Hi
I am new to letterboxing. I do geocaching and I thought this would be
fun to add to it. I have a question. There are some that give clues
but do not tell you how to get to the location. I have used map quest
but it tells you how to get to the town.
My question is after you get to the area how do you find the area the
letter box is in?
The example is: you are in a town and it tells you to go to a
cemetery. How do you get there with out map quest?
I have found two letterboxes at this time. I find it as much fun as
geocaching
Thank for your advice
New to Letterboxing and a question
4 messages in this thread |
Started on 2006-06-11
New to Letterboxing and a question
From: Debbie (derb522002@yahoo.com) |
Date: 2006-06-11 03:48:14 UTC
Re: [LbNA] New to Letterboxing and a question
From: Barefoot Lucy (barefootlucy@gmail.com) |
Date: 2006-06-11 12:28:04 UTC-05:00
Some boxes are deliberately elusive and require a little sleuth work or
research before you leave home. Obviously you are already doing a little of
that, but I used to be terrible about printing the clues and then not
looking at them until I got ready to go hunting. I think what finally
convinced me to begin reading clues ahead of time was when we went to
Oklahoma and went to look for a box that was behind some certain type of
tree. I had no idea what that type of tree looked like, but I could've
easily found out if I had even realized I needed to know before we left the
nearest town!
I bounce between three online map programs: http://maps.yahoo.com/beta and
http://maps.google.com and www.randmcnally.com . Quite often if you zoom
in closely enough one or all of them will show cemeteries and parks and
such. You may have to pan around a bit, but they will show up. If that
doesn't help, you can call the Chamber of Commerce or the local newspaper
and find out information. Or you can google cemeteries in such-and-such
town. If perhaps the town doesn't have a Chamber or a newspaper, I try to
think who would use the type of place I'm looking for and I'll call somebody
in that field (i.e. a cemetery might be frequented by a minister or a
funeral home, so I'll find churches and funeral homes in the area). I often
use "research" as my reason for asking, which is quite true. And often I
learn something interesting about the area too!
Here's a box of mine that has the type of clue you would have to research
ahead of time:
http://www.letterboxing.org/BoxView.php?boxnum=20445&boxname=Homestead_Hitchhiker_Hostel
--
Barefoot Lucy
"It's not about footwear, it's about philosophy"
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
research before you leave home. Obviously you are already doing a little of
that, but I used to be terrible about printing the clues and then not
looking at them until I got ready to go hunting. I think what finally
convinced me to begin reading clues ahead of time was when we went to
Oklahoma and went to look for a box that was behind some certain type of
tree. I had no idea what that type of tree looked like, but I could've
easily found out if I had even realized I needed to know before we left the
nearest town!
I bounce between three online map programs: http://maps.yahoo.com/beta and
http://maps.google.com and www.randmcnally.com . Quite often if you zoom
in closely enough one or all of them will show cemeteries and parks and
such. You may have to pan around a bit, but they will show up. If that
doesn't help, you can call the Chamber of Commerce or the local newspaper
and find out information. Or you can google cemeteries in such-and-such
town. If perhaps the town doesn't have a Chamber or a newspaper, I try to
think who would use the type of place I'm looking for and I'll call somebody
in that field (i.e. a cemetery might be frequented by a minister or a
funeral home, so I'll find churches and funeral homes in the area). I often
use "research" as my reason for asking, which is quite true. And often I
learn something interesting about the area too!
Here's a box of mine that has the type of clue you would have to research
ahead of time:
http://www.letterboxing.org/BoxView.php?boxnum=20445&boxname=Homestead_Hitchhiker_Hostel
--
Barefoot Lucy
"It's not about footwear, it's about philosophy"
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
RE: [LbNA] New to Letterboxing and a question
From: xxxx (PonyExpressMail@comcast.net) |
Date: 2006-06-11 13:37:29 UTC-05:00
That's part of the fun of letterboxing. Sometimes you don't get nice easy
directions or coordinates. :-)
If that's the style of clues that you prefer, then read thru the various
clues for your area's letterboxes and seek out the ones that give you
blow-by-blow directions to the exact, specific area. Many placers do write
very specific clues.
I don't prefer those types of boxes. Too easy.
I never ever rely on mapquest. Mapquest makes too many mistakes. I have
three different 5 and 6 county atlases for the Chicagoland area, not only
showing all the streets, but also all other types of landmarks -- schools,
churches, parks, cemeteries, etc. I have state maps, I use google.earth for
an often quite beautiful aerial view. If it's a cemetery I'm looking for, I
can quite often google the cemetery and come up with websites that will give
all sorts of information about that cemetery and many others as well.
