I've read so much about letterboxers worrying about their boxes being
discovered by accident, that it was with some trepidation that I
opened the following email today.

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Hi,

I stumbled across one of your caches on grizzly peak blvd the other
day and was curious about it and what kind of "game" it might be.
I might want to get involved. Could you please tell me about it?

Thanks,
Terry

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(The letterbox in question is my Fish Ranch, which is at the top of
the Berkeley Hills, overlooking all of Berkeley and Oakland, the Bay
Bridge, the San Francisco Bay, and the Golden Gate Bridge. I love
this letterbox, and am quite proud of the stamp. So, I wrote back)

Wow! How did you "stumble" on that? Were you falling down the
hill, or what?

What you found is a letterbox, which is the grandfather of geocaching.
Letterboxing goes back to Victorian England, and is very active in
the US, particularly in the Bay Area.

How it works is that you go out, armed with clues, a personal
rubberstamp (usually hand carved), an ink pad, and a logbook. When
you find the letterbox (as you did), you make an impression of the
stamp that you found in the hidden box in your personal logbook, and
you print your personal stamp in the hidden logbook. Then you replace
everything just the way you found it. Simple!

For example, this is the clue for the letterbox you found:

http://www.atlasquest.com/lboxes/clue/index.html?gBoxId=11980

Please drop me a note, and let me know that everything you found is
still intact in the hidden box. I'm very fond of my little fish ranch
girl and wouldn't want her to get lost!

Other letterboxes nearby can be found at:

http://www.atlasquest.com/lboxes/results.html?gTypeId=3;gCity=Berkeley,CA,US

Cheers!

Lisa

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(Not an hour later, this came in.)

I found it when I was trying to get a better look at a bashful lizard.
He ran into the hole and when I moved a piece of bark to look in I
found your little container. We left you a note and then put it back
like we found it.

We figured out the gist of the game and the stamps on our own. We
thought that the location might have something to do with the nice
view and wondered if other caches might be located where there are
nice views.

I'm going to go check out the website now, we may join the game.

Thanks,
Terry
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(To which I replied)

Letterboxers do try to share special places with strangers, so, yes,
you'll find other great views if you go hunting letterboxes. A good
one is Volcano by the letterboxer who calls herself Blackbird.

Anyone who sticks their hands into dark places chasing lizards is
already cool in
my book!

Thanks for the note!

Lisa
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Robb and I happened to be up in the hills that afternoon, hunting a
letterbox, so we took the opportunity to swing by Fish Ranch. Terry
had done a wonderful drawing of two intertwined fish, leaping over the
ocean, under the watchful eyes of a smiling sun. There was a very
nice note, and everything was perfectly hidden.

How delightful is that?

Lisascenic
http://howsrobb.blogspot.com/