Dipping Travel Bugs

January 8, 2006

Just wondering when you find aBug that say wants to visit all the Caches in your Hood Do you Dip it in all the Caches you visit until you Place it Including Micros

Thanks from a newbie

January 8, 2006

Whew! For a minute there, I had visions of...

Never mind.

Logging a TB in and immediately back out of a cache is fairly common practice. Usually, it's done mostly to add to the TB's "mileage" numbers. But that's also a bit pointless if the caches are near each other.

Personally, I only do this when I'm launching a new TB. I'll log it into/out of a cache that's quite near my home. That way, the bug's mileage is a bit more meaningful. (I launched my first one almost 175 miles from home, and have been kicking myself for it ever since.)

January 8, 2006

I guess if it were my TB I wouldn't have a problem with you doing that, although I'm a relative newbie myself and little more tolerant than some of the "experts." I guess if you had the chance, you could email the owner and ask.

I'd think the most important thing would be to keep it moving...

January 8, 2006

Just be careful to get it right. My TBs' number got shared around at an event and it was a huge mess with people logging it in and out or even "not out" then it got lost for a while then it got physically placed in a cache then it mysteriously showed up somewhere else etc. I think the little guy is back on track but I do know that it caused some hard feelings between the local cachers that got it all mixed up (as seen by the logs.)

3.2k · January 8, 2006

I'll never understand logging a bug "into" a cache that it never actually goes "into". I only log bugs into a cache if I actuall LEAVE the bug there physically. I don't log them into and right back out of a cache nor do I log them into caches I've never visited. It boggles my mind that people do this.

The only time I would consider logging a bug into a cache and then right back out is if I was going on a trip somewhere and starting a new bug and wanted it to show as starting from my home town. In that case I could understand logging a bug into a cache at home, logging it right back out, and then leaving on my trip and dropping the bug elsewhere.

I haven't actually done that though. When I went on a trip I dropped some bugs elsewhere but where I dropped them was their starting point. I didn't log them in and out here at home first. I kind of wish I had done that so they would show as starting here where I live since I am the owner of the bugs.

1.5k · January 8, 2006

I'll never understand logging a bug "into" a cache that it never actually goes "into". I only log bugs into a cache if I actuall LEAVE the bug there physically. I don't log them into and right back out of a cache nor do I log them into caches I've never visited. It boggles my mind that people do this.

I think people do this with "special" travel bugs like Jeeps because it tends to make it appear as though they've had the bug for a shorter period of time. And, the web site won't nag you after 2 weeks if you practice dipping, bcause you're always refreshing the 2 week counter. Personally, I don't screw around like this either, but I think that's why some people do. (others just blatantly hoard popular bugs and make no secret of it)

Edited January 8, 2006 by DocDiTTo

1.8k · January 8, 2006

Some people dip TBs so they can increase the mileage on the the TB. The mileage is shown on the TBs webpage.

1.1k · January 8, 2006

I'll dip a TB if it has a goal to visit as many caches as possible, otherwise I'll drop it off and leave it.

22k · January 8, 2006

Just wondering when you find aBug that say wants to visit all the Caches in your Hood Do you Dip it in all the Caches you visit until you Place it Including Micros
Thanks from a newbie

Yes, absolutely. Even if it isn't the exact goal.

The thing is I will always have the bug actually at the cache before even considering logging it through. Or dipping it as you call it.

If the bug was at the cache, dip away.

January 8, 2006

Dippin is like double dipping a snack item. I am not keen on the idea. If I pick up a bug I drop it off at another location and walk away. Some cachers do a similar thing with geocoins at event caches. If I can take it with me I wont log it. It would give false numbers to my TB list.

Now that's the way I see it. Everyone has an individual way of playing. And that is what makes this game/hobbie so cool. To each his own.

HolyCowboys

1.6k · January 8, 2006

FYI: You can even "dip" TB's in a virtual cache. Strange, but true. We have done it several times with TB's that have a goal of visting Disneyland, since we have virtuals there, and are there several times a week. We will take lots of neat pictures at Disneyland, post them on the TB page, dip the TB at Disneyland in one of our virtuals, then drop it off somewhere in our area. We have been thanked for the fun pics by more than one TB owner. I see no harm done.

Goofy on Vacation is a good example.

22k · January 8, 2006

It would give false numbers to my TB list.

You don't get an extra count for retrieving the same bug, regardless of how many times you drop it.

