March 16, 2011 4:25 p.m.

Today our homeschool group did this activity for the first time – Letterboxing.  I’d say everybody in our group had never done this before.  It was a beautiful day, sunny and around 80 degrees, and a perfect setting to search for letterboxes.

There were two such boxes in this county park we visited, and we broke into four groups to accomplish the task.

For those unfamiliar with the idea, letterboxing is like geocaching or orienteering, except without the compass and the technology.  Instead of using a GPS device, you follow the clues provided to find a letterbox.  Then you stamp the book inside the letterbox and write in the date and your trail name.  Similarly, you use the letterbox stamp to stamp your own notebook that you keep just for this activity.   You can note the date and the location in your notebook as a remembrance of the day.  This is a neat activity to do as a family, especially when you are on vacation.  The location of a letterbox near you,  and the clues to find it, can be found at this website and this one.

Here are some of the highlights:

Receiving instructions before beginning.

Starting down a trail after the first letterbox.

Can you see where the first letterbox is hidden in this photo?

Retrieving the first letterbox.

Everybody stamp the book!

At another part of the park, finding the second letterbox.

Stamping away.

A final group photo.

If you are interested in trying letterboxing, or want to find where a letterbox is hidden near you, investigate these two websites:  www.letterboxing.org  and www.atlasquest.com . 

It may just become our newest free hobby!