Bandit & Magna

I'm all for it. I've done a little bit on my dirt bike but I just bought a new KTM530. So I may plant a few around Oklahoma.

I am trying to figure out what bugs of mine still exist. Those that don't will be duplicated and sent with a friend to Switzerland when he does some geocaching there. We got bit a few times by the "one timers" that spend the day looting caches then never do it again and never move them on. Poor Mickey Mouse went to Texas and can't get back out to save his life - along with other bugs we had. Not much you can do about it. It's chance you take. Hoping mine do better in Europe... They can't do worse. Hoping they know what to do with them there. If nothing else they won't die in Texas. Collette bug finally surfaced after a long time. It just had not been logged in forever. No idea where it's been all this time. Just real glad to see her again.

MIA : Collette Bug Collette Bug I have a feeling she was kidnapped, but if you see her - please help her on her way. Thank you

Well, it is time for my first sad story. I ride a Honda Magna motorcycle so I wanted my first bug to reflect that. I searched and searched until I found a wonderful bike to make a bug out of. Collette Bug I made the worst beginner mistake there is - make a bug too good. She traveled over 500 miles before someone took her life. On a bright note, I bought two bikes that day so I have it's twin right here with me.... I don't think I will send it out. No use giving them a matching set. She hasn't been missing for very long - I will always hope they have a change of heart and let her go. But I have a feeling this one wont be back.

For the off road caches: For caching a little closer to the beaten path:

We have taken friends with us many times, we got our son into it and got him his own GPS for Christmas. As for what to tell mugglers? It depends on the muggler. If it is kids - probably not. But once there was a couple in the park and they asked what we were doing and we took them with us, let them sign the log book and all that. You really have to decide for yourself if they are interested or if they will destroy the cache. I look at it like this - the more people who know the better chance of participation. The more that participate the more caches that will be set. the more fun it will be for everyone. So why would we even want to be a secret society? Well, maybe it would be ok if we all had secret decoder rings or something like that....

We went to a TB Hotel, put a TB in and tooka a spoon TB out. I filled out the paperwork and He put everything back in the cache. We got home and started logging - OH crap - No spoon travel bug. I looked everywhere. i finally gave up and told him he must have put it back with the other stuff accidently. A couple weeks later it moved fromt he hotel. "Wheeeeew" What a relief. Even thought we knew that could be the answer, we were not sure until it moved. We were terrified we might have misplaced someones bug, or worse, dropped it on the ground for anything to kill it. At least this story had a happy ending.

I am just now reading this thread - after having released 5 TB's so far. My fastest traveling bug is called Bug Bug. It's a real bug in a plastic cube that used to be a keyring. It is a beetle, no kid wants it, it's small and easily fits into almost any cache. It has gone almost 3,000 miles so far and it's on the move again. I have found that bugs with a simple mission statement moves faster than one without. Mine just want to travel and meet people. Seems like anthing harder than that scares people. Keep your mission statement simple. no one wants to spend their entire day reading a novel when they can be geo caching. Right now all my bugs are doing ok. Cliff bug was in the original cache for over 6 months before it moved. It did not have a mission statement. I shortened the chain and used it on all of them. It really did not occur to me someone would want to steal my bug or change the look of it. But I also think if they really want to jack it up - they will no matter what you use. I chose things that would not appeal to little kids very much. Nothing very cute except a 4" tall Mickey Mouse (with a big hole drilled in it) This is my Go Big Blue - it has gone over 500 miles. And last but not least - my Collette Bug All pretty nice things - but not so nice someone would want to steal them.

I retreived a travel bug from Yonkers Jail. It is not a cache that is visited often. It had been wet inside for a long time. The TB was sent out by a middle school class in South Dakota. It was stained and rusty, it had a travel log that was moldy and some of the entries could no longer be read. I cleaned up the plastic guy, gave him a new chain and log book. The original mission statement was still fine and I left that alone. Then I put it in a plastic bag and sent it on it's way. I took the old log pages and ironed them out (Kill the mold and mildew) when i got them dry I put them in a scrap book along with pictures we took of it - before and after, and sent the kids the scrapbook. I had their permission to fix it up. The plastic bag thang - I started doing it because it seems like there are more and more caches that are not kept up very well. Kind of a self preservation thang.

My CLiff travel bug stayed in the first cache we placed it in for almost 6 months before the owner of the cache was moving and begged someone to move it. The weird thing was - people were visiting the cache and just not moving the bug. I know how the kids feel - I am the same way. i want them to move. You might concider doing a second TB - when one don't move they can watch the other one. My bugs with a laminated mission statement travel better than the ones that don't.