However the OP is talking about logging a bug through a cache without leaving it, not logging a bug they saw but never moved.

edit: can't type

Edited January 8, 2006 by BlueDeuce

5.6k · January 8, 2006

I've dipped a few bugs. But mostly on trips where I'm moving a bug to/towards a goal. Or to show the movement towards a special cache (I carried a number of bugs on my trip to Mingo last year - a number did stay there, but others that were headed to other parts of the trip just stopped by for a visit). I've had TB owners thank me for the tour the bug got.

2.6k · January 8, 2006

I don't do it often, but there are conditions under which I will. Starting a new bug before I take it on a big hop is one. Another is if I can't help the bug on its mission, but it hasn't moved in a while, I'll leave it but log it to "phone home."

Twice recently, I've logged a bug in and out of the same cache because I couldn't help it on its mission, but it was so cool I wanted it on my list. As "payment" for the non-moving log, I posted a picture of it.

I figure as long as I'm interacting with the owner and not acting against his wishes, I'm adding to the bug's life experience.

1.3k · January 8, 2006

I've got one in my possession right now that I do that with.

Actually, I came to have the TB because I didn't read the printout that was in the bag with it. :blink: :blink: :blink:

It's mission was to tour caches within a certain area that it was placed.

We were on vacation back before Thanksgiving and I grabbed it thinking that I'd help it log in some extra miles by bringing it home.

Not until I got home and unpacked did I realize it's missions was not to leave the area.

Since I was responsible for removing it from the area, I felt I need to make sure it gets back.

Since we already had plans to return to the area in Feb, I decided to just keep it and give it a grand tour of all the caches that I grab while it's in my care until returning it when we go back!!

In addition to just dropping it and picking it up, I try write a brief description of the cache and my take on it.

Being a tour guide for the owner, so if they ever were to get down to my area, they would have an idea of some good caches to try and grab.

I also have a personal TB that I copy & paste each caches log that I find (and DNF if I'm out of town) to keep a record of all my hunts & logs in one spot!! :blink:

D-man :blink:

22k · January 8, 2006

I decided to just keep it and give it a grand tour of all the caches that I grab while it's in my care until returning it when we go back!!

In addition to just dropping it and picking it up, I try write a brief description of the cache and my take on it.

Cool!

We need more cachers like you, seriously.

That kind of effort deserves a major award.

1.3k · January 9, 2006

I decided to just keep it and give it a grand tour of all the caches that I grab while it's in my care until returning it when we go back!!

In addition to just dropping it and picking it up, I try write a brief description of the cache and my take on it.

Cool!

We need more cachers like you, seriously.

That kind of effort deserves a major award.

YES!! I'LL TAKE IT!! :blink:

I seriously want one of these!!

But like in the movie, the wife doesn't want it!! :blink: :blink:

Off Topic but...

A friend of mine's wife bought him one of the most coolest gifts ever for Christmas 2004.

An authentic Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle! ... Signed by the cast of the movie!!!

We never did find out how much she paid for it, but I'd imagine it was a pretty penney!! :blink:

They lived in Vegas at the time and she got it at some sort of charity auction. :blink:

1.8k · January 9, 2006

I decided to just keep it and give it a grand tour of all the caches that I grab while it's in my care until returning it when we go back!!

In addition to just dropping it and picking it up, I try write a brief description of the cache and my take on it.

Cool!

We need more cachers like you, seriously.

That kind of effort deserves a major award.

Cool ... I wonder what it feels like when you reach up under the lamp shade to turn on the light ... :blink:

January 9, 2006

...I decided to just keep it and give it a grand tour of all the caches that I grab while it's in my care until returning it when we go back!!

In addition to just dropping it and picking it up, I try write a brief description of the cache and my take on it.

Being a tour guide for the owner, so if they ever were to get down to my area, they would have an idea of some good caches to try and grab.

Thank you! I was hopig to do the same thing with the one I have. I originally thought to take it also to Disneyland for a "vacation" and then send it on up north. But I didn't know that you could log them with virtuals!

Then, with the holidays (and our wonderful FOG here in sunny California) I have not gotten up north where I wanted to drop it off. So I will "dip" it in some of the caches around here as to keep on seeing the sights of my hometown also. Thanks for the neat idea...always with pics too!

