Yup, same event. You were my bright shining light across the table (hug)

Warrior Woman
(phew!)

My son and I drove from MN to Chicago to meet family, then on to a random rural town I chose west of Indianapolis. We found an abandoned farmstead that afforded us wide open views in 360°. It was spectacular! No crowds at all where we were, and we hazarded to drive back to Chicago later on Monday. We avoided interstates and ran into minimal slowdowns, thankfully.

I found out Tuesday morning that my college roommate, who lives in Pittsburgh, was about 20 miles east of me during the eclipse, in an Indy suburb. We only see each other about every 7 years - so bummed we didn't figure it out sooner!

If anyone is around in 2099, come on up to Minnesota on Sept 14. Path of totality will be about 10 miles from my house!🤣

-AG

No need to feel sorry. I was fine with a partial eclipse and the peace and quiet of my neighbor’s deck.

Carla and I were in Tow, Texas also, at a friends' lakefront cabin. It really seemed as if the variable cloudcover cleared just before totality and closed back in afterwards. I heard a rumor that the totality caused cooler air which clears out clouds but I am doubtful. As for planting a box, no, we were not near any public land and had other priorities that day.

oops....I meant to reply to zdz also. Hate it when that happens. :)

What you said.

Total...partial.....it was still a momentous occasion. The crowds, traffic and chaos would have made it a stressful day for me so I was happy to be on my neighbors deck with some wine. :) And some more wine.

Actually the next total eclipse is in 2026 ....

When: Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026
Where: Russia, Greenland, Iceland and Spain
Maximum duration of totality: 2 minutes, 18 seconds

There are actually eclipse chasers who travel all over for them.

We are retired so balancing obligations is much easier now :) But a high stress medical career and other constraints often resulted in past decisions which prohibited experiencing big events. My comment was not meant to be judgemental, but inspirational. Sometimes it's okay to break the rules and call in sick and keep the kids out of school for a day to experience a memory which you and the kids will cherish forever.

My grandparents used to watch July 4th fireworks on TV News instead of attending in person. They had no idea why anyone would deal with traffic to see the fireworks in person. My grandparents were very happy and very normal people.

How has letterboxing influenced your appreciation for nature and outdoor exploration?

I’ve always loved the outdoors, and remember building myself outdoor rooms in the woods behind our house using broken and fallen limbs and logs in my youth. Now as an adult, when I’m out letterboxing I tend to notice more of the natural “rooms.” Those neat hidey holes that a tree or groups of stones makes, the wall or floor of a ledge sticking up from the ground. The route of a stream and how the water has cut out the banks or edges. It’s a mystery to me how nature works; water, dirt, wood, plants, animals; and I love that don’t necessarily have to know the answer. But, I love to wonder how it all came to be.

Letterboxing (and that other hobby) has got me out in the wild and walking much more than I otherwise would. I am always looking for places to hide a box, whether or not I eventually do hide a box there. This causes me to notice other interesting things as well.

I’m a birder and am also interested in native plants, so when I’m out letterboxing, I’ll think to myself, ooh, this is great habitat for species_x. If it’s winter, I’ll go back in spring to see if the bird/plant actually appears in that area.

It works in reverse, too. I often am birding somewhere and end up planting a box there later.

It’s nice to have hobbies that complement each other. 😊

I used to be a homebody, 24/7, it was my comfort zone, & I was happy enough there. Then a friend introduced me to letterboxing and opened up a whole new world for me. Once I started & found my very first LB in a cemetery, I couldn’t stop. I loved the hidden stone wall & stone bench just a few steps from the road winding it’s way though various headstones. It’s just so peaceful & since then I have found myself roaming around quite a few historic cemeteries. I’ve scared myself half to death in a couple of them too, but it hasn’t stopped me from going. One of the things I get a kick out of LBing is when it brings me to a place I’ve driven by every day & didn’t know it was there, be it a trail, old cemetery,
beautiful ponds & streams, old structures. Seeing wildlife is always a pleasure, deer & swans are favorites.

I’ve always liked to hike and be outside, but letterboxing has made me pay attention more. That’s a cool knot in that tree, check out that dead stump, yikes…danger noodle!

While out letterboxing or just exploring the woods and greenbelts I constantly come across wood pole teepees and other forts and playhouses that kids have built. Some look fairly new, some look long abandoned. I can't help but wonder about the people who built them and what they are doing now. I've also "discovered" little hidden glens and clearings in the forests and thought about who else might have come this way and also found these places.

I have to say that letterboxing has gotten me outdoors much more. With my allergies, I have to be careful to not trigger asthma, but I definitely get out WAY more than I used to!
We have kids that live in 'destinations', so 18 hours west (Western Colorado) or 12 hours east (Virginia) ..... I definitely stop more on the drives and do trails we normally just drive past. And another child is in Chicago which NEEDS more letterboxes, so I hope to get more boxes planted there this summer! Goals : )
I am exploring the area parks where I live and many area Forest Preserves and kinda thinking about IF a park would be good for an event. I am tryng to attend events and observing what it entails...... Not sure I could do one alone though. We do not have big wooded areas like out East for sure! And, not many areas here for camping or RV's........

