All About Ryan

Have you ever wondered who this bizarre person is? Where did he come from? Why does he inflict bad jokes upon the world? This is a man who’s eaten bull testicles just to brag about it. What motives could this man have?

I began my letterboxing career at the age of 25. It was April 2001. I had received a free issue of Backpacker magazine. How could I refuse? And in it, I caught a small blurb about this strange hobby called letterboxing. It was a fascinating concept, and that weekend I ran off to the Columbia River Gorge to hunt down the beautiful Multnomah Falls letterbox. I failed.

But I don’t give up easily. I headed up the road a couple more miles to hunt down the Horsetail Falls letterbox, and this time I succeeded. I was officially hooked.

In the course of the next year, I hunted down nearly 200 letterboxes and planted about 80 others for the thrill of torturing the rest of the letterboxing community on long, arduous trails that only a psychopath could enjoy. A couple were planted in easy locations to give them a false sense of security, but they’d have to work if they wanted them all.

Did a grizzly really bite you in the butt while you were backpacking?

I have no idea where this story originated from, but it’s absolutely untrue!

Did you really kill a grizzly with your bare hands?

I don’t like to brag, so I refuse to answer this question. ;o)

Do you really have an autographed picture of Jack—the one of Jack In the Box fame?

Doesn’t everybody? We’ve been good friends for years. He’s the biggest goofball one could ever meet.

Carpe diem!

— Ryan