit Horse in finding our box! Since she was new we had to help her though the finding and the stamping. It was fun but while she was doing all the stamping I was sitting on a door mat in front of the church. Well... it rained earlier... and the mat was wet... Well my pants got all wet. It was awful! So we went over to one of the tents that had a huge fan that we stood in front of for about 30 minuets while my pants dried. After that fun adventure the three of us decided to see if we could run into some letterboxers. Well no one came so we went over to the petting zoo. They had goats, fawns, lemurs, parrots and stuff. We fed the fawn, which was cool but we spend a lot of our time by the goats. There were a dozen or so of goats and sheep of different breeds. There was one goat (one of the biggest there too) was being a bully to the other goats! It would push over the other goats, trample over the other goats to get fed, ram its head into the side of the other goats, and step in the little goats! It was awful! The first time it trampled one of the small goats Spirit Horse reached out and taped it on the butt and said "Bad goat!" It was funny but the goat just wouldn't stop! At one point the mean goat and one of the sheep rammed their heads into each other! After that they went their separate ways. Eventually the sheep came over to us and we discovered it was bleeding! We informed the owner and hopefully the sheep was taken care of. Also the sheep that was bleeding was being fed by this little girl. When she ran out of food the sheep snatched the cup and started eating it! We couldn't stop laughing and the little girl kept on running around telling her parents what happened and which one ate her cup. Her parents walked over to the goat and were quietly giggling as their daughter was freaking out about the sheep eating the cup.

After you have all your gear you will need some clues!

You can find clues on the following sites: www.leterboxing.org

www.atlasquest.com

 When you go to either site you may want to make an account. I like using atlasquest but I have an account on both sites. Having an account on either site allows you to record all the boxes you have found. It also lets you tell the owner how the box is doing and if the box needs any repairs. Finding clues on the sites aren't that hard. Once you find your area and the list of boxes close by, look through the list and pick the box(es) you want to find. When you have the clue printed, simply go to the location and follow the clues!

On atlasquest.com the owner of the box(es) have the option of saying if the area is dog friendly, bike friendly, urban setting, in need of a compas, how long of a walk it is, and so on. On letterboxing.org there isn't an option to do so, so the owner may only state whether or not you need a compass and nothing else.

To go letterboxing you'll need your gear.

You will need:

~A personal stamp

~A personal logbook

~An inkpad

~A compass

~A pen or pencil (or both)

And a bag to put it all in!

Your Personal Stamps

"Your personal stamp is what you use to 'stamp in' in the logbooks of letterboxes you find. It is a rubber stamp that is your signature in the letterboxing world. Creating a distinctive personal stamp that is 'you' in part of the art of letterboxing" (Letterboxing Companion by Randy Hall 6).

Now your stamp can be store bought or hand carved. It's all right if you have a store bought stamp, no one's going to judge. My first stamp was a store bought stamp. Now when you pick out your stamp make it personal. You want your trailname, or "username," to coincide with your stamp. For example, my stamp is of a cat face and my "username" is Catchow. You don't want to pick "Dog Lover" as your trailname and your stamp to be of a bird. What a lot of people do is stamp their stamp then write in their trailname under the stamp. Some people carve in their trail name with their stamp picture as well. I've also seen people who will prestamp their personal stamp and write their trail name onto a label sticker. Do whatever you'd like to do!

Your Personal Logbook

"Your Personal logbook is what you'll use to collect he images of stamps from the letterboxes you find, and to write notes about your adventures.  It is also where you'll show off all your finds at gatherings" (Letterboxing Companion by Randy Hall 7).

Now when picking your logbook you can buy or make your log book. You will want to have blank pages to stamp on. You can used lined pages but it's your choice on whether or not you want lines through your stamps. I was given a scrapbook for my birthday so that's what I use for my logbook. Scrapbooks are good log books. If you buy a scrapbook that allows you to add on pages they will save you the cost of having to buy more books and you can just keep filling it up! Blank journals or sketch book also make good log books as well. I've made logbooks before by taking note cards and wrapping the cover and back in duct tape. Then I whole punched the note cards can put a key chain ring in the wholes. There are lines on the back of the cards but you don't have to stamp on the back. There are many different ways to make logbooks and many different ones you can purchase. Just pick what you like and what feels comfortable to you.

The Inkpad

Some boxes might have stamps in it but you'll always want to bring one. You definitely want to have a stamp pad for your personal stamp. Bring stamp markers or different color stamp pads. You can stick with one color 24/7 but it may it boring looking. Also some stamps are made to have tons of different colors so it's handy to have different colors.

The Compass

Not all boxes require a compass but it is a good thing to always have one with you. Learn to use a compass. Trust me, you'll need it!

The Pen and Pencil

Always have a pen or pencil with you. You'll need it to write down the name of the box you found, the location and date. They are also handy when you need to write down notes while out hiking around.

A Bag

Completely optional, but I don't know anyone who carries all their letterboxing supplies in their arms the entire time. I use a sling bag that holds all my stuff and within the bag I have a box that holds my stamps, stamp pads, pens, and such. Pick a bag that suits you and is comfortable to carry while letterboxing out in the wilderness.

Well, I am Catchow. Well that's my trail name. Well, actually Catchow is my trail name when I'm letterboxing with my family. When my boyfriend is along, our trail name is "Couple's Creed."

