What's your favorite distance to hike for a letterbox (round trip)?

3-4 km (round trip) means I get some exercise and get the dog out for a good walk too. But when the weather's not so great, or I have a limited amount of time, or my knees are acting up, I do appreciate the shorter walks. More than the length of the walk though, the best part of letterboxing is the stamp and then the location. Drive-bys can be wonderful especially when planted near something interesting. I'm not keen on long walks where I end up wondering "why here?", why not a kilometer back near the waterfall instead of under this log by the swamp (I havent' experienced this with letterboxing but I've had that experience with geocaches).

I agree with you, R. ~3km is long enough to be able to stretch your legs but not take up the entire afternoon.

Perhaps a better poll question would involve the longest hike you're willing to undertake. I like everything from drive-by up to about 2 miles RT. Beyond that SWMBO starts complaining, although the couple longer hikes we've undertaken have been great. Never gone on one longer than perhaps 5 miles, since we usually don't have enough time before sundown.

We really prefer longer hikes, but it depends on the location. 10 miles in a flat prairie isn't as interesting. Our favorites are 7-15 miles in mountains or near water. Of course we really like finding more than ONE letterbox on a longer hike. A nice series on a longer hike is great!