January 9, 2006

Well, I'd seen other bugs "dipped" and had occasion to do it myself for the first time this weekend. I was going for two caches along a creek which it was clear from the logs were large enough for TBs, one had previously held a jeep! So as California Tigger (TBJYEN) and I walked along the creek he posed for several pictures. But as it turn out both caches were full. It seemed a shame not to get to share the pictures with the TB owner, so I dipped him in the second of the caches and posted a couple of the pix to the TB page. Hopefully I'll find a nice big empty cache this week and get him on his way. <_<

Edited January 9, 2006 by rowanf

January 9, 2006

FYI: You can even "dip" TB's in a virtual cache. Strange, but true. We have done it several times with TB's that have a goal of visting Disneyland, since we have virtuals there, and are there several times a week. We will take lots of neat pictures at Disneyland, post them on the TB page, dip the TB at Disneyland in one of our virtuals, then drop it off somewhere in our area. We have been thanked for the fun pics by more than one TB owner. I see no harm done.
Goofy on Vacation is a good example.

That is soooo cool! Thank you for sharing Goofy's adventures. Great pix! If I ever have a Disney-bound bug I hope s/he ends up in your hands!

2.5k · January 9, 2006

FYI: You can even "dip" TB's in a virtual cache. Strange, but true. We have done it several times with TB's that have a goal of visting Disneyland, since we have virtuals there, and are there several times a week. We will take lots of neat pictures at Disneyland, post them on the TB page, dip the TB at Disneyland in one of our virtuals, then drop it off somewhere in our area. We have been thanked for the fun pics by more than one TB owner. I see no harm done.
Goofy on Vacation is a good example.

Reminds me of the time I logged a TB into a virtual cache.

I was trading bugs with another cacher, and at the time we traded, we were at a virtual - or, well, driving by it with the virtual owner. So, I logged the bug into the virtual and left it there for the other cacher to pick up.

The owner was so confused to see a bug "left" in the cache! It took me a couple emails to fully explain to her what I'd done! LOL!

3.2k · January 9, 2006

Only thing I've done that is close to "dipping" is when traveling with my wife over Christmas, we traded a bug back and forth between us so it could visit as many new states as possible along the way.. I'd put it in.. she would pull it out.. then we reversed it in the next state. Finally I left it out there somewhere before we turned for home.

2.1k · January 9, 2006

I'm all for dipping travel bugs, as long as it doesn't mean that you hold on to them an extra long time.

When I send bugs out in to the world, I like them to write home and tell me how they're doing. A dip at a cache along the way is helpful in letting me as the bug owner know how they are doing.

January 9, 2006

I'm all for dipping travel bugs, as long as it doesn't mean that you hold on to them an extra long time.

When I send bugs out in to the world, I like them to write home and tell me how they're doing. A dip at a cache along the way is helpful in letting me as the bug owner know how they are doing.

Dipping is like mailing your neighbor vacation pictures of the garden gnome you swiped from his garden--it says "I've still got him, all is well, and here are the great places he's visited. Still looking for a good place to drop him off."

11.3k · January 9, 2006

That is what I happened with a TB I had recently. I took a trip to Death Valley over the Christmas weekend thinking I would drop "Lil' SMOKEY somewhere along our route.

Vehicle trouble stopped us from doing any more caching, so I just "dipped" him in and out of some of the caches we found along the way since he ended up coming home with me. :huh:

January 10, 2006

Personally, I only do this when I'm launching a new TB. I'll log it into/out of a cache that's quite near my home. That way, the bug's mileage is a bit more meaningful. (I launched my first one almost 175 miles from home, and have been kicking myself for it ever since.)

I think dipping is perfectly legit as long as the bug actually visited the cache.

I took a bug to Vegas from Minneapolis and launched it there. I didn't even think of dipping it here first. The bug traveled 1300 miles ATCF that it will never get credit for (<--hopping on one foot and kicking with the other).

Here's another sad tale. I held a bug for a while and wanted to get it moving, so I picked out a cache I thought looked good and found it. When I saw the cache I thought it was ripe for a muggling. It was in an area that was a magnet for kids and ill concealed. I looked at the log book and it had been there a while, plus I was not going to be able to gc for a while, so I thought it would be OK. I put it on top of the log so someone would see it and hopefully move it quickly. I checked the log on gc.com about a month later and sure enough the cache had been muggled and the bug was gone. Why, oh why didn't I just dip it there so the owner could see some movement but I could still have held onto it until I found a better spot?

Edited January 10, 2006 by media601

22k · January 10, 2006

I am moving this thread to the Travel Bug Forum.

