Well I just popped into the SoCal list here in the KOA, Idaho Falls, Idaho while we are on a letterboxing/shooting junket. Since this Newbie/Time topic has come up I thought that I would give my perspective. We were contacted by the Time writer, but we chose not to respond. Not only do I think that the game is better served by word of mouth, I have a great distrust of most news folks as they will always follow THEIR agenda. When we started letterboxing there was only 14 letterboxes in the state, and we tried to generate other letterboxers by either word of mouth or with some articles in the neighborhood papers. I noticed that everytime that an article was printed, either in neighborhood papers or even in the Orange Co Register we would lose letterboxes. After the Time article I think we have 8 confirmed missing and clue pages pulled or edited, and another 5 that may have a problem? Publicity for this game can be detrimental to the viability of the planted letterboxes. That is just the way it is. For those that only "Find" the missing letterbox is an inconvenience. For those that "Plant" the missing letterbox is more than that, and a little part of you is gone. We have always attempted to replant one time when a box goes missing, and it usually gets a better stamp than on the first plant, but if the box goes missing again it doesn't get replaced. Examples would be "El Dorado's -Train,At Bat, Wm Tells Target",and currently "Seal Beach's 101". Do we need publicity? probably not, but since there is no way to stop it, try and replace your loss with better stamps and when you plant remember that some of the finders aren't as slick as they should be.
We just checked on one of our letterboxes here in Idaho Falls- "Early Hunters". Last year we planted it across the two lane highway from a lava tube(cave) about 16 miles outside of Idaho Falls. Other letterboxers (2) planted their letterboxes inside the very long lava tube. Now we thought about it at the time, but figured that some one would discover boxes inside the cave, and we were right. Upon entering the cave a few days ago we found various letterboxing paraphernalia, boxes, baggies, and letterboxing notices scattered about, and only one box had survived inside the cave. Now hiding a box inside the cave is really cool(pun intended), but just getting folks to the site is what we like to do. I can't imagine anyone stumbling upon our letterbox in the other direction , the location isn't as neat, but the box should last and finders can still go into the cave.

. No Buzzard we are delighted that someone has moved into Seal Beach. I think we were able to get some of the best spots first. I haven't had the opportunity to check out the clue sheet yet, and I'm for more plants. Well as long as they aren't Geocachers that grab your sites.

Popping back out, helping to plant Idaho seeds.
Don

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