Those of you who have known me for any length of time have likely heard about letterboxing. Letterboxing combines artistic ability with “treasure-hunting” in parks and forests that the whole family can enjoy. Participants seek out hidden letterboxes by following clues to their prize: a rubber stamp—often hand-carved—to stamp into one’s own personal logbook.

Me in my full letterboxing gear on a trip to Kananaskis Country in Alberta with Alex. Circa 2012.

We started letterboxing in 2007 – Alex was 7. It was a great family activity that got us out together exploring natural and culturally significant areas and finding treasures. There was a fairly significant (at the time) community of letterboxers around the Guelph/KW/Toronto/Kingston area and we even attended a couple of letterboxing ‘events’ where we got to meet some of them.

The lengths you have to go to, to retrieve some letterboxes!!

Then we moved west into a letterboxing ‘desert’. Alberta has very few resident letterboxers. While we lived in AB, I hid (planted) almost 50 boxes – many of them in libraries and most of the rest in Calgary where I worked. Then we moved to BC. I hid 18 around the Sorrento Centre (I removed all but 1 when I was let go), and still have 10 hidden in the Shuswap in the area where we used to live. And now… 17 left on Vancouver Island (we lived in Victoria for 1 year) and most recently 8 in southeastern BC.

This was my first ‘find’, behind a former one-room schoolhouse in upstate New York (while on my way to a camping conference in Pennsylvania).

I am planning more boxes to hide and would like to organize a ‘family workshop’ next spring to introduce local families to the hobby. (It would be nice to have a few local planters so that I would have some letterboxes to go and find. I have just reached the 250 finds level and I’m looking to add more to logbook. So, on Thanksgiving Monday, Mark and I took a drive up the Slocan Valley and checked out a number of local cemeteries to see what stories and images might be calling out to be told. It was the only sunny day of the weekend here and it was great to get out of the house and explore a bit. Almost all of the pictures are took are of images on headstones. But I did get this one which highlights the feel of the day.

If you’re interested in searching out any of my letterboxes – or looking to see if there are any in your area – go to www.atlasquest.com. That’s where all the clues are listed. My trailname is Water Lily. You can search by location or by any number of other criteria. Get your carving tools out, carve yourself a signature stamp, grab a logbook and a stamp pad and head out to see what local letterboxes might be waiting in a hidden park or on a trail near you.