Is there a procol for removing decaying boxes?

General letterboxing discussion.

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Dartmoor Dumpling
Drifter
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Is there a procol for removing decaying boxes?

Post by Dartmoor Dumpling »

After a 20+ year break I'm back letterboxing with my children only to find a proliferation of boxes in easy to access areas that are in various states of decay - cracked boxes, mushy paper, no or broken stamps, not particularly hidden, some could be geocaches. They don't match any clues we have so unlikely to be 'official' and were possibly put out for children but forgotten about. Is there any general agreement on what is acceptable with regards to removal? It's a real shame as after our first letterboxing trip to Laughter Tor my two were really excited but since then we've gone to more popular areas and they find lots but it's a bit disappointing for them as there's usually nothing salvageable inside.
Dartymoor
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Re: Is there a procol for removing decaying boxes?

Post by Dartymoor »

Geocaches will be on the geocaching map if they're active - I'm happy to check any grid reference or coordinates if anyone's in doubt if there's one there. They're also rarely closer than 0.1miles apart. They should also be marked as 'Geocache' or have a card inside, and will always have a logbook or roll. (The phone app and website are free to use, but some are listed by their owners as 'Premium' and don't show up unless you have a full account. I do and can check for you)

Most of the things you describe on the moor are what I would call '"Kids boxes" - letterboxes put out by families, with little mass produced foam stamps. Often in a chinese food container which is not waterproof, and generally around the honeypot tors close to the road. I was up at Saddle tor last week and from standing in one place, I could see half a dozen of them.

Protocol - I think most moor lovers would agree that once they have become rubbish (broken, soaking contents, or risk to animals, etc - you know when it is), it is courteous to remove them from the moor. If there's contact details legible, it might be nice to drop them a line and offer the owner a chance to pick up the container from you or somewhere you put it for them if they want it, but generally these boxes never get maintained or even collected. I've removed quite a few over the years.

Hope you and your kids are not too disappointed by them, and aren't put off.
Dartmoor Dumpling
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Re: Is there a procol for removing decaying boxes?

Post by Dartmoor Dumpling »

Thank you - makes sense, but thought it best to check. Most geocaches we've come across have been well labelled and dry/dryish. Not put off at all - they've seen my enormous box of stamps I collected when I was a child/teenager so know there's some really nice ones out there and they enjoy hunting for things and learning about the moor.
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