Hooray! Yay for more SF letterboxes!! I haven't found many yet, but one day I'm going to try to hit as many of the ones in the city as I can! I've printed out the Nepenthe clues and am in the process of researching the answers :D

I'd love to plant tons of boxes, and I've discovered that I absolutely LOVE carving and have all of these ideas...but my problem is with finding good locations to hide them. Any suggestions on how to choose a good spot? I'm anxious to find my first "urban box" to see what kind of hiding places are used. I think my problem is that it seems to me like the boxes would be discovered so easily by people not looking for them, but I guess thats just me being paranoid. My husband was teasing me when we had our first letterboxing outing and I was worried that people were watching us...he said "haven't you ever done anything wrong before? The first thing you learn is that people don't care what you're doing, its just your paranoia." Needless to say, he was a juvenille delinquent in high school, and I was a perfect angel (almost, lol).

Sorry to ramble, but I'd really like some pointers/advice on the hiding spot thing if anyone has any. Maybe I just need to get out and find a few more boxes before I plant.

TAra



Here's Moonbird, the estranged friend of Sunbird, freshly planted
today (and Moonbird salutes Tara and her new SF letterbox)!

http://home.earthlink.net/~pgonyea/moonbird.htm

This letterbox has one of the very best spectacular panoramic views
of San Francisco. In fact, Sunbird & Moonbird can see each other.
They used to be friends and live together, but they said some things
to each other that should have been left unspoken.

Go visit both of them!





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The key is camouflage! (grin) Really. When you understand how to camouflage your boxes you can hide them in plain
sight. If they don't see it, then it doesn't exist. Since I've started using Warrior Womans examples, using Burlap
and all, my box loss rate has dropped significantly. Also, if you are thinking of Urban boxes, then think microboxes
and think in all planes, not just down. Take your time and think it through, it's better to take a week to find a
perfect hiding spot, in my not so humble opinion, than it is to drop a box on the ground to have it disappear the next
day.

----------------------------------------------------------------
Steve of Team Rayvenhaus
The World of Letterboxing Community
http://www.lbworld.org - Carpe Arcanum Arco
"A world of difference awaits you."
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-----Original Message-----
From: Tara Lowry
To: LbNCA@yahoogroups.com
Date: Mon, 7 Jun 2004 14:15:33 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [LbNCA] Re: Moonbird Letterbox

>
> Hooray! Yay for more SF letterboxes!! I haven't found many yet, but one day I'm going to try to hit as many of the
> ones in the city as I can! I've printed out the Nepenthe clues and am in the process of researching the answers :D

> Any suggestions on how to choose a good spot?

The best way to choose a good spot is experience. Both in finding
and placing letterboxes. Finding other boxes is great to see how
others have hidden them, and learning which ones go missing is very
educational for what NOT to do! As is learning which ones last years
and years is good for learning what one should do!

Urban boxes are particularly difficult to hide since, as you pointed
out, they're much more likely to be discovered by accident.
Pedestrians, cleaners, or somebody is eventually bound to discover
them. And heaven forbid if they think it's a bomb or something!
Letterboxes have been blown up by the bomb squad before! (Keep this
in mind when hiding urban boxes in particular. Nobody thinks a
plastic container is a bomb when it's hidden in a tree miles from the
nearest road, but next to a bridge or building, it's the first thing
that leaps into many people's minds.)

While some urban boxes seem to live surprisingly long lives, if you
hide one, keep in mind that they tend to go missing FAR more often
than non-urban boxes. Even the best-hid urban boxes rarely last
longer than a poorly hid rural box, so if you feel emotionally
attached to a particular box and want to see it live a long and happy
life, I'd suggest not making it an urban box. Urban boxes should be
more-or-less disposable.

The one common suggestion for an urban box is that small is good.
Outside of that, there's all sorts of creative ways for hiding them.
Some use magnets. Some use camoflauge. Some are partly 'buried'.
(Not like you have to dig holes to find it kind of buried, which is
frowned upon.) Depends on the location, mostly.

Good luck! =)

-- Ryan

>My husband was teasing me when we had our first letterboxing outing
>and I was worried that people were watching us...he said "haven't
>you ever done anything wrong before? The first thing you learn is
>that people don't care what you're doing, its just your paranoia.

Certainly I can be accused of being overly optimistic (such as
reaching for letterboxes into dark recesses in the dead of night
without gloves), but I have the belief that nobody pays much
attention to what other folks are doing in public. I've personally
sat for 45 minutes on a busy pier staring at a historical plaque
decoding letterbox clues without a thought to what passerby were
thinking; and you know, no one paid any attention to me, never
questioned me, they just walked past involved with their own
business. It was the same this last weekend as I sat on the curb of
Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood outside The Viper Room--my rainbow ink
pad and buzzard stamp in full view--while I stamped into my
stampbook. No one gave me a second look. (I was, however, more
discreet when locating and re-hiding the letterbox.)
--Buzzard

> but I have the belief that nobody pays much
> attention to what other folks are doing in public.

It's actually freaking amazing what you can get away with when you
act like you're supposed to be doing whatever it is you're doing.
It's when you start 'acting suspicious' that people notice you. If I
see someone trying to unlock a car door with a coat hanger in a very
public place, I tend to assume it's because he locked his keys in the
door--not breaking in which might be exactly what he's doing!

But if he's doing that while trying to hide behind a car--
acting 'suspiciously'--I'd probably turn in him.

If you act like you belong somewhere, people will assume you DO
belong there. I try to be discreet while actually pulling or
replacing a letterbox, but I usually don't care if the whole world
sees me stamping in. You'll look far more suspicious if someone
catches you suddenly hiding your stamping materials than if you just
let them walk by. It's hilarious, really.

Remember, the best con men don't actually look or act like con men.
That's what makes them so good! ;o)

-- Ryan

While most people will ignore you, it is still important to be
discreet, especially when rehiding the box. Amanda uses a trick where
she drops something and then pretends to be retrieving it. Also, if
anyone catches you and asks you what you're doing, you can always say
you're on a scavenger hunt - that seems to dispel most suspicions.
However, I would not recommend using this line on rangers or policemen!

-- Princess Lea

On Jun 7, 2004, at 10:53 PM, rscarpen wrote:

> If you act like you belong somewhere, people will assume you DO
> belong there. I try to be discreet while actually pulling or
> replacing a letterbox, but I usually don't care if the whole world
> sees me stamping in. You'll look far more suspicious if someone
> catches you suddenly hiding your stamping materials than if you just
> let them walk by. It's hilarious, really.