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Thread: Question on Letterboxing Hybrids

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Maine
    Posts
    19

    Default Question on Letterboxing Hybrids

    My family has done a little letterboxing recently but I think we're more of the geocaching types.

    But, my kids really like the stamps in letterboxes and after a little research, I found that geocachers have Letterboxing Hybrids. Those caches have the usual trinkets and logbook along with a stamp inside the cache. That way people who have their own logbooks can stamp the hybrid's stamp in their book. My kids are all over this Hybrid idea.

    It appears that there are only a handful of Letterboxing Hybrids in Maine (up north) on the geocaching website and I was wondering if anyone was up for hiding some in the mid- to southern part of the state sometime? We're in the process of hiding 3 during the month of August in Cumberland county but were hoping some others might be interested in the idea too.

    My kids were hoping they could find a few Hybrids in the state that weren't ones they hid. [IMG]images/smilies/smile.gif[/IMG]

    Thanks,
    Wendy

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Unity, Maine
    Posts
    3,874

    Default

    My Multi in a Mile . . . and a Half (Unity) is designed to be a letterbox hybrid -- I just haven't got around to going to a letterbox site and putting in the info. I suppose I should do that at some point.
    "Courage is not the absence of fear, but the realization that there is something more important than fear."

    "Death is only one of many ways to die."

  3. #3

    Default

    Robotbunny : I was wondering if anyone was up for hiding some in the mid- to southern part of the state sometime? We're in the process of hiding 3 during the month of August in Cumberland county but were hoping some others might be interested in the idea too.

    When I get around to planting a cache, I will probably make it a hybrid. It actually surprises me not to see a lot more hybrids, as it appears that a good portion of LB'ers 'cache, and about the same rate of GC'ers 'box.

    For that matter, IM(NSH)O, most "micro" caches may as well just count as letterboxes, if not for the lack of a stamp. They don't have toys in them, you can't leave anything in them, you basically just sign on the enclosed paper and log it later. Toss in a 1cm^2 square stamp, and you have something far more LB-like than cache-like.

    My problem, and the reason I haven't planted a cache yet - lack of inspiration for a theme. I can pick just about anywhere and carve an appropriate stamp fitting the theme of the location, but to combine that with a toy-theme? Not so easy.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Maine
    Posts
    19

    Default Thanks

    I did a search on geocaching.com for Hybrids specifically but didn't think to look at multicaches. I'll have to do a little searching to see if other multis are hybrids. Thanks for the tip!

  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Maine
    Posts
    19

    Default

    Yes, theme ideas are a little tricky for us too with these hybrids in addition to choosing a fun place to bring cachers/boxers to. We've got an idea in the works (the multi I mentioned first) that the kids and a librarian at our library came up with together. It's pretty clever actually and designed for kids (well, the idea was from my kids in the first place). Now it's my turn to come up with something else and my thinking cap is on :-)

    As for the micros - it's the stamp part that my family likes. But yeah, there are some little stamps out there we could use in a micro. I'll have to put some thought into that idea too...

  6. #6

    Default

    Non-letterboxers sometime miss the point of having a stamp in the box and take it as a trade item. If you do plant a hybrid, make sure you have a simple carved stamp that can be redone easily, or make multiples in advance.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Auburn, Maine
    Posts
    318

    Default

    There seems to be no stash note custom among letterboxers. Anybody who happens on one would be confused as to why it's there and what they are supposed to do.
    ~*There's Tupperware in thum thar hills!*~

  8. #8

    Default

    Kacky : There seems to be no stash note custom among letterboxers.

    "Stash note" specifically, no. But Der Mad Stamper once upon a time wrote a sort of "statement of purpose" page that I always include with my boxes - I even have a lightly-modified version formatted for printing in multiples of 9 (3x3 double-sided on an 8.5x11 sheet). Most but not all boxes include something to that effect.

    The biggest problem I see with hybrids (aside from cachers considering the stamp as a trade item - Never even thought of that one, thanks cameoooooo, I'll make a point of clearly labelling the stamp as not for trade) involves travelling items such as hitchhikers/travellers (on the LB side) or bugs/coins (on the GC side). I can't exactly rank myself among the gods of each, such as WhereRWe or Wanda&Pete, but at over a hundred finds each, I thought I knew the ropes. Until I went to the Kayak Kache last weekend and discovered a whole new world of travelling item etiquette.

    I think the best solution there involves two approaches - For those placing travelling items, clearly label them as somehow special. For those visiting either type of box, if you find something not mass-manufactured yet bearing some type of serial number, you might want to think twice about taking it if you don't know what to do with it.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Maine
    Posts
    19

    Default

    Thanks for the thoughts about the hybrid. I had planned to attach our stamp to the lid of the box so it can't be removed - and include a note not to take it. I know the stamp could be seen as a possible trade item with geocachers. As for Letterboxing HHs, I planned to put a note in the cache (and on the cache and letterbox webpages) this box wasn't made for a TB or HH in hopes of avoiding that issue altogether.

    Of course, the best laid plans end up not working the way you want but one can hope :-) And I also realize that the box will require frequent maintenance visits to address issues as they come up.

    Thanks again for responding to my post.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Bangor, ME
    Posts
    3,968

    Default

    ya know... if you used an ammo can for the cache, you could permantley attach the ink pad to the underside of the lid of the can, so you flip the lid open, theres the pad, attached and not going anywhere, and still plenty of room for goodies.
    Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box.

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