Letterboxing Honor

Recreational Activities

Requirements

  1. Define the following:
    • Cache
    • Letterbox
    • Trail name
    • Personal logbook
    • Seal or stamp
    • Hitchhiker cache
    • Hybrid box
    • Bonus box
    • Trade

    Answer: 1) Cache: container (box or receptacle) hidden in a location, holding items to be found by seekers, usually with coordinates or clues. 2) Letterbox: hidden box containing a logbook and a stamp specific to the location, which participants find by following clues in order to stamp their personal logbook. 3) Trail name: name or nickname that the participant adopts to sign and identify themselves in the logbooks of the letterboxes they find. 4) Personal logbook: private notebook that each participant carries, in which they apply the stamps of the letterboxes found, recording the date and place of the discovery. 5) Stamp: personal stamp or mark (often handmade) that the participant uses to sign the logbooks of the boxes they find. 6) Hitchhiker: item or box that does not stay fixed in one place; it travels from one location to another, being carried by whoever finds it and left in another letterbox. 7) Hybrid box (hybrid): box that combines elements of letterboxing with geocaching, containing at the same time a stamp/logbook and items/log specific to both activities. 8) Bonus box: extra letterbox whose location is only revealed through clues hidden in one or more earlier boxes of the same series, serving as a reward for whoever completes the route. 9) Exchange (exchange/swap): the practice of trading small items or stamps among participants or left in the box, in which whoever takes something leaves something else in its place. — Letterboxing emerged in England in 1854 as a stamp-exchange hobby. Today there are more than 100,000 active letterboxes around the world, mapped on sites such as letterboxing.org.

  2. List at least five behaviors you should have while practicing letterboxing.

    Answer: 1) Respect nature, without damaging plants or disturbing animals; 2) Do not vandalize the letterbox you find; 3) Put it back exactly where it was, hidden; 4) Take your trash back with you; 5) Record honestly in the logbook with your trail name and stamp. — The motto of letterboxing is "Take only memories, leave only footprints." The global community keeps the hobby alive by respecting the environment.

  3. Demonstrate the following orienteering skills:
    • Convert a scale value to the actual value and calculate the number of steps needed to cover the distance (Pacing)
    • Using the compass
    • Finding the cardinal points without using a compass

    Answer: Pacing: measure how many of your steps equal 100 meters (usually 60-70 double paces), and use this to estimate distances. Compass: align the red arrow with North, turn the dial until the desired direction, and walk following the needle. — Pacing is an ancient military technique adapted for scouting. The compass always points to magnetic North, which differs from true North by a few degrees depending on the region (magnetic declination).

  4. Design, create, and carve your own personal stamp.

    Answer: You must present to the instructor a unique personal stamp designed and carved by yourself: draw a simple symbol (your initials, an animal, a natural symbol), transfer the design mirrored onto a piece of rubber (eraser) or linoleum, and carve it with a V-gouge knife, removing the areas that should not print, leaving the design in relief. — In letterboxing, the personal stamp is the "signature" of each hunter, left in the logbooks of every box they find. It is worth being unique — people avoid stamping ready-made bought stamps. The technique of carving rubber comes from Chinese woodblock printing (7th century) and was popularized in Renaissance Europe by Albrecht Dürer.

  5. With a unit, club, or family member, find the clues and then locate at least 10 letterboxes; if possible, at least four of them should be part of a series. Stamp your individual stamp in the visitor logbook and stamp your logbook with the cache's stamp. Record your find on the website.

    Answer: You must present to the instructor the record of searching for and locating at least 10 letterboxes (with at least 4 in a series), with each box's visitor logbook containing your personal stamp and your own logbook containing each stamp of the boxes found. Record each find on the sites letterboxing.org or atlasquest.com (or similar) with the box name and the date. — Letterboxing combines hiking (with clues), art (personal stamp), and a travel journal (logbook). A series of letterboxes takes the hunter along a themed route (five boxes hidden throughout the same park, for example). The hobby was born in England in 1854, in Dartmoor — the first box was hidden by James Perrott.