I am into the travel bug thang - but I learned a long time ago that just because it says a bug is there - don't make it so. Oh well. My first goal is finding the cache - the travel bugs are icing on the cake. So if a bug is not there I don't really think much about it since there are so many cachers in this area someone could have already picked it up before I got there. I like the cards that state the mission - so long as the mission statement is not 6 pages long. I want to be able to see at a glance if it is something I can help with. Some of those mission statements are novels. Totally not nessesary. A few of mine are traveling very well. I find the ones with the laminated card move faster than the naked ones. I keep the mission simple - see new places and meets new faces. It has a lot more freedom, more people can play the game and it is fun to see exactly where it goes. If you make it too complicated it will either sit in one place forever or go in the wrong direction.

When I make a travel bug I get two of everything. If one goes missing I can send out it's twin. But I think I would wait a while before doing that so I don't end up with two dancing around. I keep the tag numbers written down so I always have them if needed. So far so good - my bugs are still roaming free and I have not had to do that yet.

This past weekend was a geo cachers dream - everyone was out. A lot of the caches we visited said there was a travel bug and when we got there the bug was gone. Does that mean it is a dead bug? No, it means someone might have just beat us to it and had not logged it yet. I have picked up a bug, wrote down the numbers and placed it in another cache at the end of the day. Then went home and logged it. (I always log those caches first) Sometimes folks forget to log the bug in the travel bug section - happens all the time. Then it does not show up in the system until someone else picks it up and logs it back in. We have 5 travel bugs and we track them all the time TRACK BUGS(MINE) tab. Sometimes they end up in a cache and stay for a long time, sometimes they move fast. You just never know. So, if a bug is not where it is supposed to be - it really don't mean anything and no action is needed. If it is really dead - the owner already knows. At the same time it could show up again someday.

We had one 4 miles away and upwind so it didn't effect us at all. Luckily it didn't jump the highway or a housing addition would have gone byebye. We are consistantly having high winds and low humidity right now. It doesn't take much to get one going. Can't seem to get the smokers to use their ashtrays around here!

I have gotten several cemetary caches - the smilie was not even in my thoughts. I have not been to one in an active cemetary - I doubt I would do one like that. I don't know how I feel about night caching in a cemetary - I have a feeling it would appeal more to me if I were a teenager. We have a group in the area that finds old cemetaries and restores them. But there are many and they just don't have enough people to keep up with it all. I do think you can geo cache a cemetary and still have respect. I don't know if hiding one on a headstone or directly on the grave is such a great idea. Some of the caches I have visited were in very old cemetaries and i had to find a particular headstone. I end up reading a lot of them before I find the right one. I write down the information I need then I continue to read a lot more before I go. I have nothing but respect for the families that are there. With grass 3' high, I am sure those burried are happy anyone acknowleges their time on earth.

Sorry, I thought I just asked a simple question.

As well as places to ride. Like ORV parks and any other places that are cool to unload a dirtbike on. Not to mention good twistie roads for the canyon carvers. I went through the website and tried to think where I could post these. If you go to the vehicles forum where would you go. Covered wagons? Art cars or tractors?

As well as places to ride. Like ORV parks and any other places that are cool to unload a dirtbike on. Not to mention good twistie roads for the canyon carvers.

I just checked out the site myself and I hope it gets better. Right now about all we have is take your picture in front of every McDonalds in a 10 mile radius. I'm gonna get started seeing if I can post up some better POI's but I'm wondering about areas that already have Geocaches located at them. Are we gonna be double dipping on these or are we trying to stay away from them.

If you like unusual logs check this out: It

I went with the Palm Z22. $99 new pretty much everywhere. My son tells me Office Depot sells the different varieties of cases for them. I have not been there to check that out. Paperless is the only way to go - especially if you have a paid for account and can get the GPS file. It loads everything you see on the web page except for the pictures. CacheMate is an awesome program. Best $8 I ever spent.

So long as you move it along and don't keep it - I don't see a problem. But then I am into the travel bug thang and I like to see my stuff moving.

I think I understand what your looking for. I would look to the mapping software companies to get listed on their updates. For instance Mapsource updates, I think once every year or so. I've always wondered how they gather that info myself.

It's not that hard to find a location and search for nearby caches. Then you just contact some active cachers from the logs in that area to see if they want to join you. Just find a populated area along the axis of your half of the coordinate.

When I first started geocaching I did not like the multi's very much. Now I love them. I like the puzzle ones too. It's fun to figure these things out. Because we are not into the numbers aspect we have a lot more freedom to choose quality over quantity. We can simply pick a direction and go. Many times we will base our search around a multi. Once we know our starting point we get a list of everything around and we just do it all. I plan to set multi's. I don't care if only a very few visit the cache because it is those very few special cachers I am targeting for an adventure and fun.