There's even one website that lists coordinates for various U.S. cemeteries
that I would assume you could use with a GPS unit.
Cemeteries are usually quite easy. A great many of them will come up on
google. And a good many atlases will show cemeteries on their maps. And if
you use google.earth for aerial views, you can check the box to show
cemeteries and it'll often show them. Only downfall, IIRC, is that it's not
just cemeteries alone. I think google.earth has a box for something like
"churches and cemeteries" so you'll get the map crammed with all the
churches too, which can be considerable in some areas. I also have a books
that lists thousands and thousands of cemeteries in the country, if not
millions. :-)
If you're a AAA member, they also have some really nice detailed maps of
areas that they give out free to members.
There's also a software program called Microsft Streets & Trips. I don't
have a GPS unit, so I don't use that part of it, but it says that it has
"Advanced GPS features." Since getting it tho, I haven't used it all that
much. I've been much too busy playing with google.earth.
I do as much research as possible before even leaving home because I never
know what little tidbit I might learn that might be a big help once I get
out into the field. Next weekend I hope to have the clues to my two Judge
Judy boxes up and running and on my website. It won't be hard to find
N.I.U., but a boxer just might find that they need to have learned a little
about N.I.U. library history before they begin their search. Or they might
be a wee bit lost. :-)
We had one Thanksgiving box where Pippi just gave the name of the town and a
photo of a billboard. The clues began from the location of the billboard.
It was up to the boxer to find the billboard site. So they could either
google the company on the billboard and call them to try to find out where
they had put up a local billboard, or they could drive out to the area,
hoping to come across the billboard. It was a small town, so actually quite
a few people in town, if shown the photo of the billboard, would probably
have been able to tell them at just what intersection outside town it was
sitting. So some folks might just have asked around town.
If the clues take me to a forest preserve, I never rely on just the clues.
I google and try to bring up as many maps as I can of that preserve's trails
because if I have a question once I get out there, it can be too late. In
the northern IL area, Cook County forest preserve district and DuPage County
forest preserve districts generally have pretty detailed maps online. And
there's a nice publication called "Chicago Wilderness" or something like
that that often has articles and their own trail maps on a number of
preserves. Using google.earth to print out an aerial view of it can show
things that a map drawing might not. And trails.com is another nice site,
but you have to pay to be a member to get some of the features. Which I do,
because it's worth it to me.
Sometimes what I do might seem like overkill. But the extra work as paid off
well at times. A boxer can never have too many maps. :-)
~~ Mosey ~~
http://www.freewebs.com/moseyingalong
http://moseyingalong.blogger.com
-----Original Message-----
From: letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of Debbie
Sent: Saturday, June 10, 2006 10:48 PM
To: letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [LbNA] New to Letterboxing and a question
Hi
I am new to letterboxing. I do geocaching and I thought this would be
fun to add to it. I have a question. There are some that give clues
but do not tell you how to get to the location. I have used map quest
but it tells you how to get to the town.
My question is after you get to the area how do you find the area the
letter box is in?
The example is: you are in a town and it tells you to go to a
cemetery. How do you get there with out map quest?
I have found two letterboxes at this time. I find it as much fun as
geocaching
Thank for your advice
Yahoo! Groups Links
directions or coordinates. :-)
If that's the style of clues that you prefer, then read thru the various
clues for your area's letterboxes and seek out the ones that give you
blow-by-blow directions to the exact, specific area. Many placers do write
very specific clues.
I don't prefer those types of boxes. Too easy.
I never ever rely on mapquest. Mapquest makes too many mistakes. I have
three different 5 and 6 county atlases for the Chicagoland area, not only
showing all the streets, but also all other types of landmarks -- schools,
churches, parks, cemeteries, etc. I have state maps, I use google.earth for
an often quite beautiful aerial view. If it's a cemetery I'm looking for, I
can quite often google the cemetery and come up with websites that will give
all sorts of information about that cemetery and many others as well.
There's even one website that lists coordinates for various U.S. cemeteries
that I would assume you could use with a GPS unit.
