With the help of a fellow cacher (Cache the Bayman), this is my first attempt at a Letterbox cache, I hope you enjoy it.
Letterboxing - a close relative to geocaching - has been around much longer than the GPS. The origin of letterboxing can be traced to Dartmoor, Devon, England in 1854. A well known Dartmoor guide, James Perrott, placed a bottle for visiting cards at Cranmere Pool on the northern moor in 1854. From this, hikers on the moors began to leave a letter or postcard inside a box along the trail (sometimes addressed to themselves, sometimes a friend or relative)—hence the name "letterboxing". The next person to discover the site would collect the postcards and post them.
The pic below shows how the original Cranmere Pool letterbox looked like up until 2014:
Inside the Letterbox was a container, stamp and instructions on what to do.
With current geocaching adopting the letterbox cache, there are now 2 methods to find this type of geocache, The “Letterboxer method and the Geocachers method. You choose which one (or both) will be your preferred method.
Method #1: The Letterboxer Method
Use the parking coordinates (Portugal Cove Road Parking) as your start point. Please use caution when entering of leaving you vehicle from here as the road can be busy at times. Option 2 for parking is much safer but then you will have to cross the road to get to this start point.
Face the tree line while standing next to the green road sign.
Directly in front of you will see an ATV trail that runs parallel to the road and turns into the woods in front of you.
Follow this trail until you reach the treeline.
At the tree line walk approximately 25 Adult paces (remember that being 6’4”, ScoutrP’s paces may be a bit longer than yours)
At approximately 25 paces you will see a fork in the trail. Here you will turn right. Continue on for approximately 220 paces.
As a reference for your paces and direction, at the 90 pace mark you will see an old discarded car seat just off the right side of the trail, there is also a stump approx. 7 feet tall topped with a witch’s broom here as well.
Continue on to your 220 paces, here you will see a small clearing off to your right side, there is a short stump about 3-4 feet tall and approx. 4 inches in diameter to mark where you will leave the trail to enter the clearing.
From the trail walk 15 paces to the clearing, then turn right and walk another 15 paces to the edge of the clearing, here you will find you prize hanging in an evergreen tree on your right side.
Method #2: The Geocahers Method
Since this is my ‘First” letterbox cache, you will have to solve the coordinates using a few “First’s” from some of my hides/finds and a couple fellow cacher’s hides/finds:
The cache is hidden at:
N 47 36.ABC W 052 45.DEF
Where:
A: ScoutrP’s very first FTF was “Cocoa’s Cache” GC2XJG5. This cache was hidden on 06/04/2011, the FTF was on 0A/05/2011
B: ScoutrP’s very first hide was “Woodbadge Deux” GC29VY2 located at Camp Nor Wes', site of the provincial Scouts Camp for NL. I placed it on 06/0X/2010. Where B=X+1
C: Cache the Bayman’s first Letterbox cache was “Stamp a Smile at CtB’s Letterbox” GC7126T. It was placed on C2/25/2017
D: hScouter’s first “Official” find was “Piglet’s Hit the Road Jack #1” GC2X4FM. This was on 11/22/2014. The cache itself was placed on 05/2D/2011
E: ScoutrP’s first Puzzle cache hide was “Akela’s Cache” GC5V5BD. Including Aklea’s cache, how many cache's are in this series? The total is E.
F: hScouter’s first hide was “A view of the Race” GC67ZWJ. ScoutrP was the FTF on the day it was published. 1X/09/201Y. Where: F=X+Y
Remember, geocachers, sign the logbook! (Do not take the stamp or stamp pad from the geocache; these are not geocaching trade items.)
Check your answer here:
Congratulations to Cache the Bayman on the FTF!!