To PLACE a letterbox hybrid, all you need is to place a cache that also has a stamp in it. It does not have to be a handmade stamp. In fact, even the artsy types are seldom|seen making a handmade stamp. They can be very simple, very inexpensive. You don’t even need to include an ink pad, just a stamp (and a log book, like you would for a regular geocache). It’s a good idea to write DON’T TAKE THE STAMP in huge flourescent letters.

You do not need to write clues or do anything other than have coordinates like you would for a regular cache. There is another thread on this topic somewhere here if you root around. You can come up with clues if you want, but the GPSr must still be “integral to the hunt.”

You do not need to publish your letterbox/hybrid on any other site than geocaching.com. You can if you want and there are two main letterboxing sites with overlapping listings (don’t ask): atlasquest.com and letterboxing.org

To FIND a letterbox hybrid…just go find it! You don’t need to stamp the log book unless you want to and have your own stamp. When we started letterboxing, we used a store bought stamp, but now we have our “signature” stamp that I carved, and that is also our avatar here.

Ok, T&B, did I miss anything? 😀

Just put out our first letterbox with lots of angst and many PMs with Birdin’, but that’s just me being super particular. You definitely need to put a stamp and a stamping book into the letterbox hybrid. An ink pad is optional, and Up Nort it might just freeze nine months out of the year, so just put a note in the cache page to bring your own ink.

You yourself do not need a stamp unless you want to find some letterboxes on your own and make those stamp impressions in your own book. You can buy a commercial stamp to put in if it is one that you feel reflects your cache (Ceezehead at the scrapbookin’ store 🙂 ), you can pay to have one made (check out places like printing companies, etc., who make all kinds of stamps), or you can attempt to make one by yourself, even if you are not artistic and have fat fingers.

Or you can give me the answers to all of your puzzle caches and I will make you a stamp!

But back on topic, you need to have GPS use in there somewhere, and not just for a parking spot. It can be for some starting location, and then you can give directions for the rest of the hunt (go 50 feet down the trail, take the right path at the Y, find the three-trunked tree, take ten paces east and look under a fallen limb, and so on). Or make it what you want. Or make the coords listed where the final is, but give some alternate directions for those who want to try it the “letterboxing” way.

And someone correct me if I am wrong, just make it a regular type cache with the coordinates for the final location, but put a stamp and a stamp book inside the container. People who hunt for and find a letterbox hybrid can treat it like a regular geocache find (but it goes down as a letterbox icon find), or they can do the whole letterboxing thing with the stamps, too.

Any type of container is fine as long as everything fits into it and things can stay dry and safe–like any other cache. You can even use white plastic round things and spray paint them camo. 😉

Birdin’? gottarun? Mrs. TE? Others?

Oops! While I was writing this narrative, I see gottarun jumped in there with some answers. Well, all of this should keep Cheezehead busy for awhile!

@zuma wrote:

Most letterboxes are just regular caches with a stamp in them, which does not make them very special.

I prefer letterboxes that require you to follow simple directions to the cache in order to find them.

I agree. This is also technically part of where the “hybrid” designation comes from becuase letterboxes (as published on a letterboxing site) are generally designed to be found by following a set of directions. Use coordinates to get people to a starting point for the directions and you should be good to go. (Just note that the GPS still needs to be “integral” to finding the starting point. If you give coordinates for a street corner and say “go to the corner of Fifth and Main streets, which is at these coordinates” you will probably run into problems.)

Again, you don’t have to, but a set of instructions (or other puzzle) makes them different. It also makes them particularly enjoyable for the kids. They really like reading the clues on the trail and looking for the next marker.

Here is the other thread I was thinking of:

http://wi-geocaching.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=8040&highlight=letterbox