Encouraging others to letterbox...?

It's like being the lone person in the crowd who has a fantastic secret to share...


On the AQ boards recently, I saw an interesting post, here... Really?  1500 listings within 30 miles of Douglas, Massachusetts??? Holy crow!

There are in the neighbourhood of 780 listings in all of Ontario as of today.  For any non-Americans, Ontario is much bigger than a radius of 30 miles in MA.  Quite a bit bigger.  So not only are there fewer boxes - around half as many to be exact, they're generally spread over a larger area.  So, what? Well, I'm jealous.

But what to do?  Since I can't spell that state name and have to look it up every time I type it, moving to Massachewsetts Massachusetts is out. Some of the allure of letterboxing is that it is a "secret" hobby and that there aren't too many who participate, so I can't exactly shout it to the world, either.

As I've mentioned before (I think), I have had thoughts and concerns about the critical mass for the hobby for Ontario letterboxers.  Thanks to the hard work and dedication of our fore-boxers, there are great areas in Ontario to live if you just discover letterboxing.  But, if you're new, I can only imagine having it pique your interest and then dismissing it if you live in an area with few or no boxes to be found.

Notice shelter - there are signs here. Do these have a real name?

So again, what is a Bumble with these types of concerns to do?  Should anything be done?  I suppose if you wanted to introduce people to the hobby, likely the most receptive to it would be avid outdoors people who are already hitting the trails... or letting craft geeks know, as it's a great excuse for printmaking and book making.

I've turned a couple people on to letterboxing that I know personally - mostly thru the craft geekery route.  But every time I hit a trail with a notice shelter - or whatever those things are called - I'm temped to post a big sign that says:

GET A CLUE; GO LETTERBOXING

www.atlastquest.com / www.letterboxing.org

Probably not a great idea - and certainly wouldn't do it on a trail where there are boxes by other boxers - in case of malicious muggling... but still...