January 11, 2006

I'm getting ready to dip my first travel bug. Actually, I'll be dipping the second travel bug I've ever picked up. I grabbed B's Bunny from a cache the day before I left for a 6 week trip for Peru. I noticed the bug in my area a few days earlier and wrote the owners for permission to take him for an extended trip out of the country (his mission is to pop up in as many states and countries as possible). The owners graciously granted me permission to take him with me.

Now that he's here in Lima, Peru, there really are no caches nearby that I can leave him in so my plan is to dip him into the nearby virtual cache so that he at least gets credit for his long trip. I'll also post a photo of him by the virtual cache site to prove that he's been there.

My big hope is that I find some other geocacher I can pass him on to while I'm in Peru (I've posted to the forums here and to several expatriate mailing lists with no luck so far). Otherwise, he goes back to the states with me just in time for Mardi Gras in my home town of New Orleans. But at least he'll get credit for the trip!

- Tabmow

January 11, 2006

Personally, I'm not a big fan of either dipping or it's converse -- people who log a bug but leave it in the same cache. I've logged notes on a lot of TBs to let people know that a bug is still safe and sound in a cache, but always as a note, not a retreive and release in the same cache.

I don't own any TBs of my own yet, but when I do, I will specifically ask people not to do either of these on the TB page and goal sheet attached to the bug.

January 13, 2006

I don't understand your question :antenna:

January 13, 2006

What does ' dipping travel bugs ' mean ?

22k · January 13, 2006

It means to drop a travle bug into a cache and then immediately retrieve it.

This usually happens when you did not leave the bug in the cache but wanted to show that it actually visited it.

It's also done with personal TBs (That's a bug that the owner keeps for themselves. Kinda hard to lose those but I heard of it being done.)

January 13, 2006

Oh ok

2.6k · January 13, 2006

I've logged notes on a lot of TBs to let people know that a bug is still safe and sound in a cache, but always as a note, not a retreive and release in the same cache.

I posted a note instead once, when I'd already logged the same bug earlier in the year but wanted to reassure the owner it was still in play. Otherwise, on the rare occasion I'm interested in a bug but can't further its mission, I dip it. One of the "regular check-ups" I do is to click on my travel bug icon and sort by last log. I look at the ones on top, to see who's had what adventures lately, and I look at the ones on bottom, to see who's stuck or likely vanished. If I don't log it, it won't be on that list.

That way, I enjoy other people's travel bugs almost as much as my own. (You kind of have to. The darn things move so slowly and so seldom do something really interesting, you have to have a bunch in play to see any action).

January 13, 2006

I posted a note instead once, when I'd already logged ...

What is a note ?

22k · January 13, 2006

I posted a note instead once, when I'd already logged ...

What is a note ?

Weeelllll

You know when you log a cache or retrieve a bug there a pull down menu listing 'Found It' or 'Retrieve'? There a choice of 'Note'. It simply allows you to write something you want posted.

January 14, 2006

Oooh yeah, that thing, I had forgotten about that :unsure:

January 14, 2006

Oh yeah, you changed your picture, but I think the blue cow was better ( is that what it was ? )

January 15, 2006

Dipping. Okay, this is a term that I hadn't heard as yet.

I have a travel bug that early on I had read (I think here on this forum) that I decided to keep and never leave. So I drop it and grab it from many of the caches that I visit. Here in So Cal, I don't do it as often as when we visit family in either Utah or Texas. It was suggested to me as a way to track the many miles that we do as cachers. And yes, I have logged it into and out of virtuals. I do not do this if it is not physically with me.

I will do this sometimes with TB's that I pick up. And most of my TB's have my permission to do this as well. Hadn't heard it called dipping before. At first my thoughts were of dipping in chocolate? Yea, you can do that to my TB's too.

Edited January 15, 2006 by q22q17

22k · January 15, 2006

I'd never heard the term until Jan 8 2006, Kinda makes sense though doesn't it?

Yeah I don't log bugs unless they have been to the cache. My personal travel bug gets logged however even if the dogtag wasn't there, because personally. I was.

January 15, 2006

BleuDeuce you change your pic a lot.

January 15, 2006

I mean avatar.

22k · January 15, 2006

All I see is Blue. What do you see?

Edited January 15, 2006 by BlueDeuce

January 15, 2006

Blue !

22k · January 15, 2006

Very good, and how many fingers am I holding up?

January 15, 2006

Dunno

January 15, 2006

How am I supposed to know anyway ?

2.4k · January 15, 2006

How am I supposed to know anyway ?

(Psst... two. It's always two.)

January 15, 2006

Thanks :laughing:

Dipping Travel Bugs

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