The letterboxing was a huge hit with our Wolf Den! At
the end of the campout, when the boys were asked what
their favorite activities had been, the Wolves
unanimous response was "letterboxing"!

We had seven boys, so we divided them up into three
groups and sent them off into the wilds (okay, the
mildly wilds) with clues, a compass, a little notebook
for each, and an adult in tow. My daughter hung out
in a central location and I roamed the trails to help
the truly stymied, with the stipulation that if they
asked for help, we would ask them for something in
return, like a shoelace or a nose hair or something.
We didn't want to make it too easy to ask for help,
but we wanted to make sure they would find each box!

I was afraid that our clues would a) be too easy and
they would breeze through the boxes, or b) be too
difficult and they wouldn't enjoy it, or c) the adults
would get too involved and do most of the work,
despite our instructions to be there for safety
purposes only. The adults did a great job of staying
out of it, only stepping in when the kids got off in
left field, usually with the compass readings. No one
clue was too difficult, although each group had an
enormous amount of trouble with one clue, that one
clue being different for each group. I thought that
was REALLY interesting! It took them about 2 hours to
find all the boxes, which were hidden within a half
mile radius.

We did run into an unexpected problem which made me
glad we didn't try to find the two "real" boxes
permanently planted in the park. There was a large
family reunion going on in the park and also a group
of inner city kids that was camping with a couple of
adults. Although our boys were relatively discreet
about finding boxes (as discreet as you could hope 7
year olds could be), the inner city boys noticed them
roaming and searching and got very interested in what
they were doing. They tagged along behind one group,
so I filled them in on what they were doing - treasure
hunting for stickers. That satisfied them somewhat,
especially after they got a peek at a box and saw that
there really was just a little notebook and a bunch of
stickers in the box. The family reunion folks were
all over the place, so it was difficult at times to
pull the boxes out and thumbprint into them. The boys
didn't do so well with being patient while waiting for
the area to clear out, but the adults managed to sit
on them and make them wait.

I went out early and found Babybear's box, which was
fairly close to our campsite. I took it back to camp
with me to show them as I got ready to send them out,
so they would see what our activity was mimicking.
They were intrigued by the handcarved stamp and
totally enthralled when I showed them the book and how
my family had stamped in about a month ago (no one had
stamped in since, so we are still the only visitors!),
especially when I took my own stamp and book out of my
backpack and showed them where I had taken the box's
stamp and stamped in to my book as well. I was
surprised how psyched up seeing this real stuff! I
then sent them off in one direction and returned the
box to its home.

As to the conditions of the two boxes in the park -
Silver Eagle's Spanish Flag and BabyBear's Tejas -
both boxes were well-hidden and in great condition.
Dry inside despite some rains we've had since the last
time we visited them. My family is still the only
visitors to these boxes - hint, hint!

Well, I'm really glad we got out and did this with our
den. I look forward to hearing how it goes with your
group Deb, and anyone else who is thinking of giving
it a try with Cub Scouts!

Lucy




__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search
http://shopping.yahoo.com