Kids Letterboxing or Geocaching- The New Treasure Hunting

by Bob

(Indiana)

I have a 10-year-old son who loves to go “treasure hunting” — letterboxing or geocaching.

Letterboxing is clue-based, generally giving the hunters several steps to follow to find the letterbox, which includes a themed rubber stamp related to the location of the hide (finders stamp the log book with their own stamp to show they’ve found the letterbox and use the themed stamp found in the letterbox to stamp a personal log book, as well).

Many letterboxes can be found in parks, nature preserves and other public green areas. Geocaching uses a hand-held GPS and the “treasures” are found by locating the latitude and longitude, rather than following clues. Geocachers trade trinkets, rather than do the rubber stamping.

My son grabs a Hot Wheels out of every cache, if one is among the “treasures.”