Finally found my first box completely by accident while looking for something else entirely

[u/gorge_207]

Was out walking a trail I've done maybe thirty times, just getting some air after a rough week at work, and I wasn't even thinking about letterboxing that day. No clue sheet in my pocket, no GPS coordinates pulled up, nothing. Just stopped to sit on a rock near a little creek bend and noticed a weird gap behind some roots that didn't look natural.

Pulled out an old ammo box, rusted at the hinges but the contents were bone dry inside a ziplock. Logbook, a carved stamp of a heron, and a tiny pencil stub someone had clearly been using for years based on how worn down it was. I had no stamp or ink pad on me since I wasn't planning for this, so I signed in with the stub and left a note in the logbook saying I'd come back properly next time.

What got me was flipping through the earlier entries. Some went back almost a decade, different handwriting every few pages, little drawings and inside jokes between people who clearly knew each other from finding the same boxes over the years. Felt like stumbling into a conversation that's been going on way longer than I realized.

Went home and immediately ordered a cheap stamp and a travel ink pad so I'm not caught flat footed like that again. Also started actually looking up clues for boxes near me instead of just hoping to stumble on them, though honestly part of me wants to keep doing both. The planned hunts feel more like a puzzle, the accidental find felt more like luck, and I think I want a mix of both going forward.

Anyone else have a first find that happened completely by chance before you even really knew the hobby existed, or was I just unusually lucky?

[u/Standard_Mongoose_35]

You’re very lucky! Many muggles have found a box (or geocache) by accident, so it’s way cool that you’re interested in the hobby (and not tossing the box as trash). 😊🗺️

[u/carouselrabbit]

Finding boxes by chance (or by knowing a likely sort of place to look) is the main way letterboxing is done on Dartmoor (England), where it originates. So, in a way this is the true letterboxing experience!

I discovered the hobby differently, but in a way it was also an accidental find. About 20 years ago, I had developed an obsession with reading about all the landmarks on Route 66 and fantasizing doing a drive on it (which I still never have). One time I was Googling "Catoosa Blue Whale" which is a well-known 66 landmark, and it turned up a page that intrigued me. It was a bunch of text talking about starting from a parking area near the Whale and taking a certain number of steps in a certain direction to find "the box" hidden somewhere. I had never heard of letterboxing or geocaching, but I understood that this was a clue for finding something hidden, and that really captured my imagination. The idea that hidden messages of some sort were being exchanged right under people's noses and that anyone who knew were to look could be part of the secret... that hooked me. I backed up from the page that my search had landed me on and found Letterboxing North America (LbNA) and I immediately decided I was getting in on this. I think I carved my first stamp within a week, and I still vividly remember finding my first box.

I don't think either of the main letterboxing sites allow people who aren't logged in to search for clues anymore, and they surely exclude web crawlers now too, so this wouldn't be able to happen now. I understand why, but it's also kind of a shame. If I hadn't been searching for the Blue Whale and accidentally hit on a letterbox clue instead, I might never have found this hobby.

[u/Vegetable_Athlete924]

If you are in the PNW, we have a club, happy to send invite!