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Post by davemeister on Feb 18, 2008 6:17:43 GMT -9
I haven't really been into TB's that much...heck I'm pretty new to caching. However, when I have logged them, I take the trouble of looking at their history and the places they have been. More importantly, I look at where they want to go. I came into possession of 2-3 recently and took the trouble of finding their final destination. I then placed each one in a zip-lock and put the desired destination on the bag with a permanent marker. One travel bug made it all the way up here from lower 48 and wanted to go to Kodiak. Now I see a "newbie"...Im a newbie too....snagging it going to Chicago with it. What's the point? Do I let the person know? Do I not make it obvious where it wants to go and just let the TB travel "willy nilly"?
Thanks...Davemeister
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Post by tinman4x on Feb 18, 2008 8:05:59 GMT -9
Boy, there's so many ways this could go really. I'm not sure my views are in sync with the masses but here goes...
If a bug has been stagnant in a cache for months I wouldn't be afraid to move it along in hopes that residing in a cache with more traffic would benefit it's mission.
If the bug is clearly marked with an objective and hasn't been stagnant I'd say leave it alone unless you feel your moving it could improve the bugs situation.
Most of the bugs I've moved (probably only about a dozen so far) had a mission that was either listed on the bug or I had read about it prior to arriving at the cache and hoped it was still there.
I've had a couple that just didn't work out for me at all. I grabbed them and things changed on my end. I found that my only option was to either have someone else grab it that could benefit the bugs mission or drop it in a high traffic cache.
Right now I'm dragging a bug around that wanted to go to Washington state. I grabbed it because I have an upcoming trip but as luck would have it I'm now traveling through Chicago and on to Florida. Coming or going I will not be setting foot anywhere near Washington. Should I take to Chicago and hope that by taking it to the states it would somehow be closer? Probably not, I should either drop it again here or have someone grab it that knows they have a trip to Washington planned soon. I feel the bug has a better chance to make Washington via Alaska than to haul it so far East and hope it makes it back West. That being said is there anyone on the boards here heading to Washington soon?
The bottom line for me is: A travel bug on the loose is just that and the plight of said travelbug lies with each cacher it encounters. If I feel at the time that I can help it on it's mission I'll do what I can. If the bug wants to visit Antarctica I'd be inclined to leave it alone knowing that I will be nowhere near Antarctica anytime soon but even that is subject to interpretation. If the Antarctica bug had sat on a mountain top for a year I'd probably still bring it a little closer to civilization in hopes some other cacher could find it and move it south.
I wouldn't get too critical of other cachers moving items you've come in contact with. You never know what they have planned. They could have a trip or know someone in the area that will grab it and take it right back to it's destination. If you don't own the bug I'd real hesitant to be critical. It seems to me you did what you could with the Kodiak bug but the situation was out of your hands the instant you dropped the bug back into "public".
This thread will make for interesting reading for the both of us since we're both "newbs" I do know that there are literally years and years worth of threads on this subject available on numerous sites around the internet. I guess you should do what you feel is right at the time.
Tinman4x
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Post by ladybugkids on Feb 18, 2008 9:10:28 GMT -9
I pick up and move just about any travel bug and geocoin (traveler) I come across. Travel bugs and geocoins were meant to travel, so even if I move them only a few miles, they got to travel and the owner gets a log to know their traveler is alive and well rather than wondering if it's gotten lost along the way. If a traveler has a long distance goal I can help it with in the next couple of months, I will e-mail the traveler's owner to ask if they would like a quick release or for me to hold it until I travel. If a traveler is getting close to an Alaskan goal, I definitely try to nudge it in the right direction because just getting to Alaska is oftentimes challenging enough for a traveler. I feel for the travel bug owner who wanted the bug to go to Kodiak, sees the bug hit Alaska, and then head to the lower 48. On the other hand, my wife had a travel bug that wanted to go to New York that went from Washington, west to Hawaii, and then made a big hop to Maryland from which it quickly reached its goal. One of the fun thanks about travelers is the random way they move from place to place. A topic of a recent thread is the challenge of finding caches large enough in which to leave a TB. I reran my cache stats this morning through both GSAK and "Itsnotaboutthenumbers.com" and saw that only about one in three caches I have found is a "regular" and one in four caches I find is a "small," which means about half the caches I find could hold a traveler. I didn't run the numbers for caches found in the past year, but I suspect the percentage of regualar and small containers is even smaller today. So, if I have travelers with me that won't fit into a container in a really interesting place, I'll take the traveler's photo, log it in and out of the cache to record the location for the traveler, and keep traveling with the traveler. Travelers like to have their photos taken in new/unique locations, so photograph often and post frequently to make the traveler's day. For more information than you'd probably ever want to read about traveler etiquette, lost travelers, logging travelers, how to improve longevity odds for your travelers, etc., visit the Geocaching.com travel bug forum.
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powmia
Silver Cacher
Caches Found/Hidden xxxx/x
Posts: 208
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Post by powmia on Feb 18, 2008 15:22:53 GMT -9
I received a mesage from a finder of one of my AK Mosquito Racers. The finder asked what I wanted done with the bug. Since the race was over, I asked that it be placed in a cache in New York state where the finder was headed to. I stated that I might possibly be able to pick it up in NYS someplace when I passed through. The finder left it in Japan anyway. Even direct correspondence with a finder does not help at times.
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powmia
Silver Cacher
Caches Found/Hidden xxxx/x
Posts: 208
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Post by powmia on Feb 20, 2008 14:49:33 GMT -9
A cacher contacted me today (Feb 20 08) from Surrey England concerning my pow's Yellowstone Park GOcoin. AKbike&ski had placed it in Bengeo'en The Gasline on May 6 2006. That was the last log for the coin. I finally marked it as missing. The cacher stated it was found in a cache in England and wanted to log it as such.
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Post by Forum Admin on Feb 21, 2008 12:16:31 GMT -9
A cacher contacted me today (Feb 20 08) from Surrey England concerning my pow's Yellowstone Park GOcoin. AKbike&ski had placed it in Bengeo'en The Gasline on May 6 2006. That was the last log for the coin. I finally marked it as missing. The cacher stated it was found in a cache in England and wanted to log it as such. Incredible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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