I started letterboxing in 2006. I was in the fifth grade when I started. My teacher at the time actually introduced me to letterboxing! She so happens to be Mamma Huntin Dog! For my birthday that year my Aunt got me a scrapbook just for letterboxing. For my party, my friends went with me to Michael's Arts and Crafts store and they picked out little logbooks and stamps. I picked a cat face stamp because I liked cats and we had to get rid of our cats due to my baby brother being allergic to them. Where I came up with the trail name "Catchow," I have no idea! But "Catchow" stuck and also became usernames for various games and emails and what not. Anyways... I was born in December, so this is when we went letterboxing. If you have lived in Ohio, or at least stayed in Ohio for a decent amount of time, you would know what the weather will be like. One day it is 100*F outside and the next day there will be a high of 80*F. Or One day the alarms are going off because of tornadoes and the next day it is snowing! This is crazy bipolar Ohio weather for you! Well that day it was cold enough for winter coats so we all piled in the car and went out searching for boxes! It was a blast! Sadly I was the only one who continued letterboxing after that day. Since then my family and I have been letterboxing on and off throughout the years. We would mainly just letterbox when we were out of state and on vacation. This summer has been a letterboxing frenzy! All though almost all the letterboxing I have done this summer has been with my boyfriend, I have done a lot with my family.

My family trail name is "Niles Miles" we often put "NilesMiles.com" as the trail name so we don't have to write the trail name AND the blog site down twice. Our family stamp is of a train, hence "Miles." Our last name is "Niles" so put the two together and you get "Niles Miles!" My dad likes going letterboxing with us but he doesn't do too much all the time. He often time has his phone and/or ipad looking at the instruction (which my mom usually reads). He does go out trekking through the woods when none of can find the box or if it is up a hill or something like that to make sure we don't get hurt. Other than that he doesn't do too much. My mom is usually the clue reader (I have been doing the clue reading recently but it's probably a good thing that she does it instead. I tend to mess up a lot!) and she helps (or usually ends up doing) with the stamping of the family log book. My brother Dylan (who is 2 years younger than I am) usually holds the letterboxing bag because my parents don't want to, Gavin won't, and I have my camera most of the time. He also complains a lot and goes and finds the boxes. Gavin (who is 9 years younger than I am) finds the boxes and "helps" mom stamp the log book. He often complains and is very impatient. Oh, and Gavin also doesn't like getting dirty or digging through piles of leaves and sticks. He's such an odd child! There are many boxes we have found as a family that have been missing. It is a disappointment when we don't find boxes but those adventures can be quiet crazy! During Christmas break in 2006 we went down to Florida to visit my grandparents. We went to Myacka State park in search or letterboxes! We went searching for an alligator letterbox. We walked about a mile or so in the Florida heat, along a wide, dirt trail, lined with large power lines. Once we made it to the trail we were looking for, we walked until almost sun down looking for this box! It was very scary because not too far into the trail we found alligator beds! It was going to be dark soon and the gators would come, so we had to high tail it out of there! Keep in mind, we hadn't gone letterboxing too much at the time!

Over a year ago I became friends with a young man in my neighborhood. Over a month later we started dating and have been together ever since. Well I doubt you want to know the whole story on how we met and bla, bla, bla, and I bet you want to know why this is relevant to letterboxing. Well it is scary how much we are alike. One day, on the way to being dropped off at band practice, I asked him if he knew about letterboxing and what do you know! He had been letterboxing since 2006 as well! Well we decided to make our own stamp so when we go letterboxing we don't take forever in stamping the log book. So Catchow and Tyrus became Couple's Creed! We chose "Couple" meaning two, since there are two of us, and "Creed" from our love of the game Assassin's Creed. Since this year I am not doing marching band, I have had a pretty free summer. Well other than volunteering at the Columbus Zoo, working on 4-H projects, and doing AP home work I have had a free summer, but all that stuff doesn't take up too much time. Anyways... This summer I got to plant my first boxes! As of this post I have planted 12 Traditionals, 2 Hitchhikers, and 1 Traveler. All my stamps are drawn and hand carved. I do all the carving, all the packaging, and all the clue writing. Aidan just hides the boxes and help with the ideas.

So yeah. That's my story so far.

Howdy, folks! My name is Aidan Pencek and I am known as Tyrus in the letterboxing world!  Catchow and I together, are known as Couple's Creed!

I have been letterboxing since I was about 11 years old and really enjoy the adventure in walking through thick brush and thorns to add another stamp to my constantly growing collection. I chose my trailname by taking my middle name and changing it according to a different translation. My middle name is Thor and I changed it to the scandanavian translation as Tyrus. Catchow and I did not know that we letterboxed before we started going out and when we found out, we immediately started going on these great adventures together!

If you have any questions about who I am or what I am about, I will be happy to answer any questions. Here I will be blogging about my adventures letterboxing with Catchow as Couple's Creed. I hope you enjoy!

What is letterboxing? WHAT IS LETTERBOXING!? Well, let me tell you.

"The idea is pretty simple. Letterbox clues lead you to the secret location of a box that contains a stamp and logbook. You carry with you your personal stamp and personal logbook. When you figure out the clues and find the box, you stamp the box's logbook with your personal stamp, and stamp your personal logbook with the box's stamp"(The Letterboxer's Companion by Randy Hall viii).

Letterboxing is verry much like Geocashing ("Clues are given as GPS coordinates, and geocachers use the 'take an item, leave an item' system when finding a cache" [atlasquest.com/about/glossary].). It is fun and almost like a treasure hunt.

One can obtain the clues on the following websites:

www.Letterboxing.org

www.atlasquest.com