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It’s superdorky, we know. But if you’re like us, you’re an adventurous superdork and nothing sounds more fun than racing all over the city in search of zero-value buried treasure.
Letterboxing 101 goes like this: Enthusiasts hide, plant or otherwise obscure waterproof containers (each outfitted with a logbook and stamp) and design scavenger hunts so that people can find them. Cryptic clues are posted online (letterboxing.org, atlasquest.com); seekers crack the code, unearth the box, stamp the logbook, use the box’s stamp to mark their own journal and then stick the booty back where they found it.
The sport is not without its challenges, and participants rarely talk about it (and not just ’cause it doesn’t help them get laid). One Upper East Sider who goes by the trail name SnapZ says, “I had a box hidden in a hollow log in Riverside Park. One day, I found a flashlight and scissors there. Drug dealer? Homeless person? I never found out.”
Ready to letterbox? Here are a few clue excerpts for seven boxes across four boroughs.
“Find the memorial and stand facing the spouting ram. Ascend the left staircase. Look left and down where granite meets metal, stone and cement. BYO ink—red would be best.”
“Come, all of you, who / Engaged by this clue / Disembark in the park / As a whim, on a lark. / Reaching a knoll with a wide-open view / Here sits a bench that sits waiting for you.”
“It lies near the end of Clark Street, at the end of the Promenade with the sundial, behind a stone wall, in the sprinkler system under the brush, on a muddy floor of dirt, under a green lid.”
“Enjoy looking at the moon with foods and sake on the boat, and reading haiku under the moonlight. I didn’t make haiku, but I carved a cute little bunny and hid it in Prospect Park.”
“Walk on a path past a giant letter y, a giant letter x and a giant letter w, all on your right. Directly after the w, take the steep, well-traveled dirt path until it comes to some steps. Go up! You are getting close.”
“You’ll be starting your journey on 164th Street at either entrance of Kissena Park. You must stay to the right of the lake, pass the flagpole, pass three light poles and three benches. See the tree with a ‘face’?”
“Your starting point is the Bronx Parkway Gate. Head into the zoo the only way you can. Keep going, don’t FLY off the trail. When you come to the fork in the road, PREY that you are following the path the CHILDREN would want to.…”