Shelly

Rather than just walking down a trail and maybe missing things around me, I notice more because I'm looking for landmarks that may be named in the clues.

And looking for things causes me to walk slower in places, or stop and look around. I know I'm noticing a lot more than I would be if I was just walking along....weird tree shapes, boulders off in the distance, colors, sounds.

I've always loved spending time outdoors enjoying God's creation. Letterboxing has brought me to so many new parks and nature areas that I never would have known about or visited otherwise.

I already appreciated nature and hiking before letterboxing, but it has given me a vehicle for bringing others to some of my favorite places, just as others have brought me to places I never knew about. In the process of placing boxes I have had to learn names of plants I didn't know before and which ones offer good hiding spots or are best left alone. It has also shown me that even the most mundane park can offer something of interest, even if it is just historical.

I dropped several in the mail this weekend. Tracking says you should have them this Friday or Saturday.

How do you typically write the clues for boxes you’ve planted? Are they step-by-step, cryptic or vague, do you use ciphers, photo clues, etc?

The majority of my clues are a like a set of directions. But every now and then I throw in a photo, a code or even just a couple of words that lead you to where you will find the box.

Directions, but sometimes I try to spice it up with pictures, or through a story, or whatnot.

I'm not very clever in that aspect and I hate when clues are too smart for me, so I never want a finder to feel dumb like I have on a few occasions where the clues were so far above my head I ended up giving up.

Not being able to figure out a clue doesn't mean you're dumb. Well, okay, maybe you are--I don't know--but that's definitely not how intelligence is measured. =)

The first box I ever looked for--I failed. I just couldn't make the clues work for me. It was a couple of weeks later I was sitting on the couch just thinking about the clue and poof! The answer just popped into my head. Went out and found the box the next weekend.

Another clue that was a riddle took me months to eventually figure out after spending hours and hours pondering it.

They never made me feel dumb, though. They were just difficult clues that I had trouble figuring out. There are other clues that I've never solved (and possibly never will), but that doesn't make me dumb. I just don't have the right knowledge base, or determination or whatever is needed to figure them out.

The ones that do have tricky clues that I eventually figured out, however.... priceless! The sense of accomplishment is enormous. =)

-- Ryan

It often depends on where I am planting. In high traffic urban locations where there are lots of eyeballs around, I tend to be very, very specific about where my box is to ensure fast retrieval with a minimum of poking around.

But I also have some hides where I really had fun with cryptic clues that are site specific. Yes, I've had some people not be able to find the box but I enjoy a challenging box and figure other people do too.

My first few were rhyming clues. Because of the nature of trying to make it rhyme, and meter, they were somewhat cryptic.

Since then I have given simple directions, even if I have sometimes given these directions in some sort of code.

All of the above! It depends on the location to some degree, but mostly on my mood when I list it. Sometimes I'm just not up for it. However there have been boxes that I planted in a specific location because of a cipher I wanted to use, or the location suggested a certain cipher. It's really fun when you're in the mood for it.

As far as finding boxes with coded/ciphered clues I can say that there have been a few that it literally took me years to crack. I'd noodle over it from time to time and in most cases I've eventually had that 'aha' moment. It's incredibly satisfying...but a couple of times I've felt like 'really?? It took me years to notice *that*??' 😆 You can never tell. I will say that I find stories with clues buried in them to be the hardest for me to follow. I usually get them but I find them less enjoyable than a cipher I can solve before I leave the house.

Likewise, my 'clues' are often directions especially if it is a series as I know ppl set aside a certain amount of time and want to finish the trail as much as find them all.

Occasionally, if I take ppl to a specific spot where something unusual is, I write something that takes thought to discover the fine. I realize the longer a person lingers, the more suspicious those that see them lurking will become. Sometimes ppl are reading a clue that makes them be observant to find the starting point.

I’m not good with the REALLY weird mystery clues. But I know some people are good at them and must get a great feeling of accomplishment when they figure it out and find the box. So good on them!

Mostly just directional clues. Nothing fancy.

I’ve used all of the above including movie quotes, song lyrics, different languages, obscure terms for common things. I’m not at all computer literate so I wouldn’t even know how to employ all the tools at my disposal so I mostly depend on old school tactics. One of my mystery box clues makes no sense until you cut and paste each line separately in a search engine, then the pattern appears.

Warrior Woman
plants all kinds

I looooove ciphers and codes! I even taught a class at LB events on them.

I did have a box with four (4) different ciphers.

HOWEVER, I am always willing to give guidance and even answers to my boxes with ciphers.

When you run across those clues that you have tried but stump you, try reaching out to the planter.

Sometimes, we are so tickled to teach you a new cipher, we'll help you solve it!

KuKu

Depends on the box. We have done regular directional clues, ciphers (super easy ones), and photos. We have also solved some super crazy clues.