Cemeteries are usually quite easy. A great many of them will come up on
google. And a good many atlases will show cemeteries on their maps. And if
you use google.earth for aerial views, you can check the box to show
cemeteries and it'll often show them. Only downfall, IIRC, is that it's not
just cemeteries alone. I think google.earth has a box for something like
"churches and cemeteries" so you'll get the map crammed with all the
churches too, which can be considerable in some areas. I also have a books
that lists thousands and thousands of cemeteries in the country, if not
millions. :-)
If you're a AAA member, they also have some really nice detailed maps of
areas that they give out free to members.
There's also a software program called Microsft Streets & Trips. I don't
have a GPS unit, so I don't use that part of it, but it says that it has
"Advanced GPS features." Since getting it tho, I haven't used it all that
much. I've been much too busy playing with google.earth.
I do as much research as possible before even leaving home because I never
know what little tidbit I might learn that might be a big help once I get
out into the field. Next weekend I hope to have the clues to my two Judge
Judy boxes up and running and on my website. It won't be hard to find
N.I.U., but a boxer just might find that they need to have learned a little
about N.I.U. library history before they begin their search. Or they might
be a wee bit lost. :-)
We had one Thanksgiving box where Pippi just gave the name of the town and a
photo of a billboard. The clues began from the location of the billboard.
It was up to the boxer to find the billboard site. So they could either
google the company on the billboard and call them to try to find out where
they had put up a local billboard, or they could drive out to the area,
hoping to come across the billboard. It was a small town, so actually quite
a few people in town, if shown the photo of the billboard, would probably
have been able to tell them at just what intersection outside town it was
sitting. So some folks might just have asked around town.
If the clues take me to a forest preserve, I never rely on just the clues.
I google and try to bring up as many maps as I can of that preserve's trails
because if I have a question once I get out there, it can be too late. In
the northern IL area, Cook County forest preserve district and DuPage County
forest preserve districts generally have pretty detailed maps online. And
there's a nice publication called "Chicago Wilderness" or something like
that that often has articles and their own trail maps on a number of
preserves. Using google.earth to print out an aerial view of it can show
things that a map drawing might not. And trails.com is another nice site,
but you have to pay to be a member to get some of the features. Which I do,
because it's worth it to me.
Sometimes what I do might seem like overkill. But the extra work as paid off
well at times. A boxer can never have too many maps. :-)
~~ Mosey ~~
http://www.freewebs.com/moseyingalong
http://moseyingalong.blogger.com
-----Original Message-----
From: letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of Debbie
Sent: Saturday, June 10, 2006 10:48 PM
To: letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [LbNA] New to Letterboxing and a question
Hi
I am new to letterboxing. I do geocaching and I thought this would be
fun to add to it. I have a question. There are some that give clues
but do not tell you how to get to the location. I have used map quest
but it tells you how to get to the town.
My question is after you get to the area how do you find the area the
letter box is in?
The example is: you are in a town and it tells you to go to a
cemetery. How do you get there with out map quest?
I have found two letterboxes at this time. I find it as much fun as
geocaching
Thank for your advice
Yahoo! Groups Links
Re: [LbNA] New to Letterboxing and a question
From: uneksia (uneksia@yahoo.com) |
Date: 2006-06-11 14:56:14 UTC-04:00
hi and welcome to letterboxing! you might want to join the newboxers group
at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/newboxers/
there you will find a friendly environment for answering any questions you
might have.
smile
uneksia
-------Original Message-------
From: Debbie
Date: 06/11/06 12:50:00
To: letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [LbNA] New to Letterboxing and a question
Hi
I am new to letterboxing. I do geocaching and I thought this would be
fun to add to it. I have a question. There are some that give clues
but do not tell you how to get to the location. I have used map quest
but it tells you how to get to the town.
My question is after you get to the area how do you find the area the
letter box is in?
The example is: you are in a town and it tells you to go to a
cemetery. How do you get there with out map quest?
I have found two letterboxes at this time. I find it as much fun as
geocaching
Thank for your advice
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/newboxers/
there you will find a friendly environment for answering any questions you
might have.
smile
uneksia
-------Original Message-------
From: Debbie
Date: 06/11/06 12:50:00
To: letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [LbNA] New to Letterboxing and a question
Hi
I am new to letterboxing. I do geocaching and I thought this would be
fun to add to it. I have a question. There are some that give clues
but do not tell you how to get to the location. I have used map quest
but it tells you how to get to the town.
My question is after you get to the area how do you find the area the
letter box is in?
The example is: you are in a town and it tells you to go to a
cemetery. How do you get there with out map quest?
I have found two letterboxes at this time. I find it as much fun as
geocaching
Thank for your advice
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]